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Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:

- U.S. municipal bonds advanced for an eighth day and sent a benchmark 10-year yield to the lowest since 2003 as debt from the week’s largest new issue gained. State and local government bonds have returned about 5 percent in 2009, outpacing a 3.3 percent decline in U.S. Treasuries and a 0.2 percent gain in corporate debt, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. “That’s an indication that the flight to quality is abating and investors are willing to start assuming some more credit risk,” said Paul Brennan, who oversees about $12 billion in municipal-bond funds at Nuveen Asset Management in Chicago. “Munis have done extremely well year to date.” Municipal funds reported net cash inflows of $758 million during the week through yesterday, AMG said today.

- The cost to protect against defaults by homebuilders including DR Horton(DHI), Lennar Corp.(LEN) and KB Home(KBH) fell after the US Senate voted to include a tax credit for homebuyers in the government’s stimulus plan. Credit-default swaps on Fort Worth, Texas-based DR Horton fell 24 basis points to 358 basis points, the lowest in more than seven months, according to CMA DataVision. Contracts on Miami-based Lennar dropped 15 basis points to 585 basis points, and KB Home of Los Angeles declined 35 basis points to 445, CMA data show. The Senate unanimously approved a Republican amendment yesterday that would temporarily offer homebuyers a tax credit up to $15,000, costing the government $18 billion.

- Australia’s central bank slashed its forecasts for economic growth and inflation and said interest rates at the lowest level in more than four decades will “provide significant stimulus” to offset weaker export demand. Gross domestic product will rise 0.25 percent in the 12 months through June, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia, which in November predicted growth of 1.5 percent for the same period.

- As construction cranes littering Dubai’s skyline go idle, it’s time to revisit that ever intriguing economic indicator: the Skyscraper Curse. As this columnist has pointed out periodically, there’s an uncanny, if unscientific, correlation between financial crises and efforts to build the world’s tallest building. Look no further than Kuala Lumpur in 1997, Chicago in 1974, New York in 1930 and in biblical times with the Tower of Babel. The human propensity for architectural overreach has been a surprisingly reliable omen. It’s not a stretch to think of such projects as visual punctuation marks. A giant billboard made of steel, glass, concrete and money. A common thread between skyscrapers and economic disasters has to be easy credit, which fuels irrational growth, valuations, and hubris.

- Bank of America Corp.(BAC) Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis bought 200,000 shares yesterday, his second purchase in the past three weeks. Four other Bank of America directors bought shares, along with Brian Moynihan, who heads the company’s investment banking and wealth management businesses. The shares rose 6.4% in after-hours trading.

- Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.(HIG), the Connecticut-based seller of life insurance and property coverage, slashed its dividend by 84 percent after reporting a loss and missing a capital target. The insurer slipped $2.89 to $12.20 at 7:09 p.m. in New York.

- The US Oil Fund(USO), an exchange-traded fund betting the price of crude will rise, holds more than 20% of outstanding March futures contracts. The fund, which tracks the price of West Texas Intermediate crude, owned about 79,000 March futures as of Feb. 4, according to the fund’s Web site. That’s more than four times the size of its holdings at the beginning of December.

- Baidu’s(BIDU) China Lead Over Google(GOOG) Shrinks After Web Search Outcry. Baidu, the leading Internet search engine in China, has seen its traffic decline and stock price slump since November, when a state-run television broadcast criticized its practice of displaying paid search results higher than some free ones, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. “Until Baidu can clearly demonstrate it has overcome the issues brought up by the negative media reports recently, advertisers will likely pull back spending,” said Steven Chang, chief executive officer at Optimedia China, which buys advertising from Baidu and Mountain View, California-based Google. “Google’s biggest strengths are its ‘Don’t Be Evil’ motto and the integrity of its technology, and the company should attempt to capitalize on them in China.”

Wall Street Journal:

- Senior Senate Democrats pressed Thursday evening to force a final vote on President Barack Obama's economic-recovery package, as a bipartisan group of senators worked to craft a sharply lower-cost alternative to a two-year plan that has been pumped up to more than $920 billion. Twenty moderate senators -- from both parties -- worked Thursday to hammer out a proposal to bring the total package's cost down to about $800 billion, and tilt it more toward tax cuts. Led by Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Ben Nelson (D., Neb.), the group gathered in an office building across from the U.S. Capitol, combing over the bill for spending programs deemed unlikely to provide immediate benefit to the economy. The group's $800 billion target was set by Sens. Collins and Nelson after meeting Wednesday with Mr. Obama, who insisted the two-year package needed to be at least that large to provide a lift to the sagging economy. Late Thursday, Mr. Obama, on his way to Williamsburg, Va., to visit a House Democratic retreat, suggested he's willing to accept $800 billion.

- The Obama administration's financial-rescue plan is shaping up to include capital injections with tougher terms than the first round and an expansion of an existing Federal Reserve lending facility that could potentially buy up toxic assets clogging the system, according to people familiar with the plans. The discussions are still fluid and much could change. But efforts to create a so-called bad bank to purchase distressed assets and to insure other assets against future losses appear less central to the administration's thinking. Still, some within the administration continue to push those efforts and they could wind up as part of the plan that will be detailed Monday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

- Leon Panetta, nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said Thursday that he would "turn the page to a new chapter" at an institution that, according to current and former officials, faces a host of internal challenges. President Barack Obama is pushing what he calls a "rebranding" of U.S. intelligence and moved quickly after his inauguration to close the CIA's secret prisons and revoke controversial interrogation techniques. Mr. Panetta, formerly a chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, said at Thursday's hearing that he believes waterboarding, or simulated drowning, constitutes torture and is wrong. But he said government employees who carried out waterboarding on the belief that it was legal based on opinions supplied by government lawyers shouldn't be prosecuted. Just before the hearing began, Mr. Panetta's responses to the committee on his ties to EduCap Inc., a nonprofit student lender, were released. Mr. Panetta said he flew "on one or two occasions" on the airplane of EduCap founder Catherine B. Reynolds, who is under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee and the Internal Revenue Service for possible improper use of EduCap's $28 million corporate jet. Mr. Panetta said the flight was for a business meeting and didn't represent taxable income.

- The senators behind a week-old bill that urges stricter oversight of hedge and private-equity funds said Thursday they never meant to propose that fund investors' names be publicly disclosed. Securities lawyers and investment-fund attorneys say that, as it's written, the bill's use of "beneficial owners" would include limited partners, which encompasses outside clients who put money in the funds. Fund-industry lobbyists are strongly opposed to such disclosure.

- Countries grappling with global recession have enacted a wave of barriers to world commerce since early last month, scrambling to safeguard their key industries -- often by damaging those of their neighbors. The World Trade Organization is gathering nations in a special meeting Monday to try to stem the rising tide, just two weeks after saying protectionism was largely under control. On Thursday, 10 European Union commissioners headed to Moscow for talks Friday with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials, where they plan to air complaints over the pace of new Russian trade barriers.

- President Barack Obama's crackdown on Wall Street pay contains loopholes, and may have limited impact in restraining compensation, according to some executive-pay consultants and management attorneys. Some compensation professionals already are pointing out potential holes in the rules, including tactics such as changing executives' titles or rearranging pay packages. Just as past attempts by the government to restrict executive pay largely backfired, these people warn, the new curbs also may have unintended consequences.

NY Times:

- China’s Unemployment Swells as Exports Falter. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are returning here earlier than usual from their home villages after the Chinese New Year holiday. Lugging their belongings in plastic sacks and cardboard boxes, they are hoping to find increasingly scarce jobs. Many will fail. A spokeswoman for the Guangdong Provincial Labor and Social Security Bureau said Thursday that 3 million of an expected 9.7 million migrant workers had returned to the province by Wednesday evening. Many have jobs waiting for them, but two million have no employment lined up and must look for work, she said. Beijing authorities disclosed Monday that based on an agriculture ministry survey of villages just before the Chinese New Year holiday last week, about 20 million of the nation’s 130 million migrant workers are unemployed.

BusinessWeek:

- When Google (GOOG) and its partners first unveiled plans for the Android operating system, they billed it as software that would run mobile phones. That mission was accomplished the following year with the late 2008 release of T-Mobile's G1 phone. More Android-enabled handsets are on the way. But before long, you may be seeing Android in a lot of other electronic devices.

- Small Banks Say ‘No Thanks’ to US Bailout Money. Healthy small bankers would like the boost to lend more, but fear regulations and conditions attached to the Treasury Dept.’s rescue program.

USA Today.com:

- A plan by Republicans in the Senate aimed at pushing mortgage rates lower has gone down to defeat at the hands of Democrats. The plan by Nevada Republican John Ensign would have encouraged banks to issue mortgages with interest rates of 45 to 4.5%. The government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have bought the mortgages on the secondary market. Jumbo loans would have been ineligible. Democrats killed the idea Thursday night by a 62-35 vote. The plan also contained an assortment of tax cuts such as cutting the bottom 10% income tax rate in half for two years.

- President Obama ordered the Department of Energy on Thursday to set tough new energy-efficiency standards for a broad range of home appliances, from dishwashers and ovens to lamps and air conditioners. That's a sharp break from Bush administration policy. It's also the latest sign Obama plans to move aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He's already pushed to double renewable energy in five years and boost fuel efficiency in vehicles. Although final rules have yet to be issued, Obama indicated Thursday that appliance standards would be dramatically tightened.

AP:

- In a move aimed at limiting harm to Arctic waters opened by global warming, a federal advisory board voted Thursday to ban commercial fishing north of the Bering Strait off Alaska's coast. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Seattle, voted unanimously to prohibit industrial fishing in nearly 200,000 square miles of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to approve the recommendation. The fishery council has primary responsibility for managing Bering Sea groundfish, including Alaska pollock, the largest U.S. fishery by volume. Annual catches average 2.5 billion pounds and provide raw material for fishsticks and fast-food fish sandwiches.

Reuters:

- Russia plans to start up a nuclear reactor at Iran's Bushehr plant by the end of the year, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation said on Thursday. "If there are no unforeseen events...then the launch will go according to the timetable," Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters in the Kremlin.

- Did middleman know about Madoff losses beforehand?

Financial Times:
- The head of Germany’s biggest bank on Thursday laid out the welcome mat to disgruntled American banking executives, suggesting that Barack Obama’s tough curbs on boardroom pay could encourage the best to defect to overseas rivals. Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank(DB), predicted that the president’s proposed $500,000 (€390,000) cap on executive pay at US banks that accept large tranches of state aid could help it recruit their most talented people. “If you are only going to be able to pay a $500,000 bonus, I think talent will be happy to work for us. At the end of the day, this is a people business, about who has the best talent,” he said. Mr Ackermann, who is to step down next year, said Deutsche would emerge successfully from the crisis after cutting some of its riskiest businesses. “We are convinced trust will return to the markets ... banks profiting from this will be the few independent investment banks that have handled the crisis without external assistance and have positioned themselves sustainably.

- US officials are examining ways gradually to convert government stakes in banks into ordinary shares as banks accumulate losses, according to people close to the discussions. The point would be to provide a drip-feed of additional common equity as needed to cover losses – without the government owning a larger stake in the banks than is necessary. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will announce the financial sector rescue plan on Monday along with a set of policies designed to reduce foreclosures and boost the housing market. Bank stocks, meanwhile, rallied on Thursday as bankers expressed fresh confidence that the US authorities will find ways to circumvent mark-to-market rules as part of the new financial rescue package. Executives who have talked to government officials recently said one option for the government would be to buy toxic assets below the value at which banks value them on their balance sheets, but provide a government security equal to the difference between government’s purchase price and the marked value. That would enable banks not to crystallize their losses on the assets for a number of years and wait and see whether they recover in value. Executives and policymakers who have spoken to key officials believe the plan to be presented by Mr Geithner will have insurance-style guarantees on bank portfolios of assets at its core, but will include a so-called “bad bank” that will acquire securities that have already been heavily written down.

cbcnews:

- Alberta May Offer Incentives to Spur Oil Drilling.

South China Morning Post:

- Climate change will become a new focal point in bilateral dialogue between China and the United States, an official in the administration of US President Barack Obama said.

China Business News:

- Shanghai home prices may fall further because the supply of new apartments is increasing, citing real estate agents and analysts. There were 8.4 million square meters(90 million square feet) of completed new apartments ready for sale at the end of January, close to total new home sales in the city in 2008, citing local government statistics. This “huge” inventory, which will take about 10 months for the local market to absorb, puts pressure on prices in districts such as Jing’an.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (ENR), Added to Top Picks Live List, target $85.

- Reiterated Buy on (RATE), target $41.

- We are raising our 4Q08 EPS estimates for (ARO), (GPS), (LTD), (ROST) & (TJX) and lowering our 4Q08 EPS estimate for (CHS), (PLCE) and (URBN).

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +1.0% to +1.75% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.05%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.06%.

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Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (AOC)/.78

- (BIIB)/.92

- (WY)/-.57

- (LPNT)/.64

- (HI)/.43

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

- The Change in Non-farm Payrolls for January is estimated at -540K versus -524K in December.

- The Unemployment Rate for January is estimated at 7.5% versus 7.2% in December.

- Average Hourly Earnings for January are estimated to rise .2% versus a .3% gain in December.

3:00 pm EST

- Consumer Credit for December is estimated at -$3.5B versus -$7.9B in November.

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Yellen speaking, (EMR) analyst meeting, CSFB Financial Services Conference and CSFB Energy Summit could also impact trading today.

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

Stocks Finish Higher, Boosted by Commodity, Financial, Retail, HMO and Technology Shares

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In Play

Stocks Higher into Final Hour on Less Extreme Economic Fear, Short-Covering, Bargain-Hunting

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is higher into the final hour on gains in my Medical longs, Biotech longs, Retail longs, Financial longs, Internet longs and Computer longs. I covered all my (IWM)/(QQQQ) hedges and some of my (EEM) short this morning, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market is positive as the advance/decline line is higher, most sectors are rising and volume is heavy. Investor anxiety is above average. Today’s overall market action is very bullish. The VIX is falling -1.25% and is very high at 43.30. The ISE Sentiment Index is above average at 171.0 and the total put/call is below average at .77. Finally, the NYSE Arms has been running above average most of the day, hitting 3.34 at its intraday peak, and is currently .59. The Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index is falling 1.43% today to 114.0 basis points. This index is up from a low of 52.66 on May 5^th, but down from 157.81 on Sept. 16^th. The North American Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index is rising 2.1% to 198.0 basis points. The TED spread is rising 2.42% to 97 basis points. The TED spread is now down 369 basis points in under four months. The 2-year swap spread is falling 2.23% to 65.75 basis points. The Libor-OIS spread is falling .67% to 97 basis points. The 10-year TIPS spread, a good gauge of inflation expectations, is falling 5 basis points to 1.10%, which is down 160 basis points in under seven months. The 10-year TIPS spread bottomed at .65% in October 1998 during the Asian financial crisis and at 1.24% in October 2001 during the technology bubble-bursting meltdown. The 3-month T-Bill is yielding .27%, which is down 2 basis points today. Considering today’s news the broad market reversal higher on very healthy volume is a big positive. “Growth” stocks are again substantially outperforming “value” shares. Market-leading stocks are also much stronger than the broad market. The US sovereign debt credit default swap is plunging 14.1% today to 70.30, which is also a big positive. One negative I see today is the weakness in the REIT sector. The AAII % Bulls fell to 24.63%, while the % Bears fell to 44.0% this week, which remains a positive. Nikkei futures indicate a +240 open in Japan and DAX futures indicate an +46 open in Germany tomorrow. I expect US stocks to trade modestly higher into the close from current levels on short-covering, bargain-hunting and less extreme economic pessimism.

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

- Deutsche Bank AG(DB) Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said revenue at Germany’s largest bank rose “significantly” in January from the previous year, giving him “confidence” for 2009.

- MasterCard Inc.(MA), the world’s second- largest credit-card network, rose the most in three months of New York trading after beating analysts’ profit estimates by raising the price of processing international purchases. Revenue rose 14 percent to $1.2 billion, MasterCard said, and price increases tied mostly to cross-border transactions made up more than half of the rise. The network climbed $19.19, or 14 percent, to $159.34 at 1:50 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

- Oil prices may fall to $25 a barrel in the second quarter of 2009 before rebounding slowing in the second half of the year, Morgan Stanley said. Slowing demand from China and Latin America and a “recent slew of dismal economic and trade data” were cited by analyst Hussein Allidina in a note to clients as the reasons behind the lower outlook.

- The U.S. options market is shrinking for the first time in at least seven years as investors curb the use of borrowed money, making it more expensive to insure stocks against losses. The number of outstanding calls and puts sank as much as 46 percent in January to 153 million, the lowest total in three years, according to data compiled by Options Clearing Corp.

- Zinc fell on the London Metal Exchange, ending a three-day winning streak, as inventories at almost a three-year high revived speculation about falling demand for the metal used to galvanize steel in cars. Aluminum also slid. The LME index of industrial metals had climbed 7.1 percent this week at yesterday’s close on speculation government spending on bridges and other infrastructure will spur demand. Zinc inventories in LME warehouses jumped 2,350 metric tons to 348,975 tons today, the most since Feb. 16, 2006.

- Orange-juice futures plunged the most in almost five months on speculation that frigid temperatures earlier today didn’t last long enough to hurt the crop in Florida, the world’s second-biggest orange producer. Temperatures fell below 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 1 Celsius) for about two hours before sunrise in Polk County, Florida’s biggest orange-producing area, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures below 28 degrees for four to six hours can damage crops.

- European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet signaled policy makers may cut their benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to a record low of 1.5 percent next month as a recession in the euro region deepens. “I don’t exclude that we could reduce interest rates at our next decision,” Trichet said at a press conference in Frankfurt after leaving the key rate at 2 percent today. When asked whether the ECB will cut by a half or a quarter point, Trichet noted market expectations “would probably more be the first figure.”

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery today for “apparently early stage” pancreatic cancer, the court said in a statement.

- Executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co.(JPM) and hundreds of financial institutions receiving federal aid aren’t likely to be affected by pay restrictions announced yesterday by President Barack Obama. The rules, created in response to growing public anger about the record bonuses the financial industry doled out last year, will apply only to top executives at companies that need “exceptional” assistance in the future. The limits aren’t retroactive, meaning firms that have already taken government money won’t be subject to the restrictions unless they have to come back for more.

- Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under U.S. government control, will loosen rules for homeowners seeking to lower their loan payments by refinancing. Fannie Mae will drop some credit-score requirements, reduce income-documentation standards and waive the need for appraisals in some cases, according to a notice yesterday to lenders posted on the Washington-based company’s Web site.

Wall Street Journal:

- Foster Wheeler Ltd. (FWLT) and two other international firms have won contracts to boost Iraq's export capacity from its southern oil terminals on the Persian Gulf, an Iraqi Oil Industry source in Basra said Thursday.

- President Barack Obama launched his version of the faith-based initiative Thursday, expanding the mission to include abortion reduction and outreach to the Muslim world. He also is trying to avoid the thorniest constitutional issues that beset the program for years under his predecessor. Mr. Obama's approach reflects his search for common ground on contentious social issues – while softening some of the positions he took on the campaign trail.

- President Barack Obama's new proposals on banker pay were a striking reminder of just how the balance of power is changing on Wall Street -- away from the big banks reliant on federal aid and to foreign-based or boutique firms that haven't required any bailout money.

CNBC.com:
- U.S. senators working to craft a massive U.S. economic stimulus package said on Thursday they had agreed it should be close to the $800 billion wanted by President Barack Obama, and Senate leader Harry Reid said he believed he had the votes to pass it.

- The Obama administration has decided on a new package of aid measures for the financial services industry, including a bad bank component, and is expected to announce them next Monday, according to a source familiar with the planning.

NY Times:

- Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group. Despite Congressional rules that require members to list the purchase or sale of any assets, Mr. Rangel accumulated from $239,026 to $831,000 in assets that were not listed in subsequent reports, according to the report by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates greater transparency by elected officials.

Forbes:

- General Electric Co.'s(GE) chief executive warned Thursday that capping the salaries of bank executives whose companies take taxpayer bailout money undermines the government rescue effort. Jeff Immelt, who has run the financial services, media and infrastructure conglomerate since 2001, also said "Buy America" provisions in the nearly $1 trillion federal stimulus bill jeopardizes U.S. exports.

CarryQuote:

- CarryQuote Launches Mobile Market Scanner For Fund Managers. For the first time ever, fund managers and traders can access cost-effective, real-time financial market data from around the globe and professional-level analytics from their desktop or any smartphone. Mobile Market Scanner™ delivers real-time financial market information from more than 50 global data sources that cover a broad range of asset classes, including equities, bonds, foreign exchange, commodities, real estate and alternative investments. It also provides actionable, professional-grade analytics that organize, filter and rank investment opportunities – significantly reducing the time needed to manipulate and synthesize data for analysis. Charts are presented in a jukebox style format, allowing users to quickly flip through and scan hundreds of markets to identify relevant information. Mobile Market Scanner™ is available via a web-based application as well as on all smartphones including Blackberry, Windows, Nokia (Symbian) Android (Google) and iPhone.

Politico:

- Rep. Hilda L. Solis’ nomination vote has been delayed by the Senate committee in charge of vetting her for the secretary of labor position in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. The delay was announced moments after USA Today reported that Solis’ husband had recently paid off $6,400 in tax liens on an auto shop he owns in Los Angeles.

Portfolio.com:

- Department of Jargon, Hedge Fund Edition.

AppleInsider:

- Apple may be working on more effective wireless battery management systems for personal electronic devices, with a Mac serving as the hub, according to newly discovered company filings. A trio of patent requests published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office this week describe intelligent, universal, and rechargeable batteries that would be capable of powering a plethora of devices like cell phones, wireless keyboards and mice, speakers, mp3 players, PDAs, laptop computers, microphones, headphones, and headsets.

hedgeweek:

- New York-based asset manager Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Pre-Refunded Municipal Index ETF on NYSE Arca, which it says is the US's first ETF to focus on the pre-refunded segment of the municipal bond market.

Reuters:
- The La Nina weather anomaly will persist into the spring of 2009 but should gradually weaken during that period, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday. Scientists believe La Nina spurs hurricane formation in the Atlantic basin by hindering wind shear that breaks up storms as they form. CPC said the potential impact of La Nina during February to April 2009 include above average precipitation in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys and below average rainfall in the southwestern and southeastern United States. It said the other impacts are below average temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and above average temperatures in much of the southern United States.

- It might be possible to modify mark-to-market accounting rules for U.S. banks facing steep writedowns of troubled assets without abandoning the underlying accounting standard, a senior Senate Democrat said. Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters on Wednesday evening after a panel hearing that at least one former bank regulator was discussing how to approach the difficult issue without "walking away from" mark-to-market standards. The issue of how to value distressed assets held by U.S. banks has been one of the most difficult challenges in constructing a bank rescue plan, according to industry lobbyists and lawmakers.

Estrategia:

- Chile’s copper production will increase 3% this year because of mine expansions, citing an industry chamber.

recast to "

arabianBusiness.com:
- 52% of UAE’s construction projects suspended. Nearly 53 percent of the UAE’s development portfolio, worth a combined $582bn, has been suspended as the construction industry grapples with the country’s dramatic real estate crash. Some 180 projects have been suspended while projected cash flow, the marker of the industry’s health, is set to drop 43 percent in the first quarter of 2009, the report noted.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
Large-cap Value (+1.16%)

Sector Underperformers:
REITs (-.60%), Papers (-.21%) and Education (-.19%)

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
IX, ESS, HME, EDU, UN, CNQR, AGNC, DLTR, EXBD, ABMD, PAAS, CVLT, VARI, FLIR, IT, IEX, RBC, HAR, NCR and LTM

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
1) CNQR 2) DO 3) DLTR 4) ERTS 5) AKAM