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Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:

- President Barack Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to take concerted efforts to counter the global recession and begin a new effort to develop clean-energy technology. Obama also said he raised with Harper the idea of strengthening labor and environmental provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Harper said Nafta has been “nothing but beneficial” to both countries. He said there may be ways to address Obama’s concerns without “opening the whole Nafta” accord.

- Russians Retrench as Crisis Evokes Memories of 1998 ‘Nightmare.’

- North American orders for semiconductor equipment dropped to their lowest level since 1991 as chipmakers gave up on plans to expand production in a global recession. Orders dropped to $285.6 million last month from $1.14 billion in January 2008, the trade group Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International said today in a statement. Orders dropped 51 percent from December.

- New Zealand grape growers are cutting output of all varieties including Sauvignon Blanc, the country’s biggest wine export, to maintain quality and avoid a glut as demand slows.

- European Central Bank policy makers are at a loss for what additional steps to take as record low interest rates fail to stem the deepening recession. Officials are hemmed in by European Union rules that forbid the ECB from buying bonds directly from governments and any decision to buy debt in the open market may spark a dispute over which country’s securities to purchase. Options are also limited by the lack of a single euro-region Treasury that would underwrite central bank losses incurred from any new measures. “The problem is that they don’t know themselves what they’ll exactly have to do in the future,” said Juergen Michels, chief euro-area economist at Citigroup Inc. in London. “They are probably very divided on the range of measures available to them.”

- The euro headed for the biggest weekly decline in a month against the US dollar on speculation European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will signal in a speech today that he may cut interest rates to spur growth. The 16-nation currency is set for its seventh weekly decline in eight weeks after ECB council member Erkki Liikanen flagged the possibility of using unorthodox monetary policy to deal with a deepening recession and the financial system’s meltdown. The yen headed for a fourth weekly drop versus the dollar, the longest losing stretch since December 2007, on speculation demand for the currency as a haven will wane. “The outlook for a narrowing interest-rate differential is negative for the euro,” said Akio Yoshino, chief economist at Societe Generale Asset Management Ltd. in Tokyo. “The euro may fall to below $1.25 in the near future.”

- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ties with North Korea won’t improve as long as it continues its “provocative and unhelpful” verbal attacks on South Korea, and reiterated her call for the communist state to abandon its nuclear weapons program. “North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting” the South, Clinton said at a press conference in Seoul today with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan. “We cannot accept a nuclear North Korea under any circumstances, and we reaffirmed our position to pursue a complete and verifiable denuclearization,” Yu said.

- Gold holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust(GLD), the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, advanced to a record, according to figures on the company’s Web site. The fund held 1,028.98 metric tons of bullion as of yesterday, up 0.5 percent from Feb. 18, and a 4.4 percent increase this week. The fund’s holdings are just behind the 1,040 tons held by Switzerland, the sixth-largest stockpile.

- Crude oil fell, paring its largest gain in seven weeks, on concern that OPEC output cuts may not erode supply enough amid weak global demand for fuels. “The bearish picture for crude oil consumption is still in place with the slowing of the global economy,” said Mike Sander, an investment adviser at Sander Capital Advisors Inc. in Seattle. “There are just limited reasons why crude oil should go up in price, unless imports slow even further, which is extremely doubtful due to huge budget imbalances in OPEC and non-OPEC exporting countries.” U.S. imports of crude oil declined 859,000 barrels a day to 8.79 million, the lowest level since September, when ports were shut in the aftermath of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the report showed.

- Intuit Inc.(INTU), the world’s biggest maker of tax-preparation software, reported second-quarter earnings and forecast full-year profit that topped analysts’ estimates. Intuit rose 5.9 percent in extended trading to $22.53 after falling 61 cents to $21.27 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Wall Street Journal:

- Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford was operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors around the globe, people familiar with the matter said. These people said the Justice Department is investigating Mr. Stanford, who was hit with civil charges Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with an alleged $8 billion investment fraud. On Thursday, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents served Mr. Stanford with the SEC civil lawsuit in Fredericksburg, Va., the FBI and SEC said. SEC officials had said this week that Mr. Stanford's whereabouts were unknown.

- Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday played down Kyrgyzstan's moves to kick the U.S. off a strategic air base and said he was willing to negotiate higher rent to stay. Speaking hours after Kyrgyzstan's Parliament voted 78-1 to evict the U.S. military, Mr. Gates said the Central Asian base -- which sends some 500 tons of supplies to the Afghanistan war each month -- is important. But he said it isn't irreplaceable, and that the former Soviet republic won't put the U.S. over a barrel. "We are prepared to look at the fees and see if there is justification for a somewhat larger payment," Mr. Gates said at a news conference. "But we're not going to be ridiculous about it." Mr. Gates, in Europe for NATO talks, also said the new Obama administration needs more time to decide the fate of a proposed European missile-defense shield that soured the Bush administration's relations with Russia. Part of the system would be based in Poland, and the Polish defense chief pressed Mr. Gates for an answer amid speculation that President Barack Obama could walk away from the deal.

- U.S. steelmakers are preparing a raft of complaints against foreign steel imports, a move that could result in stiff tariff increases later this year and escalate trade tensions with China, say people familiar with the matter.

- Top cable-television providers and TV networks are exploring a sweeping solution to the threat of online video: putting large numbers of cable shows online, but accessible only to cable subscribers. Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are discussing with owners of major cable-TV networks ways to give cable subscribers online access to much of the networks' programming, according to people familiar with the situation. The discussions, according to these people, have been continuing in recent months and include network owners Viacom Inc., Time Warner Inc. and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, among others.

- Hedge funds, sharply criticized last year after many refused to let investors withdraw their money, are becoming more accepting of a secondary market where fund investors can cash out by selling their stakes.

- Bank of America(BAC) Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis was issued a subpoena by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is investigating whether the bank withheld information from investors in violation of state law, according to people familiar with the matter.

- Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- whose agency has long taken the lead on global oil-market policy -- said Thursday he doesn't know what the Obama administration would urge the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to do at its meeting next month. "I'm not the administration," Mr. Chu said during a meeting with reporters Thursday. OPEC members are scheduled to meet March 15 to discuss the possibility of production cuts to respond to slumping prices. "I will be speaking and learning more about this in order to figure out what the U.S. position should be and what the president's position is," Mr. Chu said. Mr. Chu said he would "do what I can to encourage stability" in oil prices, but he added that his time would be better focused "on the issues that I have control over," such as increasing U.S. funding of alternative energy technologies. On Wednesday, when approached by reporters after a speech to a group of utility regulators, Mr. Chu declined to offer an opinion on whether OPEC should cut production, saying the issue was "not in my domain." He later told reporters on a conference call that his response to the question reflected "more of my naiveté than anything else." Mr. Chu said Thursday he feels "like I've been dumped into the deep end of the pool" in confronting questions about oil policy, such as whether the administration would consider delaying scheduled deliveries of oil this spring to the nation's strategic petroleum reserves. Mr. Chu's predecessors traditionally used the bully pulpit of their office to lobby oil-rich foreign governments to open their spigots in the interest of keeping energy prices low.

CNBC.com:
- The ghost of Lehman Brothers will forever haunt Tiny Tim Geithner, Cramer said Thursday. The Treasury secretary’s decision to let that investment bank fail will be a black mark on his credibility. In fact, it’s the whole reason he can’t garner popular support for his latest rescue plan. (video)

- Poll: Would You Join Rick Santelli’s “Chicago Tea Party?”

NY Times:

- Since last fall, many of the leading figures in the nation’s long-running health care debate have been meeting secretly in a Senate hearing room. Now, with the blessing of the Senate’s leading proponent of universal health insurance, Edward M. Kennedy, they appear to be inching toward a consensus that could reshape the debate. Many of the parties, from big insurance companies to lobbyists for consumers, doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, are embracing the idea that comprehensive health care legislation should include a requirement that every American carry insurance. While not all industry groups are in complete agreement, there is enough of a consensus, according to people who have attended the meetings, that they have begun to tackle the next steps: how to enforce the requirement for everyone to have health insurance; how to make insurance affordable to the uninsured; and whether to require employers to help buy coverage for their employees.

CNNMoney.com:
- Palm's (PALM) Pre smartphone -- due before the end of June -- is the most anticipated new Sprint phone. But the company is still working with Google (GOOG) on an Android-based phone, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse assured us today in an interview.

- One advantage of selling gazillions of MP3 players — most of them stuffed with flash memory — is that it gives you a lot of leverage in the chip market. Apple (AAPL) is using that leverage to full advantage as it prepares to launch its next generation iPhone, according to a report published Wednesday in AppleInsider. The company is “inhaling” supplies of memory components, the report says, causing spot shortages and raising the price of flash memory for everyone else.

IBD:

- For Inverness Medical Innovations (IMA), it's all about simplicity and speed.

The diagnostic tests developed and marketed by Inverness reduce the time it takes to diagnose and monitor the progress of a broad range of diseases.

Forbes:

- Where In The US Homes Are Most Affordable.

Reuters:

- The Oscars have lost some of their luster this year -- at least when it comes to advertising. ABC has dropped prices for 30-second advertisements and scrambled to replace two of the key sponsors for its Sunday broadcast of the Academy Awards, when Hollywood pays tribute to the best actors, directors, producers and movies of the year.

- Career Education Corp. (CECO): The private education company reported fourth quarter profits of 43 cents a share, excluding some items, topping the average analyst estimate by 78 percent. The shares rose 12.5% in after-hours trading.

- Shares of General Electric Co (GE) fell briefly below $10 on Thursday, their lowest point since late 1995, amid a broad sell-off in U.S. stocks. The U.S. conglomerate's shares closed at $10.06, down 49 cents or 4.6 percent, after earlier notching a low of $9.95 cents. They have been as high as $38.52 in the last 52 weeks. GE shares have lost almost 70 percent of their value over the past year amid investor concerns over the effect of the credit crunch on GE Capital, GE's financial unit.

- Citigroup Inc (C) shares fell to almost 18-year lows on Thursday, with Bank of America Corp (BAC) stock also plunging, amid renewed fears that growing losses could lead to government control of troubled U.S. banks, wiping out shareholders. In addition, insurance companies' stocks plummeted -- led by Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG) -- as declining stock and bond market values added to concerns about weakening investment portfolios and capital positions. "When you talk about nationalization you hear the names Citi and Bank of America as the top two names burning out," said Walter Todd, a portfolio manager at Greenwood Capital Associates, which holds shares of Bank of America.

- Citadel Investment Group LLC trader Misha Malyshev, who helped two of the firm's hedge funds gain about 40 percent last year, has resigned, Bloomberg News said on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the firm. Malyshev was head of "high-frequency" trading, a computer-dependent strategy used by two of the firm's hedge funds, and left this week with two members of his team, the report said, citing the person.

Financial Times:
- The New York Times(NYT) Company has suspended its dividend entirely, three months after cutting the pay-out by almost three-quarters to preserve cash at the indebted newspaper publisher. The suspension had not been widely expected, as the NYT had been seen to buy itself breathing space in January by borrowing $250m at a 14 per cent interest rate from Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire. The company said then it would use the proceeds to get it through a May deadline to refinance a $400m credit facility that had concerned investors. Debt worries have cut the group’s share value by more than half since the start of 2009. News of the dividend cut came on Thursday as the New York Times settled a $27m defamation suit brought in December by Vicki Iseman, a Washington lobbyist mentioned in a NYT story about John McCain, the former presidential candidate. The newspaper agreed to publish a statement that it had not intended to suggest an improper relationship between Ms Iseman and Senator McCain.

- Iran has built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday. In a development that comes as the Obama administration is drawing up its policy on negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program, UN officials said Iran had produced more nuclear material than previously thought. “It appears that Iran has walked right up to the threshold of having enough low enriched uranium to provide enough raw material for a single bomb,” said Peter Zimmerman, a former chief scientist of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The new figures come in a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, released on Thursday. This revealed that Iran’s production of low enriched uranium had previously been underestimated. Iran’s success in reaching such a “breakout capacity” – a stage that would allow it to produce enough fissile material for a bomb in a matter of months – crosses a “red line” that for years Israel has said it would not accept.

Economic Daily News:

- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing executives believe the chip industry has hit bottom. The chipmaker has order visibility until the end of April, with customers not ruling out a replenishment of inventory in May or June. Taiwan Semi, the world’s largest customer chipmaker, on Jan. 22 forecast it would post its first quarterly loss since 1990 as overall chip industry sales are projected to decline 30% this year.

Philstar.com:

- Benedicto Clark T. Miranda, director and head of Capital Markets and Investments for the Philippine office of Jones Lang LaSalle, said the Grade A office market is in for a rough ride as corporates cut back on spending amid an increasingly difficult business environment. Miranda said developers or owners of prime office buildings are lowering rental rates by 15 to 20 percent to seek more tenants and woo clients back.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Upgraded (WBMD) to Buy, target $25.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -2.50% to -1.0% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.83%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.66%.

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Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

- The Consumer Price Index for January is estimated to rise .3% versus a -.8% decline in December.

- The CPI Ex Food & Energy for January is estimated to rise .1% versus unch. in December.

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The (BEAV) Investor Meeting could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by automaker and financial stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly lower and to maintain losses into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.

Stocks Finish Lower, Weighed Down by Financial, Technology, Education, REIT, Homebuilding and Gold Shares

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In Play

Stocks Lower into Final Hour on Bank Nationalization Fears, Tech Sector Earnings Worries and Higher Energy Prices

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is slightly lower into the final hour on losses in my Internet longs, Education longs and Computer longs. I added to my (IWM)/(QQQQ) hedges and added to my (EEM) short today, thus leaving the Portfolio 50% net long. The tone of the market is negative as the advance/decline line is lower, sector performance is mostly negative and volume is below average. Investor anxiety is high. Today’s overall market action is bearish. The VIX is falling 3.78% and is very high at 46.62. The ISE Sentiment Index is extremely low at 49.0 and the total put/call is above average at 1.07. Finally, the NYSE Arms has been running above average most of the day, hitting 1.51 at its intraday peak, and is currently 1.05. The Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index is falling .83% today to 136.0 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 falling 3.69% to 206.42 basis points. The TED spread is rising .36% to 95 basis points. The TED spread is now down 372 basis points in about four months. The 2-year swap spread is falling 3.96% to 63.63 basis points. The Libor-OIS spread is rising 2.27% to 100.0 basis points. The 10-year TIPS spread, a good gauge of inflation expectations, is rising 1 basis point to 1.16%, which is down 154 basis points in about 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 .30%, which is down 2 basis points today. Worries over impending financial sector nationalizations are high again today and, as I said earlier in the week, the longer the new administration waits to release its new rescue plan details the more likely that scenario becomes. The broad market is weaker than the major averages suggest today. Homebuilding, education, insurance, bank, semi, computer and gold stocks are all falling more than 3%. On the positive side, the ISE Sentiment Index is hitting the lowest level since November 12^th today and the total put/call ratio is above average again. Credit angst is lower today. One of my longs, (GME), is 7% higher today after boosting its earnings forecast. This retailer is relatively insulated from many of the headwinds affecting the sector. I still see significant upside in the stock from current levels. Nikkei futures indicate an +8 open in Japan and DAX futures indicate a -35 open in Germany tomorrow. I expect US stocks to trade mixed-to-lower into the close from current levels on rising financial sector pessimism, higher energy prices and more shorting.

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

- Iran may agree to hold face-to-face talks with Barack Obama’s administration, providing there is a concrete change in U.S. policy, Agence France-Presse cited Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying. “We are considering this offer,” Mottaki was quoted as saying today by AFP. “We need to wait to see differences in Barack Obama’s policy compared to that of George Bush.”

- The effect of the Obama administration’s housing plan on home-loan bonds and borrowers will be limited by restrictions on which mortgages are eligible, according to Bank of America analysts. Only about 50% to 60% of securitized prime jumbo or Alt-A loans meet the loan-modification standards requiring borrowers to live in mortgaged properties and owe no more than Fannie and Freddie’s loan limits, according to a report by Bank of America strategists including Akiva Dickstein and Vipul Jain. The refinancing plan will be limited by a standard preventing homeowners from qualifying if they owe more than 105% of their homes’ value, they said. Jumbo loans are larger than Fannie and Freddie, the government-chartered mortgage companies under federal control, can buy or guarantee, currently $417,000 in most areas and as much as $729,000.

- Eastern European currency hedges gone bad may prove to be the catalyst for a resumption in the euro’s slide, according to Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT, an online currency trading firm. “As troubles continue to brew in eastern Europe, additional losses on foreign-exchange derivative contracts will increase the risk of eastern European borrowers defaulting on their loans,” said Lien, who is based in NY. “This would create a domino effect which will most certainly hit Western Europe. That could lead to an exodus out of euros.” The euro will decline to a two-year low of $1.233 as a result of the exposure of western European economies to falling growth and banking losses in eastern Europe, Lien said.

- The average U.S. rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell this week as President Barack Obama signed an economic stimulus measure into law and pledged $275 billion to reduce foreclosures. The rate fell to 5.04 percent from 5.16 percent a week earlier, Freddie Mac, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer, said today. Mortgage rates are falling as the Federal Reserve buys mortgage-backed securities to encourage lenders to lower rates.

- Venezuela plans to boost oil output at least 12 percent in a joint venture with foreign investors that will cost more than twice what the government previously estimated, a confidential document shows. The project would increase Venezuela’s daily output of 3 million barrels a day by 400,000 barrels a day within seven years, according to the document, which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

- Crude oil rose more than 10 percent in New York after a U.S. government report showed an unexpected drop in inventories. Gasoline inventories rose 1.11 million barrels to 218.7 million barrels, the department said. Supplies were forecast to fall by 500,000 barrels, according to the median of responses by 16 analysts in the Bloomberg News survey. Oil also climbed as the euro strengthened against the U.S. currency on speculation that Europe will take steps to address the financial crisis.

- Google Inc.’s(GOOG) Android operating system, after making inroads into the mobile-phone market, may be running on portable computers within the next year, challenging the dominance of Microsoft Corp. Google, which owns the most popular Internet search engine, could use its brand name and community of developers to get the software onto low-cost notebooks, said Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner Inc. One chipmaker, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., is already working on designs for an Android computer.

- China’s stock rally this year may falter as a so-called momentum indicator showed the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index crossed a level that some traders use as a trigger to sell shares. The 14-day relative strength index, or RSI, for the Shanghai Composite rose above the 70 threshold this month for the first time since October 2007, when the index peaked. “Getting into the market now is really for the most speculative of investors,” said Fraser Howie, head of structured products at CLSA Singapore Ltd. “People are losing their jobs and export growth is still weak,” he said.

- Taiwan may weaken the local dollar to the lowest level in more than two decades to stimulate economic growth given it has limited room to cut interest rates further, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. Europe’s biggest bank and Goldman Sachs(GS) forecast the currency will drop 3.7% to NT$36 per US dollar by the end of June, a level not seen since 1986. Government reports this month showed Taiwan’s exports, which account for 70% of the economy, fell by a record, while gross domestic product shrank at an unprecedented pace.

- The rising cost to protect buyers of Japan’s sovereign bonds against default signals the yen may start to lose its status as a “haven” currency, said Barclays Capital, the world’s third-largest foreign-exchange trader. Credit-default swaps for Japan surged as high as 120.7 this week, the most in more than four years, on signs the world’s second-largest economy will fare worse than Europe and the U.S. Japan’s gross domestic product shrank the most since 1974 last quarter, a government report showed Feb. 16. Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa quit a day later amid accusations he was drunk at a press conference, eroding confidence in the government.

- Technology stocks offer a refuge for investors because the biggest companies in the industry, including Apple Inc.(AAPL) and Cisco Systems Inc.(CSCO), have “strong” balance sheets, according to Jefferies Group Inc.

Wall Street Journal:

- The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority plans to name veteran regulator Richard Ketchum as its new chief executive, succeeding Mary Schapiro, who just became chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with Finra.

- U.S. steelmakers are preparing a raft of complaints against foreign steel imports, a move that could result in stiff tariff increases later this year and escalate trade tensions with China, say people familiar with the matter.

Detroit Free Press:

- Bottom line: US auto industry says it needs $97.4 billion to live.

- As General Motors Corp.(GM) intensifies negotiations to restructure its debt, the automaker is running into resistance from bondholders who are questioning whether the company's viability plan goes far enough to fix the struggling automaker. Despite seeking as much as $30 billion in federal aid, GM already is signaling that it might need additional financial support as soon as four years from now to fully fund its U.S. pension obligations. "It's not clear they've pushed it hard enough," a person familiar with the committee representing the bondholders said Wednesday, a day after GM unveiled the plan. The person noted that bondholders "are very concerned."

paidContent.org:

- Google(GOOG) Maps has overtaken AOL’s MapQuest in terms of unique visitors— with 42.2 million monthly uniques in January, to MapQuest’s 41.5 million—according to the latest stats from comScore.

Rocky Mountain News:

- R. Allen Stanford sure could draw an impressive crowd. During the Democratic National Convention in August, Stanford hosted a high-profile cocktail party in downtown Denver that drew such notables as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The crowd, which numbered several hundred, also included foreign ambassadors and local business bigwigs. "All the players in the Democratic Party were there," said one attendee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he has ties to one of Stanford's companies. "He also gave a short speech, saying that we were in a period of change, that we have to find new ways to move humanity forward." The cocktail party is one of several ties embattled Texas financier Stanford has with Colorado. On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Stanford, several companies he controls and two colleagues, claiming they misled investors while selling $8 billion in certificates from an affiliated bank in Antigua.

Charlotte Observer:

- Thousands of N.C. jobs and millions in wages created from the federal economic stimulus package could wind up going to illegal immigrants. Congress stripped language from the $789billion package that would have required employers to verify the legal status of workers paid with stimulus money.

USAToday:

- Although President Obama's stimulus package provides about $144 billion directly to state and local governments, a few Republican governors are suggesting they might reject some of the money. No state has yet refused any of the funding from the $787 billion stimulus package, which Obama signed into law on Tuesday. But Republican governors, including those in South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana and Alaska, have said they are looking closely at the strings attached to the federal funding before they decide what to do with it. Two of their concerns: The restrictions on some of the money could further crimp state budgets, and programs created or expanded with stimulus funds may have to be cut once the stimulus funds are depleted. "You get this huge slug of money. It funds programs for a couple of years, and then what?" says South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who heads the Republican Governors Association. "You get it started, you get a constituency established, and then we're supposed to yank the rug out from under people when the federal money runs out?"

Reuters:
- China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange may resume allowing initial public share offerings before July, the bourse’s executive vp Zhou Qinye said.

- U.S. and Canadian labor unions called for changes in agriculture, energy, investment and other provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the eve of a meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "We need to address the worsening economic crisis in a coordinated manner, reopen and fix the flaws with the North American Free Trade Agreement and move on a range of complementary policies dealing with energy, climate change and green jobs, industrial policy, migration and development," the AFL-CIO labor federation and the Canadian Labour Congress said in a joint letter to the two leaders. Obama, who is making his first foreign trip as president to Canada, promised last year to "fix" NAFTA by adding enforceable labor and environmental provisions to the core of the pact and and by changing an investment measure that critics say gives business too much power to challenge government regulations. Three-way trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada has tripled to nearly $1 trillion since NAFTA went into force in 1994, and together Canada and Mexico buy more than one-third of U.S. exports.

- A top U.S. Senate leader played down prospects on Thursday for a swift improvement in relations with Syria until Damascus curbs support for Islamist militant groups and addresses other U.S. concerns. "Nobody takes words at face value, particularly in this part of the world. We've learned that actions are what speak, and it's going to be important for Syria to show a willingness to do a number of things," John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during a visit to southern Israel. Kerry, a member of U.S. President Barack Obama's Democratic party, met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before setting out on his Middle East tour.

- Citigroup Inc shares fell to 17-year lows on Thursday, with Bank of America Corp stock also plunging, amid renewed fears that growing losses could lead to government control of troubled U.S. banks, wiping out shareholders.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
Small-cap Value (-1.19%)

Sector Underperformers:
Education (-7.0%), Homebuilders (-5.56%) and Banks (-3.33%)

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
CCJ, HPQ, IM, WFC, BMRN, ITRI, NILE, NTRI, POOL, SHPGY, COCO, APOL, WST, HE, STC, TTC, ESI and ORB

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
1) JWN 2) MCO 3) AMAT 4) ESI 5) LDK