Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:

- Occidental Petroleum Corp.(OXY), the biggest oil producer in Texas, said its discovery of a natural- gas and oil field in California holding the equivalent of as much as 250 million barrels of crude may be the state’s biggest in 35 years. The field in Kern County is 80 percent-owned by Occidental, the Los Angeles-based company said today in a statement. The find has the potential to boost Occidental’s California reserves by 28 percent. Chevron Corp., the second-biggest U.S. oil company, owns the rest, Kurt Glaubitz, a spokesman for the San Ramon, California-based said in an e-mailed statement.

- VMware Inc.(VMW), the biggest maker of programs that let computers run multiple operating systems, posted second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates on services and maintenance sales. The shares rose in late trading. VMware, majority-owned by EMC Corp., rose as much as $3.53, or 11 percent, to $34.78 in late trading after closing at $31.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.

- Intercontinental Exchange Inc.(ICE), the firm that started clearing credit-default swaps trades between banks in March, plans to extend the service to the dealers’ clients in October amid regulator demands to curb market risks.

- For all the talk this year about the Chinese refusing to buy U.S. bonds, the real story is about the People’s Republic of China’s failure to find buyers for the equivalent of $1.7 billion of its debt because too many investors showed no interest at auctions that would be considered disastrous if their outcomes were repeated on Wall Street. Other Asian countries are having similar problems.

- Legg Mason Inc.’s(LM) Bill Miller said “the worst has passed” for the U.S stock market and that financial and technology companies will probably lead gains. “Bargains abound in the U.S. stock market,” Miller, 59, wrote in a letter to investors in his Legg Mason Value Trust fund. “Bull markets typically begin when the following four conditions are present: the economy is bottoming, profits are bottoming, the Fed is stimulating and valuations are low. That’s where we are now.”

- EBay Inc.(EBAY), owner of the most visited U.S. e-commerce Web site, reported profit and sales that beat analysts’ estimates, a sign that Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe’s turnaround effort is gaining traction.

- The Russian central bank should cut its benchmark rates by as much as 5 percentage points to spur lending to floundering industries, banking executives said.

- Treasuries rose, rebounding from yesterday’s decline, before the Federal Reserve buys bonds today as part of its plan to cap consumer borrowing costs. The central bank is scheduled to purchase Treasuries maturing from August 2026 to May 2039, according to its Web site, under a program to scoop up $300 billion of government securities over six months. The government is scheduled to announce today how much it will raise in four auctions next week

- The U.S. Senate called on President Barack Obama to consider returning North Korea to the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and imposing additional sanctions on the country. The chamber voted 66-31 today to approve a nonbinding resolution urging the administration to produce a report within 30 days examining whether North Korea is supporting terrorism, abetting the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and whether adding the country to the terrorism list would advance U.S. foreign policy goals. .

Wall Street Journal:

- Worldwide demand for phones using third-generation, or 3G, technology remains robust despite a broader decline in the handset market, according to Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Jacobs. The San Diego company is benefiting from increasing interest in more advanced phones and a continued willingness to upgrade devices despite a downturn in spending. Handset sales are expected to ramp up in the second half of the calendar year, according to Chief Financial Officer Bill Keitel. Jacobs noted that the transition to digital TV has freed up airwaves Qualcomm previously purchased, and has allowed the company to expand the reach of its Flo mobile TV service into new markets, and augment service in existing cities. The company said it expects operating expenses to grow at a slower rate than its revenue. On the emerging markets, Jacobs said the company is seeing strong demand out of China, which recently moved into 3G.

- Obama Needs a Move to the Middle.

- Four more former Merrill Lynch managing directors have joined the exodus at Bank of America, taking another team of bankers with them. James Boylan, a managing director in Merrill’s health-care investment-banking unit, recently left the firm and will become head of investment banking at Leerink Swann, a boutique investment bank in Boston that specializes in middle-market health-care deals. Joining Boylan are former Merrill managing directors Bryan Giraudo, Tony Gibney and Mark Page, each of whom had been with Merrill for several years working on pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical-device deals.

- Polls are turning against President Barack Obama’s health-care plan. The political calendar is, too. On Monday, the Washington Post/ABC poll reported that 49% of Americans approve of his handling of health care while 44% disapprove. What many people missed is that those who strongly disapprove of the president’s approach on health care now outnumber those who strongly approve by 33% to 25%. That presages further decline. Already, 49% of independents disapprove of the president’s approach, up from 30% in April, a staggering shift in 11 weeks.

- You’d think the owners of Zappos.com would want to take the cash and run. But that wasn’t entirely the case, according to a person familiar with the deal who spoke to Deal Journal. In fact, Zappos’ management insisted on receiving only Amazon stock to pay for their business, which has grown into the largest online shoe retailer. The management viewed Amazon’s(AMZN) shares as undervalued. So, apparently did Amazon, which initially insisted on paying only cash for the transaction. But Zappos won out, and it secured an all-stock transaction.

- Sellers of marijuana as a medicine here don't fret about raids any more. They've stopped stressing over where to hide their stash or how to move it unseen. Now their concerns involve the state Board of Equalization, which collects sales tax and requires a retailer ID number. Or city planning offices, which insist that staircases comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Then there is marketing strategy, which can mean paying to be a "featured dispensary" on a Web site for pot smokers. After years in the shadows, medical marijuana in California is aspiring to crack the commercial mainstream.

- It’s shaping up to be a grim year for the Spokane Public School district in Washington state. Like so many others, it is making deep cuts in everything from teaching staff to school supplies this coming school year. But there’s one bright spot for the district: The amount of federal dollars to incorporate technology in the classroom—and to train teachers to use it—is expected to double to about $160,000 from the previous year. At the same time school districts around the nation are bracing for a round of severe belt-tightening as a result of strained state and local budgets, they’re also getting a significant bump in federal funding to make their classrooms more tech-savvy, which they hope will help improve student performance.

MarketWatch.com:
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.(BMY) has signed a deal to buy biopharmaceutical firm Medarex Inc.(MEDX) for $16 a share in cash, resulting in an aggregate purchase price of about $2.4 billion, the two companies said in a statement late Wednesday. The price is almost double Medarex's Wednesday close.

- Sharp Corp. plans to launch its first mobile phone designed for advanced 3G wireless technology in China next month, with other models to follow there by the end of the current fiscal year, according to a report Thursday.

CNBC.com:
- Wells Fargo(WFC) stock took a hit Wednesday, as a surge in bad loans overshadowed record profit, sending its shares down 5.3 percent. But some of that pressure may be profit-taking by investors who were expecting a robust profit for the quarter, and going forward the bank's profitability remains “very strong,” Howard Atkins, the company’s chief financial officer told CNBC on Wednesday.

Business Week:
- Demand looks to be recovering for Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest provider of computer-networking equipment, according to two analysts.

Politico:

- President Barack Obama used a prime-time news conference Wednesday to urge Americans to get behind his flagging health care reform efforts in Congress, seeking to reassure an increasingly jittery public that the government can overhaul the system without jeopardizing the care most citizens currently receive. Obama endorsed a House committee's plan to fund part of the new program by imposing a surtax on families making over $1 million a year - but insisted he would not support any bill that helped fund the $1 trillion plan with a tax on middle-class families.

Rasmussen:

- Just 31% of likely voters now believe the United States is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Down one point over the past week, it’s the lowest level found on the question since mid-February. Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters say the country is moving down the wrong track, up a point from last week and the highest finding since the second week in February.

The Washington Post:

- Wall Street's biggest banks are setting aside billions of dollars more to pay their executives and other employees just months after these firms were rescued with a taxpayer bailout, renewing questions about compensation practices in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The recent outcry over bonuses at bailed-out firms prompted public alarm and promises of reform from financial leaders, who acknowledged that pay and bonuses should not reward risky short-term business decisions -- such as those that contributed to the meltdown -- but instead longer-term financial performance. But Wall Street, helped by improving profits, is on track to pay employees as much as, or even more than, it did in the pre-crisis days. So far this year, the top six U.S. banks have set aside $74 billion to pay their employees, up from $60 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Reuters:

- Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG) reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday that blew past Wall Street expectations, as instrument and accessories revenue jumped, sending its shares up more than 14 percent. The maker of the da Vinci robotic surgical system posted a net profit of $62.4 million, or $1.62 per share, compared with a profit of $51.2 million, or $1.28 per share, a year ago. That topped analysts' average expectations by a whopping 35 cents, according to Reuters Estimates, and pushed shares to $199.37 in extended trading from their Nasdaq close at $169.79. "The numbers look outstanding. The company performed dramatically better than expected in both revenues and earnings per share," said Leerink Swann analyst Rick Wise. "It clearly suggests that, despite extraordinary challenges, where hospital capital expenditures is under pressure, Intuitive Surgical continues to do amazingly," said Wise, who added the 76 da Vinci systems sold in the quarter topped his estimate of 68 and the previous quarter's 66. "The results far exceed Street expectation," said Canaccord Adams analyst Jason Mills, who had been looking for 57 da Vinci systems sold in the quarter. "They are bucking the trend here, so it's quite amazing," he added. Total revenue rose nearly 19 percent from a year ago to $260.6 million and was up 38 percent from the first quarter. Wall Street was estimating revenue of $230 million. Instrument and accessories revenue rose to $95.8 million from $73.6 million, driven by 52 percent growth in da Vinci surgical procedures. The company raised its 2009 procedure growth estimate to 45 percent from its previous forecast of 40 percent growth. It still sees 35 percent growth in service revenue for the year. "I consider our ability to continue positive growth during the worst worldwide recession in recent memory to be a significant accomplishment," Chief Executive Lonnie Smith told analysts and investors on a conference call.

- Network-equipment maker F5 Networks Inc (FFIV) posted a quarterly profit that beat market estimates, partly helped by lower expenses and improved margins, and forecast better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Shares of the Seattle-based company, which have risen 69 percent in last six months, were trading up 3 percent at $37.00 in trading after the bell.

- Semiconductor equipment maker Cymer Inc (CYMI) posted a surprise quarterly profit, helped by a 36 percent fall in operating expenses, and forecast third-quarter revenue above Street expectations, sending its shares up 7 percent.

- Nigeria has proposed that its 2010 budget be based on an oil price of $50 per barrel and oil output of 4 million barrels per day, the oil minister said on Wednesday.

- Leading U.S. business groups warned Congress Wednesday it could start a "green trade war" by passing a climate change bill that threatens other countries with tariffs on energy-intensive goods. "We urge the Senate to refrain from including provisions that could negatively impact U.S. relations with key trading partners and disrupt the global trading systems," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council and two other groups said in a letter to Senate leaders.

Financial Times:

- An advocacy group on Wednesday launched a campaign to derail the nomination of a Goldman Sachs(GS) executive to a high position in the US state department because of his past role in raising public funds for a Chinese company linked to Sudan. Public Accountability Initiative, a not-for-profit organisation, said Robert Hormats, whom Barack Obama nominated this week as undersecretary of state for economic affairs, had made misleading comments about the 2000 listing for PetroChina, the Chinese energy group whose parent, CNPC, has been present in Sudan since 1996. “Hormats’s role in the PetroChina deal raises serious questions about his fitness to serve in a post that will give him substantial influence over international economic policy and US-China relations,” it added. The PetroChina IPO came before the killings in Darfur reached the scale that led the Bush administration to label them as genocide, but Sudan was already on the US terrorist list. Since PetroChina’s public offering, several high profile investors have sold stakes in response to public pressure. Issues surrounding Mr Hormats’ role in the PetroChina offering also come at a time of growing suspicion about Goldman Sachs’ influence of in Washington.

South China Morning Post:

- China's industrial production is recovering, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday, but the sector is plagued by "illegal construction", blind expansion and rising losses, especially in the iron, cement and shipbuilding industries.

- Shanghai, normally the mainland's economic locomotive, posted its slowest growth for the first half of a year since 1992 as it bore the brunt of the global recession and languished behind the national recovery.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:

- Reiterated Buy on (QCOM), target $58.

- Reiterated Buy on (STI), target $22..

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.25% to +1.50% on average.

Asia Ex-Japan Inv Grade CDS Index +.98%.
S&P 500 futures +.43%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.32%.

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Today in IBD
In Play
Bond Ticker
Economic Preview/Calendar
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Conference Calendar

Who’s Speaking?
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Rasmussen Business/Economy Polling

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (OMC)/.74

- (MCD)/.97

- (MAN)/.10

- (HOT)/.17

- (LLL)/1.78

- (ESI)/1.72

- (ALXN)/.16

- (ESV)/1.46

- (TIN)/.11

- (CME)/3.23

- (NCR)/.07

- (NEM).47

- (RTN)/1.13

- (WYE)/.85

- (F)/-.49

- (PM)/.77

- ZMH)/.96

- (UPS)/.48

- (R)/.38

- (T)/.51

- (EMC)/.16

- (UNP)/.75

- (BNI)/.99

- (COF)/-.65

- (NFLX)/.50

- (CAKE)/.25

- (KLAC)/-.14

- (MSFT)/.36

- (BRCM)/.14

- CB)/1.29

- (AXP)/.20

- (JNPR)/.18

- (MMM)/.94

- (TRA)/.99

- (NOC)/1.29

- (AMZN)/.33

- (HSY)/.35

- (NUE)/-.59

- (CELG)/.45

- (CA)/.38

- (WFR)/.00

- (DO)/2.64

- (KMB)/1.02

- (OXY)/.78

- (DECK)/.09

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 557K versus 522K the prior week.

- Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 6390K versus 6273K prior.

10:00 am EST

- Existing Home Sales for June are estimated to rise to 4.84M versus 4.77M prior.

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed’s Tarullo testifying on systemic risk before the Senate, Fed board meeting on home loan rules and the EIA natural gas inventory report could also impact trading today.

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

Stocks Finish Slightly Higher, Boosted by Homebuilding, Education, Gaming, Restaurant, Financial and Semi Shares

Evening Review
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GuruFocus.com
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In Play

Stocks Slightly Higher into Final Hour on Less Economic Fear, Diminishing Homebuilder Pessimism, Short-Covering

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is higher into the final hour on gains in my Medical longs, Technology longs, Financial longs and Commodity shorts. I have not traded today, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market is mildly positive as the advance/decline line is higher, most sectors are rising and volume is about average. Investor anxiety is very high. Today’s overall market action is bullish. The VIX is falling 1.80% and is high at 23.44. The ISE Sentiment Index is below average at 114.0 and the total put/call is above average at 1.0. Finally, the NYSE Arms has been running around average most of the day, hitting 1.78 at its intraday peak, and is currently .90. The Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index is dropping another 4.4% today to 87.33 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 1.53% to 123.94 basis points. This index is also well below its Dec. 5^th record high of 285.99. The TED spread is falling .07% to 32 basis points. The TED spread is now down 434 basis points since its all-time high of 463 basis points on October 10th. The 2-year swap spread is falling .15% to 42.94 basis points. The Libor-OIS spread is rising .24% to 31 basis points. The 10-year TIPS spread, a good gauge of inflation expectations, is rising 2 basis points to 1.81%, which is down 83 basis points since July 7th. The 3-month T-Bill is yielding .18%, which is unch. today. Today appears to be another healthy consolidation day after recent outsized market gains. The Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index is continuing its recent plunge, which remains a big positive. As well, the US sovereign debt credit default swap index is dropping another 5.6% to the lowest level since early May. Despite negative news from (WFC), (BK) and (MS), (XLF) is holding up very well, which bodes well for further gains. Small-cap and cyclical shares are outperforming again today with the transportation stocks rising another .9%. Moreover, Semi, Education, Gaming, Restaurant, Homebuilding and Disk Drive stocks are all posting meaningful gains. Finally, investor angst has been relatively high all day with the total put/call opening at a very high 1.32 this morning, which is a big positive and bodes well for further near-term gains. Nikkei futures indicate an +83 open in Japan and DAX futures indicate a -12 open in Germany tomorrow. I expect US stocks to trade mixed-to-higher into the close from current levels on short-covering, investment manager performance anxiety, less economic fear and earnings optimism.

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

- U.S. home prices had the smallest annual drop in 10 months, signaling the free fall of property values is abating in the three-year housing slump at the center of a global recession. Prices declined 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier and rose 0.9 from April, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said today. Economists expected a 0.2 percent drop for the month, according to the median of 16 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. “We saw a rebound of home prices in some parts of the country in part because the share of distressed sales dipped,” said Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist who’s an independent consultant in Leesburg, Virginia.

- The Treasury Department would get final authority over the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market under legislation that a group of House Democrats plans to introduce. The Derivatives Trading Accountability and Disclosure Act would create an Office of Derivative Supervision within the U.S. Treasury, with the power to set rules for traders, according to a copy of the bill. The New Democrat Coalition, a group of 69 lawmakers that describes itself as moderate and pro-growth, is pushing the legislation.

- Farmers are right to be concerned that proposed legislation aimed at reversing climate change may raise their costs and make U.S. exports less competitive, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said. “With good reason, we hear a lot of concern expressed about projected costs to consumers, farmers, ranchers and other businesses from proposed energy and global-warming legislation,” Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said today at a hearing in Washington on the role of agriculture in climate legislation. The Farm Bureau’s president, Robert Stallman, called quick action on a bill the “height of folly” and said it will cut farm income by $5 billion a year.

- Corn fell to a seven-month low as cool, wet weather boosts yields in the U.S., the world’s biggest producer and exporter. Parts of the Midwest will get as much as 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters) of rain in the next five days, ending two weeks of below-normal moisture, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures may average as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit below normal through July 29, the service forecast. Crop conditions are the best in five years, the government said.

- Vietnam’s dong slumped to a record low on speculation some companies are holding onto the U.S. currency because of concern inflation will quicken. “It’s a very worrying situation when people are turning their back on the dong and trying to keep their money in other assets,” said Phan Thi Chinh, Hanoi-based deputy chief executive officer of Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam, the second-biggest lender. “It will get worse unless the central bank takes some very strong measures.”

- Mortgage bonds guaranteed by US agency Ginnie Mae will probably swell to $1 trillion by the end of 2010 because borrowers with low down payments or credit scores can only qualify for government-insured loans, Bank of America Corp. analysts said. The Federal Housing Administration, which insures loans with down payments as low as 3.5% and has no credit-score requirements, is “the only source of funding for these leveraged borrowers,” Ankur Mehta and Ohmsatya Ravi, the NY-based analysts, wrote. Debt explicitly backed by the US through Ginnie Mae, formally known as the Government National Mortgage Association, climbed to $680 billion as of June 30 from $360 billion two years earlier.

- Crude oil fell for the first time in six days after a U.S. government report showed a smaller-than- forecast decline in inventories. Inventories along the Gulf Coast, home to the bulk of U.S. crude processors, rose 1.63 million barrels to 180.9 million, the first gain in seven weeks. Gasoline supplies climbed 813,000 barrels to 215.4 million last week, the sixth-straight gain, according to the report. Stockpiles of distillate fuel rose 1.22 million barrels to 160.5 million, the highest since January 1985.

- The S&P 500 may rally as much as 9% by August after the benchmark measure for US equities closed above 950 yesterday, according to technical analysts at UBS AG. “It’s just a matter of time before we see a new high,” Zurich-based Michael Riesner and Marc Muller wrote.

- The Federal Reserve is “embroiled” in politics and has “stretched beyond reason” its authority to make loans, said William Poole, who served as president of the St. Louis Fed from 1998 to 2008. “ I don’t think independent can mean the Fed can do whatever it wants under any circumstance,” Poole, a senior economic adviser to Palo Alto, California-based Merk Investments LLC, said in an interview today on Bloomberg Radio. “The Fed has chosen to make loans to certain firms and not others.”

- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke deserves a second term because of his actions to stabilize the economy over the past year, said Democratic Senator Jack Reed, a Banking Committee member.

- Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ONXX) rose the most in more than two years after a study showed its only product Nexavar, a liver cancer drug developed by the company and Bayer AG, showed promise in fighting breast tumors. Onyx rose $7.02, or 24 percent, to $35.71 at 1:04 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS) agreed to the U.S. Treasury’s request for $1.1 billion to redeem warrants the government received when it invested in the firm, which reported record second-quarter profit last week.

Wall Street Journal:

- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that she expects the House will vote on health-care legislation next week, despite continued dissension among conservative Democrats on the measure.

- Bankrate Inc.(RATE) agreed to be taken private by private-equity firm Apax Partners for $571 million, while the company also projected second-quarter and 2009 results below analysts' expectations.

MarketWatch:
- Home-builder shares rallied early Wednesday after NVR Inc.(NVR) said its second-quarter profit fell from the year-ago period but handily topped Wall Street's consensus expectations. The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index Fund(ITB) , a sector exchange-traded fund, was up 3%.

- Key technical resistance levels seem to be falling one after the other, cementing investors' expectations that the market is in bullish mode, even as the summer doldrums keep enthusiasm for fresh buying on hold, analysts said. "We've already taken out some key resistance levels" that have paved the way for the S&P 500 to new highs for the year, said Peter Cardillo, market economist at Avalon Partners.

- Mortgage applications rose a seasonally adjusted 2.8% last week from the prior week, overcoming higher interest rates charged on fixed-rate home loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's survey released Wednesday.

The Detroit News:

- The House overwhelmingly approved a $150 million program to research natural-gas powered vehicles. By a vote of 393-35, the House passed the bill that authorizes the Energy Department to conduct a five-year program of natural gas vehicle research, development and demonstration, authorizing $30 million annually starting in the 2010 budget year.

Detroit Free Press:

- Delphi Corp. could dump its pension for U.S. hourly workers on the federal government, the Troy-based supplier, saying it must shed its pension obligations to emerge from bankruptcy, said late Tuesday.

LA Times:

- Rental car companies, once reliable customers of the Big Three, are buying more imports than domestic models.

SeekingAlpha:

- Why Leveraged and Derivatives-Based ETFs Are Dangerous.

Forbes:

- Iraq's oil minister has met representatives of a British Petroleum-led consortium to discuss plans to develop a prized southern oil field. BP(BP) and Chinese consortium partner CNPC walked away from an international oil auction on June 30 with development rights for the 17.8 billion barrel Rumaila field. Their win came after they agreed to take less money for the oil then they had first asked for. According to the ministry, the field's development plan should be submitted in July and the final contract should be signed in August. Last month's auction was Iraq's first international oil licensing round in over three decades.

- The Michigan Democratic Party is considering asking voters to raise the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour. The minimum wage currently is $7.40 an hour.

Rassmussen:

- The health care reform legislation working its way through Congress has lost support over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of U.S. voters are at least somewhat in favor of the reform effort while 53% are at least somewhat opposed. Today’s 44% level of support is down from 46% two weeks ago, and 50% in late June. Opposition has grown from 45% in late June to 49% two weeks ago and 53% today.

- The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 29% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-five percent (35%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -6 (see trends).

Politico:

- A coalition of anti-abortion groups is set to open a new front against Democrats’ efforts to restructure American health care, claiming the plans open a back door to publicly financed abortions. The groups, which are launching a broad campaign on the issue this week, claim that existing health care proposals constitute a stealth “abortion mandate” that will spend taxpayer money on abortions and require insurance companies to cover abortions.

EETimes:

- Despite ongoing supply bottlenecks, vendors for large LCD panels still sell below manufacturers costs, reckons iSuppli. However, the market researcher expects an impressive recovery during the second half of the current year. The market for LCD panels with a diagonal dimension of 25cm and more has shrunk over nine consecutive months. In the second quarter, the trend reversed: Sales climbed 41.4 percent over the first quarter. Already during the first quarter, low inventories and significantly reduced production rates caused tight support.

SiliconValleyBusinessJournal:

- Reports on Tuesday indicated that Apple Inc.(AAPL) and Verizon Wireless(VZ) may team up on a non-cellphone device - perhaps the tablet that the computer company has been rumored to be developing. TheStreet.com reported that Verizon would subsidize the cost of Apple's version of the stripped-down computers that other companies have been offering for around $300. Meanwhile, UBS Securities analyst Maynard Um suggested in a note on Tuesday that Apple and Verizon could introduce a non-cellphone device this year.

Reuters:
- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday fought hard to protect the independence of the U.S. central bank and keep responsibility for consumer protection on financial products in its hands. In a second day of testimony on the Fed's semiannual monetary policy report, Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that the U.S. central bank wants to shield monetary policy from political interference, but understands the need to be accountable to taxpayers.

- Three of the world's biggest drugmakers posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday and gave bullish forecasts for the rest of the year, demonstrating the industry's resilience in the weak economy.

- Fortress Investment Group (FIG), which on Sunday named Daniel Mudd as its new chief executive, will pay the former Fannie Mae chief a $1.9 million bonus for the final four-and-a-half months of this year. Mudd, pushed out when the U.S. government nationalized nearly all of Fannie Mae last year, was named CEO to allow Wesley Edens and other top officers to focus more on their hedge fund and private equity investments.

ChinaDaily:

- Controversial Internet filter Green Dam will be included with some PC packages sold in China, despite a decision to delay the software's launch. "The Green Dam porn filter will be included in all PCs participating in our August promotion, which targets students and their parents," said Wu Shaodong, an Acer sales representative in Beijing.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
Large-cap Growth (-.07%)

Sector Underperformers:
Coal (-2.20%), Oil Service (-1.26%) and Hospitals (-1.09%)

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
CFR, QLGC, POR, PVA, NBR, ICLR, PPDI, GENZ, FUQI, ALGT, STJ, TNB, NCI, ATI, YPF, CVD and CRL

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
1) GENZ 2) UPL 3) ATI 4) SBUX 5) NE

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
Small-cap Growth (+.69%)

Sector Outperformers:
Homebuilders (+3.63%), Restaurants (+2.59%) and Semis (+1.70%)

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
ATHR, LLTC, SNP, PFE, TI, AAPL, AMX, WYE, USB, NXY, PAA, ONXX, SBUX, SPAR, GNTX, CHIC, SHPGY, WINN, ILMN, OSTK, LULU, LLTC, ADSK, CYOU, STX, MKSI, CHRW, AAPL, DMND, PWRD, CSL, OFG and PTV

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
1) JNPR 2) SBUX 3) GENZ 4) BBY 5) ATHR