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Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:

- Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.(BRK/A) had its top-level AAA credit rating cut by Fitch Ratings, which cited concern about the potential for losses on the insurer’s equity and derivatives holdings. Buffett’s role as chief investment officer also puts the company at risk if he becomes unable to do the job, Fitch said in a statement. Fitch cut the so-called issuer default rating on Berkshire to AA+, and senior unsecured debt to AA. The insurance and reinsurance units kept their AAA status, with a negative outlook for all entities, Fitch said.

- Treasuries fell, snapping a two-day gain, as China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said he’s concerned about the safety of its investment in U.S. government debt. Ten-year note yields rose three basis points to 2.88 percent as of 12:21 p.m. in Tokyo, according to BGCantor Market Data.

Wall Street Journal:

- To win Senate approval, David Ogden’s nomination for deputy attorney general is having to overcome concerns about pornography -– not the usual political disputes over torture, terrorism policy, or past legal writings. Republicans say Ogden has generated thousands of calls from constituents -– far more than Attorney General Eric Holder who was approved in relatively quick fashion in January. Much of the opposition apparently is coming at the urging of conservative groups that object to Ogden’s previous legal work on First Amendment issues, representing producers of adult entertainment.

- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) feels certain that Congress will not pass the pro-union bill introduced this week, a Wal-Mart executive said Thursday. "In the end, we are confident that Congress will get it right and it will be defeated," Wal-Mart Treasurer Charles Holley said at a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch consumer conference Thursday.

- Citigroup Inc.(C) is preparing to nominate four financial experts, including two former bank chief executives, to be directors as part of the overhaul of the New York company's board, according to people familiar with the matter. The likely recruits include Jerry Grundhofer, former chief executive of U.S. Bancorp; Michael O'Neill, former CEO of Bank of Hawaii Corp.; and William S. Thompson, former co-head of bond-giant Pimco, these people said. Citigroup also is likely to add at least one more director with a risk-management background, likely a finance professor.

- The Obama administration is considering lifting a ban on regular diplomatic contacts with Iran and looking at ways to develop a direct line of communication to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said officials briefed on the deliberations. American and European officials say Mr. Khamenei is the only Iranian leader who can make the ultimate decision to suspend or freeze Iran's nuclear program. "The key issue is now to find a channel to Khamenei," said a senior Western diplomat briefed on the Obama administration's policy review in recent days. "If the supreme leader moves, he's going to do it in a very prudent and incremental way." The discussions are part of a larger Iran-policy review that the Obama administration is aiming to complete this month, according to U.S. officials.

- With their core business in shambles, some venture capitalists are changing their stripes, styling themselves as investors in distressed assets and public companies. Since last year's market meltdown, venture-capital firms such as Venrock and Sanderling Ventures have ramped up their investments in public firms, typically through private stock placements known as "registered directs" and "private investments in public equities," or PIPEs.

Washington Post:

- Scientists have developed a polyurethane coating that heals its own scratches when exposed to sunlight, offering the promise of scratch-free cars and other products, researchers said on Thursday. "We developed a polymeric material that is able to repair itself by exposure to the sun," said Marek Urban of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, whose study appears in the journal Science.

- H. Rodgin Cohen, chairman of the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, has withdrawn his name from consideration for deputy Treasury secretary, becoming the fourth pick for a prominent Treasury Department post to pull out in recent weeks. A prominent attorney who has advised many of the top Wall Street firms, Cohen dropped out after the White House found an issue during his vetting process, two sources familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to identify the reason.

- The U.S. Navy has dispatched a guided-missile destroyer to the South China Sea after Chinese ships allegedly harassed an American ship operating there last weekend, a Pentagon official said yesterday. The USS Chung-Hoon, armed with torpedoes and missiles, is stationed in protection of the USNS Impeccable, an ocean surveillance ship. On Sunday, five Chinese vessels surrounded the Impeccable, which is unarmed. The Chinese ships approached to within 25 feet and blocked the Impeccable's path with pieces of wood, the official said. "Chung-Hoon is there, in the area, keeping an eye on Impeccable, which continues lawful military operations," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Dallas Morning News:

- Gov. Rick Perry, joining a handful of his fellow Southern Republican leaders, said Thursday that he was rejecting $556 million in federal stimulus money for unemployed Texans because it had too many strings attached. He said the federal provisions would require unprecedented changes in state rules on who is eligible for unemployment payments. He also argued that the funds – which Democrats say would update benefits so that more women, elderly and student workers could qualify – would place additional burdens on businesses, leaving them to pay the added costs when the federal money ran out. Instead, businesses should be able to use the money to create jobs, Perry said.

AP:

- An aide to President Barack Obama is on leave from his White House job after the FBI raided his old District of Columbia government office Thursday, arresting a city employee and a technology consultant on corruption charges, a White House official said. The charges were lodged against the two men at a federal court hearing as the FBI finished searching the city's technology office, which was led until recently by Obama's new computer chief, Vivek Kundra. Kundra is on leave from his White House job until further details of the case become known, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official did not want to publicly discuss personnel matters.

- Jon Stewart hammered Jim Cramer and his network, CNBC, in their anticipated face-off on "The Daily Show," repeatedly chastising the "Mad Money" host for putting entertainment above journalism. "I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a ... game," Stewart told Cramer, adding in an expletive during the show's Thursday taping. The episode was scheduled to air at 11 p.m. EDT on Comedy Central. It was perhaps the hardest lashing Stewart has given to a TV commentator since 2004 when he called Tucker Carlson and his then co-host Paul Begala "partisan hacks" on CNN's "Crossfire," the since canceled political commentary program.

Reuters:

- Citigroup Inc Chairman Richard Parsons said on Thursday that the bank does not need any more capital injections from the government and expressed confidence that Citi would remain in private hands. Asked in an interview with Reuters whether Citigroup needed additional government capital injections, Parsons said: "No, I think actually, particularly with the latest conversion... Citi is actually one of the better capitalized banks in the world."

Financial Times:
- The European Central Bank has already embarked, in effect, on emergency “quantitative easing” to boost the eurozone economy but stands ready to do more if deflation risks emerge, according to Christian Noyer, governor of the Banque de France. Hugely expanded ECB operations to pump extra liquidity into the banking system, renewed last week, had taken the central bank into “non-standard monetary policy”, Mr Noyer said in an interview with the Financial Times. “It is a way of doing quantitative easing, certainly.” When it came to the ECB’s own response, Mr Noyer “would not rule anything out”. Where credit markets were not working a “central bank may consider that at a certain point it is appropriate to intervene directly”, he said. That left open the option of the ECB, for instance, buying corporate debt outright. But the French central banker saw signs the functioning of the banking system was improving. “Market and lending [interest] rates are continuing to move nicely downwards. The process has been fuelled by the 275 basis points cut that the ECB has decided. The process is not finished. We need some time for all that to feed through into the economy.” Mr Noyer did not rule out further cuts in the ECB’s main interest rate, currently 1.5 per cent, the lowest ever. But he noted that very short-term market interest rates were tending towards the “deposit facility” rate that the ECB pays on sums parked with it overnight, currently 0.5 per cent. “As a consequence, the rates effectively paid by borrowers are much closer to the situation in the US or UK than most people would imagine.”

- Japan on Thursday threw its weight behind US efforts to ensure next month’s G20 summit focuses on the need for immediate co-ordinated action to support the world economy rather than long-term efforts to improve financial sector regulation. In an interview with the Financial Times that highlighted the growing rift in the G20 ahead of Friday’s pre-summit meeting of finance ministers, Kaoru Yosano, Japan’s finance minister, said he understood the European-led push to focus on tightening financial regulation. But he suggested such issues appeared cosmetic compared to more pressing economic problems. “We all agree [on the need for better financial regulation], but I personally feel: are these actions necessary at a time of crisis? What we ask at this moment is to save the life of the world economy. Not to comment about its beard,” said Mr Yosano, who is also Japan’s minister for economic and fiscal policy. His comments come amid a lively transatlantic debate about what the G20’s priorities should be at its April 2 summit and the degree to which individual countries should commit to aggressive stimulus action. Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, on Wednesday called for the world’s biggest industrialised countries to commit to spending 2 per cent of their gross domestic product this year and next to stimulate the global economy. European leaders, however, argue they have done their part and the debate should move forward. At a meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said Europe had “already invested a lot for the recovery”. Christian Noyer, governor of the Banque de France, told the FT that the US needed to fix its own financial system rather than pressing other countries to come up with fresh plans.

The Economic Times:

- The real estate market in India is trapped in a vicious cycle of plunging prices. With the bottom nowhere in sight, potential buyers do not want to try and catch a falling knife, says Pranay Vakil, chairman, Knight Frank India, a property consultancy firm. “They are expecting a further cut in prices, while developers themselves have been dropping prices, anticipating an increase in sales volumes.” Rajneesh Chhabra, a property broker based in south Delhi, says asking rates are down 30% from their peak, but it’s still almost impossible to find a buyer.

Nikkei English News:

- Japan’s government may maintain its assessment of the economy in March after five months of downgrades.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.75% to +3.50% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.12%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.09%.

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Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

- The Trade Balance for January is estimated at -$38.0B versus -$39.9B in December.

- The Import Price Index for February is estimated to fall .7% versus a 1.1% decline in January.

10:00 am EST

- The Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence reading for March is estimated at 55.0 versus 56.3 in February.

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- Larry Summers speaking could also impact trading today.

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

Stocks Finish Sharply Higher, Boosted by Financial, Technology, Healthcare, Homebuilding, REIT, Construction and Medical Shares

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In Play

Stocks Soaring into Final Hour on Less Financial Sector Pessimism, Less Extreme Economic Fear, Short-Covering, Buyout Speculation

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is higher into the final hour on gains in my Technology longs, Education longs, Medical longs, Biotech longs and Retail longs. I added to my (ILMN) and (GILD) longs and took profits in another long today, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market is very positive as the advance/decline line is substantially higher, almost every sector is rising and volume is about average. Investor anxiety is about average. Today’s overall market action is very bullish. The VIX is falling 6.37% and is very high at 40.83. The ISE Sentiment Index is below average at 129.0 and the total put/call is below average at .74. Finally, the NYSE Arms has been running around average most of the day, hitting 1.35 at its intraday peak, and is currently .73. The Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index is rising 1.05% today to 192.66 basis points. This index is down from its record March 10th high of 208.75. The North American Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index is rising 2.24% to 244.55 basis points. This index is still below its Dec. 5^th record high of 285.99. The TED spread is rising .84% to 112 basis points. The TED spread is now down 351 basis points since its all-time high of 463 basis points on October 10th. The 2-year swap spread is plunging 9.69% to 65.25 basis points. The Libor-OIS spread is falling .84% to 106.0 basis points. The 10-year TIPS spread, a good gauge of inflation expectations, is rising 10 basis points to 1.0%, which is down 164 basis points since July 7th. 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 .20%, which is down 2 basis points today. The methodical grind higher today is much healthier than a gap and then flat-line. Breadth is very good. The action in financials remains a huge positive. Much of this rally is predicated on the assumption that mark-to-market will at the very least be relaxed and possibly even temporarily suspended. As well, talk of bringing back the uptick rule is a large psychological positive for investors. The AAII % Bulls rose to 27.64% this week, while the % Bears fell to 54.47%. Overall, investors remain overwhelmingly bearish. However, I would still like to see a few other technical indicators, such as the total put/call, display more investor angst. The 10-year T-note is trading as if it is about to break out again. Large specs are the most net short the 10-year since August of last year and much talk of a bond bubble still persists. We have had a large rally in stocks and some better economic data, yet the 10-year is firm. Asian equities should see sharp gains tonight. Nikkei futures indicate an +300 open in Japan and DAX futures indicate an +32 open in Germany tomorrow. I expect US stocks to trade mixed-to-higher into the close from current levels on short-covering, declining credit market angst, bargain-hunting, buyout optimism, better investor psychology, less extreme economic fear and diminishing financial sector pessimism.

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

- Sales at U.S. retailers in February fell less than forecast and a gain in January exceeded the previous estimate, indicating the biggest part of the economy may be starting to stabilize. The Commerce Department’s figures mean the decline in gross domestic product this quarter will probably be less than anticipated. Retail purchases decreased by 0.1 percent following a 1.8 percent jump in January, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Excluding cars, sales climbed 0.7 percent. Excluding autos, gasoline and building materials, the retail group the government uses to calculate gross domestic product figures for consumer spending, sales increased 0.5 percent, after rising 1.7 percent. In addition to service stations, clothing, furniture, electronics and department stores showed gains in sales.

- President Barack Obama’s proposal for spending $634 billion on revamping U.S. health care threatens to expand a “bloated” system, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said. “This is an area that gives many of us great pause, because we are already spending one in every six dollars in this economy on health care,” said the chairman, Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota, at a hearing today of his committee. About 30 percent of the $2.5 trillion the U.S. is projected to spend on health care this year may be “wasted” because of unneeded treatments, White House budget director Peter Orszag told the Senate Finance Committee on March 10.

- Bank of America Corp.(BAC), bolstered by $50 billion in profit before taxes and provisions this year, isn’t likely to need more aid when the U.S. completes its “stress test,” Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis said.

- Billionaire Warren Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway Inc. plans to sell more derivative contracts, a tactic some investors have said may cause the insurer to suffer billions of dollars in losses. “Oh, we’ll continue,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview, portions of which will be broadcast today and tomorrow. “We do anything that I think I understand and where I think that the odds strongly favor making money, which doesn’t mean you make money every time.”

- K+S AG, Europe’s largest producer of potash used in fertilizers, forecast “significantly” lower earnings this year as farmers delay purchases, betting prices may decline later in the year. Profit from thawing salt will improve, yet not enough to counter the deterioration in potash and nitrogen volumes, the Kassel, Germany-based company said today. K+S, which previously flagged 2009 as an “opportunity” for growth, fell 11 percent. OAO Uralkali, Russia’s second-largest producer of potash, cut prices of the mineral last week for the first time since 2006. “There’s a clear buyers strike in the market,” Christian Faitz, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Sal. Oppenheim Jr & Cie said by telephone today. “Farmers are saying ‘we don’t want to pay those prices.’ We don’t know when, or if, they will ever start paying those prices again.” Faitz rates K+S “neutral.”

- General Electric Co.(GE) and its finance arm lost the top-level AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s that they’ve held since 1956 as a global recession sapped earnings and exposed potential risks. The one-level downgrade to AA+ with a “stable” outlook affects long-term debt, S&P analysts said in a statement today. Under debt guarantees and covenants, GE would have had to post additional collateral if the ratings fell below AA-.

- Gilead Sciences Inc.(GILD) agreed to buy CV Therapeutics Inc.(CVTX) for about $1.4 billion to gain chest-pain and heart drugs, topping a hostile offer from Japan’s Astellas Pharma Inc. Gilead, based in Foster City, California, will pay $20 a share for CV Therapeutics, of Palo Alto, California, the companies said today in a statement. The offer beats a $16-a- share bid from Astellas, which began a tender offer on Feb. 27 after rejections by the CV Therapeutics board.

- Wall Street employees’ base salaries may double as bonuses, which can account for the bulk of pay for bankers and traders, shrink, said Alan Johnson, who runs a compensation consulting firm. Base salaries have ranged from about $80,000 to $300,000, with bonuses often climbing into the millions of dollars, Johnson said. Now, he says employees who received $250,000 in base salary may get an increase to $500,000 or $600,000.

- Bernard Madoff was jailed after admitting he masterminded the largest Ponzi scheme in history, an epic swindle that may have reached $65 billion and made him the symbol of investor distrust in a global recession. Madoff, 70, entered his guilty plea in Manhattan federal court three months after confessing to relatives that his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was “one big lie.” U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ordered that Madoff, who has been free on $10 million bond, should be jailed while awaiting sentencing, scheduled for June 16. He faces as much as 150 years in prison.

- Russia’s ruble plunged the most in almost three weeks against the dollar as Russia’s largest privately owned bank forecast a 20 percent depreciation and the price of oil continued to decline. The currency slid as much as 1.2 percent to 35.3956 per dollar today, its biggest drop since Feb. 20. The ruble may decline as much as 20 percent this year against the target basket used to manage its fluctuations, as banks convert funds provided by the government into foreign currency, Moscow’s Alfa Bank said.

- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pushed Group of Seven officials to soften criticism of China last month, according to a person briefed on the matter, after his accusation that the nation was “manipulating” the yuan strained ties with the U.S.’s second-biggest trading partner.

- General Motors Corp.(GM), citing gains from stepped-up cost cutting, said it told President Barack Obama’s autos task force that the carmaker won’t need $2 billion of U.S. aid requested by month’s end to survive. “This development reflects the acceleration of GM’s companywide cost-reduction efforts as well as proactive deferrals of spending previously anticipated in January and February,” GM Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said in a statement, without providing new timing on its borrowing needs.

- Bernard Madoff has “killed the hedge fund” because investors will demand greater transparency on where their money goes, the head of the $60 billion Qatar Investment Authority said. “For the next three years it will be very difficult and literally the game will change,” the fund’s Executive Director Hussain Ali Al-Abdullah told the Wharton Business School Global Alumni Forum in Dubai today. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world’s biggest sovereign fund, had $400 million invested with Madoff at one point, the New York Times said in December.

- OAO Novolipetsk Steel Chairman Vladimir Lisin said demand in China may dip after a “small revival.” There are “positive dynamics” on export markets, while the Russian steel market is stagnant, Lisin told reporters in Moscow today.

- Palm oil futures may tumble as much as 23 percent this year because of lower energy prices and increasing vegetable oil supplies, according to analyst forecasts at an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur.

- Crude oil rose for the first time in three days before OPEC meets this weekend to consider a fourth production cut. Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said yesterday that OPEC is likely to reduce output again at its meeting.

Wall Street Journal:

- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is planning to re-evaluate how it grants so-called hedge exemptions to futures traders seeking to exceed speculative position limits. The decision to open the issue for discussion comes after months of criticism leveled against the agency by lawmakers and some policy experts who said the CFTC's lack of action to rein in excessive speculation propelled the record-high oil and ...

- Investors who hold billions of dollars of residential mortgage-backed securities are pressing the Obama administration to make changes in its housing rescue plan. Participation by these investors will help determine the success of President Barack Obama's $75 billion plan to reduce foreclosures and help stabilize the housing market. But many investors are critical of features of the program and have been meeting with Treasury officials in an effort to influence parts of the plan, such as how it treats second mortgages.
- And the 20 Richest Men in Finance Are…

MarketWatch:
- Legislators and regulators need to take action immediately to change controversial mark-to-market accounting rules, which require daily revaluing of assets such as mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said Thursday. "We must correct the rules to prevent gross distortions," said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Penn., chairman of the House Securities Subcommittee, at a hearing to discuss the regulations.

Boston Globe:

- Six months after the first CVS(CVS) MinuteClinics opened in the state, thousands of Massachusetts residents have visited the in-store clinics for treatment of sore throats, bronchitis, and the flu. With MinuteClinics opening at a rate of more than two a month in the state, company executives said they have taken off here faster than in the 24 other states where the company owns clinics. Nurse practitioners at the 16 Massachusetts clinics open so far have treated more than 10,000 patients with acute problems and given about 10,000 flu shots, the executives said.

Washington Post:

- With President Obama's plan to tax the rich to pay for health care facing deep skepticism on Capitol Hill, key lawmakers are pressing a different way to raise money: taxing the health benefits workers receive from their employers. So far, administration officials have been careful not to endorse the idea, which Obama blasted as a major tax increase last year after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made it the centerpiece of his presidential campaign's health plan. But the president hasn't slammed the door on it, either.

ESPN.com:

- During his campaign for Delaware Governor last fall Jack Markell often hinted that, if elected, he'd support sports betting in his state. Now that he's got the job, Markell is done hinting. ESPN The Magazine has learned that sometime next week, according to a statehouse source, Markell will introduce a proposal which, for the first time in more than 30 years, makes gambling on sports legal east of the Mississippi River.

AppleInsider:

- Apple(AAPL) is exploring the possibility of including a wireless "remote wand" with future versions of its Apple TV media system that would provide users with precise control over a cursor on the Apple TV screen in very much the same way a conventional mouse controls a cursor on a PC. It would also unlock three-dimensional controls similar to those offered by Nintendo's Wii controller.

Google Blog:

- Here comes Google(GOOG) voice. We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007.

Politico:

- President Barack Obama announced new steps Wednesday to rein in pork barrel spending by Congress, but his failure to specify real cuts could come back to haunt him in the larger fight over his ambitious budget plans this spring. “Nobody’s going to believe it’s real until they see an example,” Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said, urging Obama to follow up soon with specific rescissions singling out wasteful projects to be terminated. And the risk for the president is that he appears hemmed in by the old power structure in Congress just when he is trying to speak to a larger audience in the country about the challenges ahead.

CBSNews.com:

- President Obama said he would consider deploying National Guard troops to control violence along the US-Mexico border during an interview Wednesday. "I don't have a particular tipping point in mind," he continued. "I think it's unacceptable if you've got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens." The potential deployment comes amid reports that approximately 1,000 people have been killed along the contentious border in the first three months of 2009. Increased violence in northern Mexican towns has been attributed to battles that have broken out following Mexican President Felipe Calderon order of a crackdown on drug cartels.

Reuters:
- Bank of America Corp's (BAC) chief executive said on Thursday it would be a "nightmare" for U.S. banks to be nationalized, wiping out shareholders and perhaps bondholders, and further damaging an economy that might begin to recover as soon as this year. Speaking to the Chief Executive Officers Club of Boston, CEO Kenneth Lewis also said he is confident that Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank, will pass the government's pending "stress test," and would not need more government capital. Bank of America took $45 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), including some funds in a January bailout to help absorb debt-ravaged Merrill Lynch & Co.

- The U.S. Treasury sold $11 billion worth of 30-year long bonds on Thursday in an extraordinarily well received auction that calmed some worries over the government's massive borrowing spree. "It was great," Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income analysis at Action Economics LLC in San Francisco, said about the auction.

- Apple(AAPL) will hold an event next Tuesday to preview new software for the iPhone, the company said. Apple said in an email invitation on Thursday that it will provide a "sneak peek" at the iPhone 3.0 software, along with information about the new software kit that third-party vendors use to create applications for the device. The company will host the event at its corporate campus in Cupertino, California, on March 17.

Webstock.com:

- China’s copper output rose 11% to 606,000 metric tons in the first two months of 2009 from a year earlier, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Production was 320,000 tons in February.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
Large-cap Growth (+1.70%)

Sector Underperformers:
Steel (-2.52%), Coal (-.78%) and Software (-.68%)

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
SCHN, X, KALU, CLF, COP, NAFC, SINA, FSYS, PLL, JAS and KYE

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
1) STLD 2) TYC 3) SOHU 4) SINA 5) HMY