Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.75% to +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 75.75 +.75 basis point. 

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 12.5 +.25 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 71.29 -.06%.

• FTSE 100 futures +.12%.

• S&P 500 futures -.18%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.23%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
Before the Open:

• (BBY)/.74

• (HRL)/.45

• (MCK)/3.57

• (MDT)/1.39

• (SAFM)/2.31

• (TTC)/1.18

• (TD)/1.50

After the Close:

• (ADSK)/.03

• (DECK)/.19

• (GPS)/.46

• (NTNX)/-.19

• (QSII)/.13

• (ROST)/1.07

• (SCVL)/.71

• (SPLK)/-.09

• (ZOES)/-.02

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 220K versus 222K the prior week.

• Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 1746K versus 1707K the prior week.

9:00 am EST

• The 1Q House Price Purchase Index is estimated to rise +.7% versus a +1.6% gain in 4Q.

• The FHFA House Price Index MoM for March is estimated to rise +.6% versus a +.6% gain in 4Q.
  

10:00 am EST

• Existing Home Sales for April are estimated to fall to 5.55M versus 5.6M in March.
  

11:00 am EST

• The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity Index for May is estimated to fall to 20.0 versus 26.0 in April.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Harker speaking, $20B 7Y T-Note auction, German GDP report, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, (DB) annual meeting, (PYPL) investor day, (CBT) investor day and the HSBC Luxury Goods Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by consumer and financial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing mixed.  The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.