Thursday, February 19, 2004

Thursday Watch

Earnings Announcements
Company/Estimate
BEAS/.09
CHTR/-.46
CIEN/-.08
HPQ/.35
KVHI/-.10
NXTL/.40
PNRA/.34
JWN/.66
NANO/-.15
TGT/.87
WMT/.63

Splits
SNDK 2-for-1

Economic Data
Initial Jobless claims estimated at 355K vs. 363K last week.
Continuing claims estimated at 3105K vs. 3083K last week.
Leading Indicators estimated at .5% vs. .2% last month.
Philadelphia Fed. estimated at 35.0 vs. 38.8 last month.

Late-night News
North Korea is willing to discuss its highly enriched uranium program with the U.S. during six-nation talks to be held in Beijing next week. Guidelines for fining passengers who carry prohibited items on airplanes have been released by the Transportation Security Admin. Howard Dean dropped out of the presidential race. The U.S. will work with the Afghan government to try to meet the deadline of June this year for holding presidential and parliamentary elections. Iran shut the offices of 2 newspapers that published a letter by lawmakers criticizing Iran's supreme leader for allowing unfair elections to be held.

Late-Night Trading
Asian markets are mixed, ranging from +.5% to -.5%.
S&P 500 indicated +.24%.
NASDAQ indicated +.36%.

BOTTOM LINE: The major U.S. indices should rally tomorrow given the positive news in the tech sector after the close. A weak rally or sell-off on this news would most likely mean a continuation of the current consolidation. A strong rally tomorrow should eventually lead to a move through recent highs. The Portfolio is 100% net long, thus I will closely monitor the open tomorrow for any signs of weakness and cut market exposure accordingly.

No comments: