Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are +.25% to +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 77.50 unch. 

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 13.0 unch.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 71.92 +.04%.

• FTSE 100 futures +.58%.

• S&P 500 futures +.09%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.17%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (DDS)/2.77

• (DUK)/1.14

• (KLIC)/.40

• (MGA)/1.70

• (NKTR)/-.55

• (NWSA)/.05

• (NVDA)/1.65

• (PPC)/.53

• (RDFN)/-.44

• (SYMC)/.39

• (YELP)/.19

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 219K versus 211K the prior week.

• Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 1800K versus 1756K prior. 

• The CPI MoM for April is estimated to rise +.3% versus a -.1% decline in March.

• The CPI Ex Food and Energy MoM for April is estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.2% gain in March.

• Real Avg. Hourly Earnings YoY for April.

 2:00 pm EST

• The Monthly Budget Statement for April is $212.0B versus -$208.7B in March.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The China PPI report, UK Manufacturing Production report, $17B 30Y T-Note auction, Bloomberg May US Economic Survey, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, WasDe Crop report, (FLEX) analyst day, Citi Car of the Future Symposium, (WFC) investor day, (MGM) investor day and the (BKE)/(CATO)/(LB) monthly sales/guidance reports could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are higher, boosted by technology and financial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.