Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 75.5 -1.25 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 53.50 -.5 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 67.85 +.02%.

• FTSE 100 futures +.09%.

• S&P 500 futures +.02%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.02%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

Before the Open:

• (AZN)/1.48
• (AVP)/.07
• (BWA)/1.07
• (GOOS)/.81
• (CME)/1.73
• (KO)/.43
• (DUK)/.89
• (DGX)/1.37
• (R)/1.81
• (VMC)/.89
• (WLH)/1.06
• (YETI)/.34
• (ZTS)/.77

After the Close:

• (AMAT)/.79
• (ANET)/2.06
• (CBS)/1.53
• (CGNX)/.22
• (NVDA)/.75
• (XPO)/.82

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• PPI Final Demand MoM for January is estimated to rise +.1% versus a -.2% decline in Dec.
• PPI Ex Food and Energy MoM for January is estimated to rise +.2% versus a -.1% decline in Dec. 
• Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to fall to 225K versus 234K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 1740K versus 1736K prior.
• Retail Sales Advance MoM for Dec. are estimated to rise +.1% versus a +.2% gain in Nov.
• Retail Sales Ex Auto and Gas for Dec. are estimated to rise +.4% versus a +.5% gain in Nov.

10:00 am EST

• Business Inventories for Nov. are estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.6% gain in Oct.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The China Trade Balance report, Eurozone GDP report, British Parliament vote on Brexit changes, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, BB&T Logistics/Transports Conference, (IT) investor day, Keefe Bruyette Woods Financial Services Symposium and the (EMR) investor conference could also impact trading today.

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