Style Outperformer:
Large-cap Value (-.88%)
Sector Outperformers:
Tobacco (+3.22%), Disk Drives (+2.06%) and Airlines (+.72%)
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
SNDK, UST, ALK,
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
1) SNDK 2) UST 3) MF 4) LO 5) HUN
Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The euro slumped to an 11-month low against the US dollar on speculation a credit-market slump will push European economies into recession. The currency headed for its biggest weekly decline versus the yen in more than a year after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the economy is ``weak'' and Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the euro is ``overvalued.''
- Ospraie Management LLC, the New York- based investment firm that this week shut down its biggest hedge fund, told clients its investment in XTO Energy Inc.(XTO) contributed to its losses in the past two months, according to investors.
- Mitsui & Co., Japan's second-largest trading company, will close its New York hedge fund business as it shifts to investments including property and utilities.
- Crude oil fell to a five-month low in New York as the U.S. dollar rallied, reducing the appeal of commodities as an inflation hedge. Oil is headed for its biggest weekly decline in a month, falling more than 6 percent this week as the euro dropped to the lowest this year against the dollar amid signs that Europe's economy is slowing. ``The outlook looks bearish and funds are selling off on fundamental weakness.''
- Soybeans fell for a third straight day on speculation Midwest rains will boost the yield potential of the second-biggest U.S. crop.
- Russia Inherits ‘Enormous Problems’ by Adopting Georgia Regions.
- Chile's central bank raised its target interest rate to 8.25 percent, the highest in almost a decade, as policy makers step up the fight against inflation. Inflation reached a 13-year high of 9.5 percent in July.
- Philippine inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in more than 16 years, adding pressure on the central bank to increase borrowing costs further in October. Consumer prices climbed 12.5 percent in August from a year earlier after rising a revised 12.3 percent in July.
- South Korea's won rose from near a four-year low on speculation the central bank intervened to slow a decline in the currency, Asia's worst performer this year.
NY Times:
- Altria Group is in advanced talks to buy UST, the maker of the popular Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco brands, for more than $10 billion, people with close knowledge of the negotiations said late Thursday. The terms could not be learned.
- The People’s Bank of China needs more capital and is in talks with the nation’s finance ministry on how to get it.
- “Palin Power” may represent conservative principles and women’s ascension, but it could just as well mean purchasing power. After Gov. Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech last night, merchandise with her name or likeness is super hot. Amazon.com is “temporarily out of stock” of the only Palin biography, “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down.” The Alaska governor has pulled off a remarkable coup, snagging a higher Amazon sales rank than the Democratic memoir writer she scorned last night. The Palin biography now sits at No. 13, while Senator Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope” is No. 26.
- Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it.
IBD:
- Quanta Services(PWR): Wind, Sun Are New Frontiers For Maker Of Electrical Infrastructure.
- Honda has a new budget-priced hybrid.
- Rates on 30-year mortgages averaged 6.35% this week, down from 6.40% the previous week, a third consecutive decline that dropped rates to the lowest level since mid-July, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.
Reuters:
- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH) is considering a plan to put some $32 billion of its commercial real estate and mortgage assets in a new company and spin it off, Bloomberg reported on its website on Thursday.
- Hedge fund company Atticus Capital denied market rumors it was liquidating its positions and closing down and said it had a large net capital position and was looking for investment opportunities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
- Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Partners LLC, an investment fund comprised by five other hedge funds, fell in value by 2.6 percent in July, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.
Financial Times:
- Russia's central bank intervened heavily to support the rouble on Thursday as analysts said $21bn of foreign capital might have been pulled out of the country as Moscow paid the price for its conflict with Georgia.
Edaily:
- Samsung Electronics Co. is seeking to acquire SanDisk Corp.(SNDK). Samsung hired JPMorgan Chase(JPM) as the adviser for the deal about a month ago and the company’s semiconductor division is expected to lead the acquisition.
Commercial Times:
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Shanghai Securities News:
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Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Downgraded (ANF) to Sell, target $45.
- Reiterated Buy on (MOT), target $12.50.
- Reiterated Buy on (EL), raised target to $60.
Morgan Stanley:
- Rated (ABT) Overweight, target $67.
- Rated (COV) Overweight, target $64.
- Rated (AFFX) Underweight, target $8.
- Rated (WAT) Overweight, target $81.
Night Trading
Asian Indices are -2.75% to -1.0% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.32%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.35%.
Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Pre-market Stock Quote/Chart
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Global Commentary
WSJ Intl Markets Performance
Commodity Movers
Top 25 Stories
Top 20 Business Stories
Today in IBD
In Play
Bond Ticker
Economic Preview/Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Upgrades/Downgrades
Rasmussen Business/Economy Polling
Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (NSM)/.34
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Change in Non-farm Payrolls for August is estimated at -75K versus -51K in July.
- The Unemployment Rate for August is estimated at 5.7% versus 5.7% in July.
- Average Hourly Earnings for August are estimated to rise .3% versus a .3% gain in July.
Upcoming Splits
- None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Yellen speaking, 2Q mortgage delinquencies report, (AGP) investor day, Kaufman Brothers Investor Conference, Morgan Keegan Equity Conference and Thomas Weisel Healthcare Conference could also impact trading today.
Bloomberg:
- The Broad Institute, an affiliate of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will get $400 million from Eli and Edythe Broad, the philanthropists who started the genetics laboratory.
- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT) said sales increased 3 percent in August, beating its forecast after price cuts on groceries, back-to-school supplies and consumer electronics drew shoppers.
- Boeing Co.'s(BA) largest union rejected a contract and its leaders gave the world's second-largest planemaker 48 hours to improve their offer and avert a strike that might further delay the 787 Dreamliner.
- The ruble fell to the lowest level in almost a year against the US dollar as concern about Russia's intentions in the region spurred investors to sell the country's assets. Investors have taken about $30 billion out of Russia since the start of its five-day war with Georgia on Aug. 8, according to BNP Paribas SA, with concern heightened by U.S. and European condemnation of the invasion and this week's split in nearby Ukraine's ruling coalition. ``Six weeks ago Russia was touted as a safe haven; now it's a pariah state,'' said Ian McCall, London-based director of Argo Capital Management, where he helps manage about $1 billion in emerging-market, including Russian, debt.
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS) downgraded U.S. steel stocks and reduced its price forecast for the metal in the next 16 months because of slowing economic growth in China and a strengthening U.S. dollar. The steel industry was downgraded to ``neutral'' from ``attractive,'' Goldman analysts led by Sal Tharani in New York said today in a note to investors.
- Hedge fends, pensions funds and other speculators may have had ``enough of the commodity business'' and will sell assets, driving the price of oil to below $100 a barrel, economist Dennis Gartman said. ``A lot of portfolio managers and pension funds that started owning commodities generally owned a lot of crude oil and they are finally saying, `You know what? This is not quite what it is cracked up to be,''' Gartman said in a Bloomberg Television interview in New York today. ``The markets wants to go under $100, and I think it's going to go at least there.'' Investors are ``just saying, `We've had enough of this commodity business. This is no fun. We were told this was an asset class, and it's proven not to be,''' said Gartman, editor of the Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter who correctly predicted in June that gold and other commodities would fall. ``The trend right now is down,'' said Gartman. ``There's not much one can be long on in the commodity market.''
- Crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel as the euro weakened to the lowest against the dollar this year, curbing the appeal of commodities as an inflation hedge. Oil tumbled 6.5 percent this week as the euro dropped amid signs that Europe's economy is slowing.
- The euro fell to the lowest level against the US dollar this year as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the countries that use the currency are in an ``episode of weak activity.'' The 15-nation euro dropped against the yen and the pound after Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the currency is ``overvalued.''
- Sales of distressed Miami properties have begun, signaling a bottom for south Florida's real estate market and the end of waiting for vulture funds armed with about $30 billion to spend. The sale of 120 condominiums last month to a Philadelphia private equity firm and Related Group of Florida, a development company led by Jorge Perez, ``broke the logjam'' for investors targeting the oversupply of condos in downtown Miami, said Peter Zalewski, owner of the Condo Vultures LLC consulting firm in Bal Harbour, Florida.
- U.K. house prices plunged at the fastest annual pace in at least a quarter century in August as banks withheld finance for new homes and consumers lost confidence in the economy, HBOS Plc said.
- German factory orders unexpectedly fell in July, extending their longest-ever declining streak and increasing the likelihood that Europe's largest economy is heading for a recession.
- The European Central Bank kept interest rates at a seven-year high to fight inflation even as the euro-region economy teeters on the brink of a recession.
Wall Street Journal:
- Will Barack Obama and John McCain's picks for their running mates affect the election? I asked some leading political science professors what research on this topic revealed. Their answer: Running mates usually don't matter, but this may be an unusual election.
- Credit is mostly paralyzed, but one of the first corners of the debt market to lock up last year appears to be moving again. The amount of outstanding commercial paper -- short-term debt issued by companies to finance their operations -- has risen for the past three weeks to $1.79 trillion, its highest level since April.
Reuters:
- Commodity market regulators are probing whether energy market players are injecting false crude oil supply data into the marketplace, the Wall Street Journal said. Regulators are concerned that companies may be reporting inventory levels that benefit their own trading positions but may not be accurate, the paper said, citing people familiar with the probe.
- Vedanta Resources Ltd expects aluminium output to rise to about 500,000 tonnes in the year to March 2009, up 28 percent from about 390,000 tonnes in the previous year, a senior company official told Reuters.
Financial Times:
- Oil companies' profitability fell last year as rising costs eroded gains from the rise in oil prices, an industry study has found. The companies' return on capital from their oil and gas production fell to 19 per cent, 3.5 percentage points lower than in 2006, according to the study from IHS Herold, a research firm, and Harrison Lovegrove, a corporate finance firm owned by Standard Chartered bank.
- Too much is being made of the economic impact of the Beijing Olympics on China and the rest of Asia. China was slowing before the onset of the XXIX Olympiad and is likely to continue to slow in the year ahead. Elsewhere in Asia, a similar outcome appears to be in the offing.