Market Week in Review

S&P 500 1,404.17 +2.43%*



The Weekly Wrap by Briefing.com.

*5-Day Change

Weekly Scoreboard*

Indices

• S&P 500 1,404.17 +2.43%
  
• DJIA 13,232.60 +2.40%
  
• NASDAQ 3,055.26 +2.24%
  
• Russell 2000 830.18 +1.61%
  
• Wilshire 5000 14,598.30 +2.27%
  
• Russell 1000 Growth 659.86 +2.20%
  
• Russell 1000 Value 692.28 +2.47%
  
• Morgan Stanley Consumer 794.94 +1.57%
  
• Morgan Stanley Cyclical 1,040.69 +3.19%
• Morgan Stanley Technology 704.24 +2.44%
  
• Transports 5,351.32 +3.67%
  
• Utilities 453.60 -.30%
  
• MSCI Emerging Markets 43.92 +.50%
  
• Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias Index 1,031.77 +2.30%
  
• Lyxor L/S Equity Variable Bias Index 831.61 +1.21%
  
• Lyxor L/S Equity Short Bias Index 538.94 unch.
  

Sentiment/Internals

• NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 145,772 +.21%
  
• Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index 233 +98
  
• Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 34.0 -5.6%
  
• CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 243,174 +2.63%
  
• CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,579,060 -.37%
  
• Total Put/Call .76 -15.56%
  
• OEX Put/Call .69 -56.33%
  
• ISE Sentiment 151.0 +62.37%
  
• NYSE Arms .67 -41.74%
  
• Volatility(VIX) 14.47 -15.43%
• S&P 500 Implied Correlation 68.34 -.94%
  
• G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 10.12 -2.22%
  
• Smart Money Flow Index 11,095.25 +2.35%
  
• Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.637 Trillion -.30%
  
• AAII % Bulls 45.61 +7.62%
  
• AAII % Bears 27.20 -6.21%

Futures Spot Prices

• CRB Index 317.93 +.10%
  
• Crude Oil 107.06 -.33%
  
• Reformulated Gasoline 335.69 +.54%
  
• Natural Gas 2.33 +.56%
  
• Heating Oil 328.19 +.41%
  
• Gold 1,655.80 -3.38%
  
• Bloomberg Base Metals Index 227.59 +2.65%
  
• Copper 387.80 +.61%
  
• US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 403.33 USD/Ton unch.
  
• China Iron Ore Spot 144.70 USD/Ton +1.47%
  
• Lumber 272.20 -.26%
  
• UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,563.05 +2.65%
  

Economy

• ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate -1.40% +120 basis points
• Philly Fed ADS Real-Time Business Conditions Index -.0132 +.01
  
• S&P 500 Blended Forward 12 Months Mean EPS Estimate 107.95 +.10%
  
• Citi US Economic Surprise Index 33.10 -5.9 points
  
• Fed Fund Futures imply 52.0% chance of no change, 48.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 4/25
  
• US Dollar Index 79.79 -.22%
  
• Yield Curve 193.0 +22 basis points
  
• 10-Year US Treasury Yield 2.29% +26 basis points
  
• Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $2.876 Trillion +.31%
  
• U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 32.66 -4.10%
  
• Illinois Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 216.0 -5.26%
  
• Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 224.84 -36.17%(Greece taken out)
  
• Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 204.17 -6.77%
  
• Saudi Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 119.95 -8.02%
• Iraqi 2028 Government Bonds 82.16 +.65%
• China Blended Corporate Spread Index 586.0 -13 basis points
  
• 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.41% +12 basis points
  
• TED Spread 39.25 +.25 basis point
  
• 3-Month Euribor/OIS Spread 49.50 -5.25 basis points
  
• 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -60.0 +5.75 basis points
  
• N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 89.07 -6.11%
  
• Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 144.39 -12.89%
  
• Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 221.79 -7.21%
  
• CMBS Super Senior AAA 10-Year Treasury Spread 159.0 -3 basis points
  
• M1 Money Supply $2.218 Trillion unch.
  
• Commercial Paper Outstanding 936.80 +1.20%
  
• 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 355,800 +.10%
  
• Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 2.6% -10 basis points
  
• Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 3.92% +4 basis points
  
• Weekly Mortgage Applications 736.50 -2.37%
  
• Bloomberg Consumer Comfort -33.7 +3.0 points
  
• Weekly Retail Sales +3.10% +10 basis points
  
• Nationwide Gas $3.83/gallon +.07/gallon
  
• U.S. Heating Demand Next 7 Days 63.0% below normal
• Baltic Dry Index 866.0 +6.65%
  
• Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 37.50 +7.14%
  
• Rail Freight Carloads 226,039 -.54%
  

Best Performing Style

• Large-Cap Value +2.47%
  

Worst Performing Style

• Small-Cap Growth +1.21%

Leading Sectors

• Banks +8.79%
  
• I-Banks +5.42%
• Steel +5.30%
• Road & Rail +5.0%
• Alt Energy +4.50%

Lagging Sectors

• Telecom -.05%
• Utilities -.30%
  
• Disk Drives -.33%
• Computer Hardware -.40%
• Gold & Silver -5.09%

Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (18)

• PCBC, FXCM, ZOLL, QSFT, FRAN, ARGN, SCHL, SLCA, BTH, ITMN, MCP, ADES, MIDD, SUP, EVR, ASCA, XPO and SLXP
  

Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (3)

• GES, MTGE and MAPP
  

Weekly Charts
ETFs

• High-Volume Gainers
• High-Volume Losers

Stocks

• High-Volume Gainers
• High-Volume Losers
  

*5-Day Change

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg

• Spain Debt Reaches Record as Rajoy Becomes Crisis Focus: Economy. Spain’s public-debt burden surged to the most in at least two decades, underlining concerns about its ability to reorder state finances as contagion from the debt crisis focuses on the euro area’s fourth-biggest economy. The nation’s overall debt last year amounted to 68.5 percent of gross domestic product, exceeding the government’s forecast of 67.3 percent, data on the Bank of Spain’s website showed today. That compares with 66 percent in the third quarter and 61.2 percent at the end of 2010. “Spain seems to be the main risk in the near future for Europe,” Stephane Deo, chief European economist at UBS AG, wrote in a note today. “There are enormous challenges ahead, including the debt-recession spiral in Portugal and Spain.” The increase in Spanish debt was driven by the nation’s 17 semi-autonomous regional governments, whose borrowings swelled 17 percent from a year earlier as they overshot their budget- deficit goals.
• Chinese Companies Forced to Falsify Data, Government Says. China’s statistics bureau said local officials forced some hotels, coal miners and aluminum makers to report false numbers, highlighting flaws in data tracking the world’s second-largest economy. Statistics officials in Hejin city in northern Shanxi province gave companies “seriously untrue” numbers to submit for 2011, the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website dated March 12. Discrepancies between national and local numbers for gross domestic product indicate the task that remains for officials seeking to bolster confidence in the statistics system. So far, steps have included crackdowns on leaks of market-moving numbers and direct online reporting of data by companies to limit opportunities for provincial officials to massage the numbers. “The national bureau is demonstrating its resolve in improving the nation’s data accuracy but it has a long way to go,” said Lu Ting, a Hong Kong-based economist at Bank of America Corp. In general, national-level data from the bureau is “more trustworthy” while local numbers “need a closer look.” The bureau urged regions, departments and individuals to learn a lesson from the Hejin case, without commenting on the frequency of such incidents. It also urged statistics officials to not violate laws and regulations.
• Italy Said to Pay Morgan Stanley(MS) $3.4 Billion. When Morgan Stanley (MS) said in January it had cut its “net exposure” to Italy by $3.4 billion, it didn’t tell investors that the nation paid that entire amount to the bank to exit a bet on interest rates. Italy, the second-most indebted nation in the European Union, paid the money to unwind derivative contracts from the 1990s that had backfired, said a person with direct knowledge of the Treasury’s payment. It was cheaper for Italy to cancel the transactions rather than to renew, said the person, who declined to be identified because the terms were private.
• Crude Futures Advance. Crude for April delivery rose $1.13, or 1.1 percent, to $106.24 a barrel at 12:49 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 7.5 percent this year and down 1.1 percent this week. Brent oil for May settlement increased $2.34, or 1.9 percent, to $124.94 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
• Consumer Sentiment in U.S. Drops on Gasoline Prices: Economy. Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in March as this year’s 17 percent jump in gasoline prices threatens to squeeze household budgets. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment fell to 74.3, the lowest this year, from 75.3 the prior month. The gauge was projected to rise to 76, according to the median forecast of 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. A government report today showed that consumer prices rose in February by the most in 10 months, with gasoline accounting for 80 percent of the increase.
• Consumer Prices in U.S. Rose in February as Gasoline Jumped. The cost of living in the U.S. rose in February by the most in 10 months, reflecting a jump in gasoline that failed to spread to other goods and services. The consumer-price index climbed 0.4 percent, matching the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, after increasing 0.2 percent the prior month, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The so-called core measure, which excludes more volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.1 percent, less than projected.
• U.S. Industrial Production Was Little Changed in February. Industrial production in the U.S. was little changed in February, restrained by a slowdown in manufacturing and a decline in natural gas extraction. The output last month at factories, mines and utilities compared with a median projection for a 0.4 percent gain in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Production in January was revised to a 0.4 percent increase, initially reported as no change, data from the Federal Reserve showed today in Washington. Manufacturing (IPMGCHNG), which makes up about 75 percent of total output, rose at the slowest pace in three months.

Wall Street Journal:

• Goldman(GS) Reviewing Conflicts Policies for M&A Bankers. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is considering strengthening internal rules on disclosure to clients of bankers' financial holdings, after being criticized in a recent court opinion because of a deal maker's potential conflict of interest in a large transaction. Goldman's review—and similar initiatives by some of its rivals—could provide companies with greater transparency on the financial interests of the bankers they hire to advise on deals. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Goldman said it was reviewing its "policies and procedures with the goal of strengthening them."
• Europe Can't Swap Its Banking Problem. It's the pattern investors have grown used to since the rolling financial crisis began in 2008. The market zeroes in on a point of weakness, policy makers finally apply a band aid, financial apocalypse is averted and the bears retreat before moving on to the next target.
• Apple's(AAPL) New iPad Goes on Sale Today. Shoppers began purchasing Apple Inc.'s third-generation iPad on Friday, as the technology giant tries to widen its lead in the fast-growing tablet market. Crowds showed up at Apple retail stores around the world. The tablet computer, priced starting at $499 in the U.S., has a higher-resolution screen and faster networking capabilities than its predecessor, which has dominated the market to date.

CNBC.com:

• Fed's Lacker: Rate Hike Likely Needed in 2013. A top U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Friday that he dissented against the central bank's decision this week to hold interest rates near zero until at least late 2014 because he thought rates would need to rise some time next year.
• Why Fed's Easy Money Policy Is 'Straining Credulity'. The Federal Reserve's promises to keep its monetary policy loose may be upended by higher oil prices, which threaten to push U.S. inflation to unsustainable levels, analysts said.

Business Insider:

• The Navy is Sending Everything It Needs For a War With Iran to the Strait of Hormuz.
• You Have to Read This Explosive Letter About a Coverup at the Congressional Budget Office.
• There's a Brewing Battle Over A Mysterious Government Bank That Does Nothing But Subsidize Huge Corporations.
• Everyone is Passing Around This 'Whistleblower' Letter Claiming to Know About Market Manipulation at JPMorgan(JPM).
• iPad Lines Around The World.
  

Zero Hedge:

• India Doubles Customs Duty on Gold Bullion, Central Banks Buy On Dip.
• The Fool's Game: Unraveling Europe's Epic Ponzi Pyramid of Lies.
• Remember Fukushima: Presenting The Radioactive Seawater Impact Map. (pic)
  

Washington Post:

• Obama's Oil Flimflam. Yes, of course, presidents have no direct control over gas prices. But the American people know something about this president and his disdain for oil. The “fuel of the past,” he contemptuously calls it. To the American worker who doesn’t commute by government motorcade and is getting fleeced every week at the pump, oil seems very much a fuel of the present — and of the foreseeable future. President Obama incessantly claims energy open-mindedness, insisting that his policy is “all of the above.” Except, of course, for drilling:

24/7 Wall St:

• The 10 Largest US Hedge Funds.

Gallup:

• Gallup Daily, Obama Job Approval: Approve 44%, Disapprove 50%. (graph)
  

Rasmussen Reports:

• National Poll: Romney 37%, Santorum 28%, Gingrich 17%, Paul 10%.
  

Reuters:

• Brazil Job Creation Plummets on Abrupt Slowdown. Payroll job growth in Brazil's economy plummeted in February from a year earlier, as a broad economic slowdown forced employers to slow hiring. Manufacturers, farmers and retailers added a net 150,600 payroll jobs in February, down 57 percent from a year earlier, the Labor Ministry said on Friday.

USA Today:

• Senators to Obama: Disclose Patriot Act Powers. Two senators -- two Democratic senators -- are asking the Obama administration to disclose surveillance powers under the Patriot Act, saying citizens would be "stunned" to learn what the government says it can do. "As we see it, there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows," said a letter to the Justice Department by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mark Udall, D-Colo. Addressing Attorney General Eric Holder, Wyden and Udall wrote, "This is a problem, because it is impossible to have an informed public debate about what the law should say when the public doesn't know what its government thinks the law says."

Telegraph:

• Do Eurozone Voters Really Want a 'United States of Europe'? A new, interesting YouGov-Cambridge poll out this week, looking at European attitudes amongst citizens in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Scandinavia is a case in point. As expected, a full 40% of Brits want a “looser” relationship with Europe. Another 13% want no more integration while 20% want to withdraw altogether. These attitudes span the political divide.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:

• Mid-Cap Value -.22%

Sector Underperformers:

• 1) Airlines -1.99% 2) Homebuilders -1.45% 3) Retail -.98%

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:

• APU, RP, SKYW, OGXI, NTCT, ADTN, GTY, LMNX, TEI and RKT
  

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:

• 1) AMRN 2) HYG 3) RSX 4) ELN 5) ARIA
  

Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:

• 1) BWLD 2) ADTN 3) FSLR 4) FLIR 5) WAG
  

Charts:

• ETFs Falling on Unusual Volume
• Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume
  

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:

• Mid-Cap Value -.20%

Sector Outperformers:

• 1) Oil Tankers +4.60% 2) Coal +2.5% 3) Oil Service +1.90%

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:

• ATLS, KOS, PACD, UPL, PWRD, IMOS, JVA, HSTM, ADSK, RIMM, NXTM, EBAY, ARP, ATE, NAT, DOLE, OSG, CHMT, MOS, NOV, UIS, ANR and BTU
  

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:

• 1) FRO 2) GNW 3) BBY 4) ELX 5) AFL
  

Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:

• 1) RIG 2) STT 3) APKT 4) UTX 5) MS
  

Charts:

• ETFs Rising on Unusual Volume
• Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume
  

Friday Watch

Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:

• Stress Tests Pass Fed's Flim-Flam Standard: Jonathan Weil. The most important thing to understand about the Federal Reserve’s latest stress tests is what they were not intended to do. Their purpose wasn’t to test whether the nation’s biggest banks could survive a financial blowup like that of 2008 without government assistance. Rather, the Fed designed its tests to measure the effects a hypothetical crisis would have on banks’ regulatory capital. Capital is the financial cushion a company has available to absorb future losses. While the Fed would like for us to believe that regulatory capital is the same thing, it’s quite different. And too often it bears little resemblance to reality. That’s why the results of the Fed’s “comprehensive capital analysis” are more about public relations and manufacturing confidence than they are about disseminating reliable information on banks’ health. Citigroup Inc. (C) was deemed well capitalized under the government’s methodology when it got bailed out in 2008. So was CIT Group Inc. when it filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Just because some banks flunked doesn’t mean the test was credible. Quite the contrary, to buy into the Fed’s conclusions, you would have to accept the theory that market values for many types of financial instruments don’t matter in a crisis. This would be foolhardy.
  
• Securitization Risk Rising as Standards Ease, Moody's Says. The riskiness of new securities backed by assets from car loans to commercial mortgages is rising from the lows seen after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s 2008 collapse, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Easing underwriting standards and “untested” issuers and assets are contributing to the trend, along with structural features of transactions that can boost risk, the New York-based ratings firm said today in a report. Greater dangers are likely to follow, analysts Claire Robinson and Joseph Snailer wrote. Shoddy securitizations helped fuel a lending bubble last decade that sparked the worst U.S. housing slump and global financial crisis since the 1930s. Moody’s and competitor Standard & Poor’s drew criticism after awarding top grades to risky mortgage debt that later experienced record defaults, with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission created by lawmakers calling them “key enablers of the financial meltdown.”
• How Credit-Default Swaps Worked, and Can Still Improve.
• Unions Send Doctor Bills to Taxpayers: Steven Greenhut. The U.S. public pension mess, with its $2 trillion to $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities, is such a volcano of gloom that it takes a potentially bigger problem to turn our eyes away from it. Turn your attention instead to the size of the taxpayer- backed health-care obligations for public employees. “Frankly, if you want to look at a truly scary set of unfunded liabilities, health care for retirees is a better choice than pensions,” said California Treasurer Bill Lockyer in an October speech meant to play down the pension crisis. Not that Lockyer or his Democratic and union allies want to reduce any benefits that are at the heart of the problem. In their view, the real scourge is “pension envy” or perhaps “health-care envy” -- the failure of the private sector to keep up with government-benefit levels.
• Nomura Debt Rating Cut by Moody's to Lowest Investment Grade. Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604)’s debt rating was cut to the lowest investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service, which said global competition raises questions over the profitability of Japan’s biggest securities firm. The one-step reduction brings Nomura’s long-term debt rating to Baa3, one level above junk. Moody’s has a “stable” outlook on the rating, it said in a statement.
• China Corporate Espionage Boom Knocks Wind Out of U.S. Companies.
  

Wall Street Journal:

• NY Fed: ECB, BoJ Tap $1.708B From Dollar Swap Facility In 3/14 Week.
• CFTC Targets Rapid Trades. A top U.S. regulator said his agency plans to widen day-to-day monitoring of the commodities and futures markets, targeting the high-speed trading firms that are a growing force. Instead of just policing completed futures trades, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will seek to watch the fleeting buy and sell orders that increasingly influence the market, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said in an interview.
• Cheap Natural Gas Unplugs U.S. Nuclear-Power Revival. The U.S. nuclear industry seemed to be staging a comeback several years ago, with 15 power companies proposing as many as 29 new reactors. Today, only two projects are moving off the drawing board. What killed the revival wasn't last year's nuclear accident in Japan, nor was it a soft economy that dented demand for electricity. Rather, a shale-gas boom flooded the U.S. market with cheap natural gas, offering utilities a cheaper, less risky alternative to nuclear technology.
• China Purge Sets Up Scramble at Top. The fall of a Communist Party leader who led a Maoist revival could inflame an increasingly public struggle for China's top leadership, as two opposing wings of the party elite angle for dominance. In an apparent victory for the party's liberal reformists, the removal of Bo Xilai as party chief of southwestern megacity Chongqing ended the political career of a man seen until recently as a front-runner for promotion to the party's very top.

Business Insider:

• Goldman(GS) Heir Speaks: Greg Smith Was Right, They Ruined My Great-Grandfather's Company. Henry Goldman III, the great-grandson of Goldman Sachs founder Marcus Goldman, says he agreed with Greg Smith's New York Times op-ed criticizing the firm's predatory culture. "I thought it was spot on," Goldman told Business Insider in an exclusive interview.
• Young Americans Are Refusing To Fly The Coop.
• A Huge Oil Find Off The Coast Of Ireland Could Turn The Entire Country's Economy Around.
• Wall Street's Worst Nightmare: The 'Millionaire Madam' Is Getting Ready To Make A Deal.
  

Zero Hedge:

• Terminated CBO Whistleblower Shares Her Full Story With Zero Hedge, Exposes Deep Conflicts At "Impartial" Budget Office.
• Summing Up All That Is Wrong With Greece.
  

CNBC:

• Iran Buys U.S. Wheat Again, Trade Set to Grow. Iran has purchased 60,000 metric tonnes of U.S. wheat, the U.S. government said on Thursday, raising the two-week tally to 180,000 tonnes, which industry sources said reopened grain trade ties between the two countries embroiled in a stand-off over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran's purchases of U.S. wheat this year are its first in three years, and the sources said the OPEC member was close to completing purchases of another 220,000 tonnes to be shipped as early as April, and in talks with exporters to buy another undisclosed amount. The price tag for the 400,000 tonnes -- 180,000 confirmed and 220,000 yet to be formally declared -- could be around $160 million, export sources said. Trade sources said grain giants Cargill Inc. and Bunge Ltd were the likely suppliers to Iran, but the two companies declined to comment.
• China Halts 10 More Airbus Orders: Sources. China has suspended the purchase of 10 more Airbus jets, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, raising the stakes in a potentially damaging trade row over European Union airline emissions charges. The move to delay the purchase of extra A330 planes brings to $14 billion the value of European aircraft caught up in tensions over the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, which has angered countries including China, India and the United States.It comes amid urgent efforts to find a solution to the row, which airlines fear could provoke an aviation trade war capable of causing travel disruption and hitting air traffic rights. The row is over a cap-and-trade scheme which could levy charges for carbon emissions for flights in and out of Europe. Foreign governments say the EU is exceeding its legal jurisdiction by charging for an entire flight, as opposed to just the part covering European airspace. The European Commission argues the scheme is needed to cut rising emissions and help the world fight climate change.
• Continental Resources(CLR) CEO Harold Hamm Takes On President Obama's Energy Policy. Responding to President Obama’s comments earlier in the day in which he called his critics part of “the Flat-Earth Society,” Hamm expressed surprise. “The technology that’s out there today, what we’re doing with horizontal drilling, unlocking a virtual renaissance of new development of oil and gas in this country, I can’t believe the president would say anything like that,” he said. “We’ve obviously brought drilling into another realm, whole new paradigm.” On “The Kudlow Report,” Hamm spoke about the potential held in the Bakken Shale in north-central North Dakota, which he estimated held 24 billion barrels of oil that “could not have been possible without horizontal drilling.” Hamm also criticized the idea of releasing supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, something he said should be used for an emergency, not for political expediency. “That’s not what it’s for,” he said. “What we need to be doing is developing our own resources, becoming less dependent upon foreign oil. And certainly we have the ability to do that today.”

IBD:

• Scarce Oil? U.S. Has 60 Times More Than Obama Claims.
• Fossil(FOSL) to Boost Watch Business With Skagen Buyout.
  

NY Times:

• Bad Loans at State-Run Banks Add to India's Woes. When people talk about Europe’s “government debt problem” they mean something easy to describe: countries that borrowed more money than they can easily pay back. In India, it’s a bit more complicated.

Forbes:

• Glenn Beck Closes In On The $100 Million Mark. Leaving Fox News has turned out to be a pretty good business move for Glenn Beck. By the end of this year, 18 months after he got out of the 24-hour cable news business and struck out on his own as an internet broadcasting pioneer, Beck will have doubled the revenues of his company, Mercury Radio Arts, from $40 million to $80 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The extra $40 million is the amount that Beck’s new internet channel, GBTV, is on pace to meet or exceed in 2012. Viewers pay a monthly subscription fee of up to $9.95 for access to programming that includes Beck’s two-hour daily broadcast, a children’s show and a reality show. More than 300,000 subscribers have already signed up, a number that, as WSJ notes, already exceeds the average audience of many cable channels, including CNBC and Fox Business Network.
• Inside The New iPad: Samsung, Broadcom, Elpida, Qualcomm, Toshiba. The gadget teardown artists at iFixit got their hands on the new iPad a day before the rest of the world, thanks to an airline ticket to Australia. What they found, after prying off the front panel and display with the help of a heat gun, guitar picks, and heavy duty suction cups: a device packed with parts from Samsung, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Elpida, Fairchild, Qualcomm, Toshiba, Triquint, and Avago.

Washington Examiner:

• Poetic Justice and Obama's $2 Trillion Health Care Law. When President Obama pitched his national health care legislation to a joint session of Congress in Sept. 2009, he declared that, "the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years." This week, a new report by the Congressional Budget Office exposed the dishonesty of this claim.

Rasmussen Reports:

• Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15 (see trends).
• Arizona 2012: Obama Trails Romney, Ties Santorum. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Arizona Voters shows the former Massachusetts governor with 51% support against Obama’s 40%.
  

Reuters:

• AK Steel(AKS) Sees 1Q Loss on Weak Shipments. AK Steel Holding Corp forecast a net loss for the first quarter, compared with analysts' expectations of a profit, as it sees shipments falling about 8 percent amid weak demand. The company, which produces steel for markets ranging from automotive to infrastructure and manufacturing to construction, expects a net loss of 11 cents to 15 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were expecting a profit of 3 cents per share.
• Facebook(FB) Summons Wall St for Pre-IPO Briefing. Facebook Inc is taking the next step on its IPO journey and has summoned research analysts from Wall Street banks to its Menlo Park headquarters early next week for a pre-roadshow briefing to discuss the finer points of its business and books.

China Securities Journal:

• Some Chinese insurance companies have redeemed stock funds to control risk, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

Evening Recommendations
CSFB:

• Rated (SBAC) Outperform, target $67.
• Rated (AMT) Outperform, target $75.

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are -.75% to +.25% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 139.0 -5.5 basis points.
  
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 119.0 +.25 basis point.
• FTSE-100 futures +.05%.
  
• S&P 500 futures -.04%.
  
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.04%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• None of note
  

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• The Consumer Price Index for February is estimated to rise +.4% versus a +.2% gain in January.
• The CPI Ex Food & Energy for February is estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.2% gain in January.
  

9:15 am EST

• Industrial Production for February is estimated to rise +.4% versus unch. in January.
• Capacity Utilization for February is estimated to rise to 78.8% versus 78.5% in January.
  

9:55 am EST

• Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for March is estimated to rise to 76.0 versus 75.3 in February.
  

Upcoming Splits

• (ALK) 2-for-1
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• None of note
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.