Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:                    

• North Korea May Have Fired Ballistic Missile, Japan Coast Guard Says.  
• Chinese Stocks’ 15% Plunge Shows What Happens When Stimulus Ends.
  
• A $60 Billion U.S. Stimulus Windfall Is Heading China’s Way.
• Massive Ship Blocking Suez Canal Paralyzes Trade for Second Day.  
• Best Shot at Unblocking Suez Canal May Not Come Until Monday.
  
• Asia Stocks Edge Up With U.S. Futures; Oil Wavers: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Pulls Back After Surge With Ship Still Blocking Suez Canal.  
• Blocked Canal, China’s U.S. Windfall, Turkey’s Governor: Eco Day.
• Migrant Children Will Be Housed at Two U.S. Military Bases.  
• N.Y. Pot Legalization Gets Fast Track on Cuomo-Lawmaker Deal.
• U.S. Cases Top 30 Million; U.K. Border Warning: Virus Update.
  
• Toilet Paper Is Next Likely Victim of World’s Container Crisis.

Wall Street Journal:

• Democrats Weigh Corporate, Personal Income Tax Increases.
• Herd Immunity Is Near, Despite Fauci’s Denial.
• Hot U.S. Economy, Supply Disruptions Pressure Factories.
• Gas Prices Climb Toward $3 a Gallon.
• Special Dollars for Dictators.
  

CNBC.com:

• Tech and GameStop losses have traders wondering if retail investors are losing interest in market.
• RH shares jump after furniture retailer reports earnings, sales beat.
• Cramer says GameStop remains overvalued, despite promising Q4 report.
• It’s time to boost exposure to consumer stocks amid a powerful economic recovery, Wells Fargo says.

Zero Hedge:

• Warren, Yellen Clash Over Whether BlackRock Deserves "Systemically Important" Label.
• JPMorgan Clients Are Worried That Ramp Capital Is Dead.
• The ESG Tide Is Turning: ValueAct's Ubben Calls BlackRock ESG Products "Misguided".
• North Korea Fires Two Ballistic Missiles.
• Why Is Biden Creating His Own Crises?
• Chinese Ridesharing Giant Didi Considers $100 Billion U.S. Listing.
• US Intelligence Community Increasingly Involving Itself In Domestic Politics: Greenwald.
• Here's How DC Statehood Could Backfire On Democrats. 
• Not The Onion: Bill Clinton To Host Chat With Kamala Harris On "Empowering Women".
• 42 Million People From Latin America Want To Migrate To USA.
• Tech Wrecks As Bitcoin, Black Gold, & The Buck Burst Higher.

Newsmax:

• Mexican President Says Biden to Blame for Border Crisis.
• Lindsey Graham Threatens to Shut Down Senate if Denied Access at Border.
• Politico Poll: 'Declining Support' for Giving Illegals Citizenship.
  

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• Green Bay Officials Turn Down Request to Testify on March 31 After they Gave Dem Operatives Access to Voting Room and Internet Network During Election — They Say They’re Busy.
• “Ron, Who Am I Turning This Over To?” – Joe Biden Gets Confused Again – Chief of Staff Asks Press to Leave the Room (VIDEO).
• WOW: Rep. Matt Gaetz Obliterates Fellow Congressmen For Using SPLC and ‘Cancel Culture’ to Attack Members of Our Military (MUST WATCH VIDEO).
• Who’s Really Running the Country? Joe Biden Puts Kamala Harris in Charge of Handling Border Crisis.
• You Just Can’t Make This Up: Democrats Argue Removing Dead People from Voter Rolls Is “Voter Suppression” (VIDEO).

The Epoch Times: 

• US Senators Push Solar Lobby to Detail Firms’ Links to Forced Labor in China.

Digital Blackboard:

• Daily New Cases by Region.

Worldometer:

• New Cases/Deaths by state.

Rt Covid-19:

• How fast virus is growing by state.

KFF:

• State Data(Tests/Hospitalizations).

Night Trading 

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

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 65.5 -.75 basis point.

• China Sovereign CDS 34.0 +.5 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 60.46 +.04%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 2,554.0 +50.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 22.8 -.86%.
• FTSE 100 futures -.28%.

• S&P 500 futures +.19%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.14%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (CCL)/-1.63
• (DRI)/.69
  

After the Close:

• (OXM)/.21
• (PRGS)/.75
  

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 730K versus 770K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 4000K versus 4124K prior.
  

11:00 am EST

• The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity Index for March is estimated to rise to 26 versus 24 in Feb.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Japan CPI report, $62B 7Y T-Note auction, weekly Langer Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, Truist Utilities/Midstream/Alt Energy Summit, (CE) investor day and the (ALKS) investor day could also impact trading today.

Market Hours
Normal:

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly higher, boosted by industrial and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.