Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Tuesday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
KKD/.23
HNZ/.58
CA/.17
SEAC/.08
SMTC/.18
TSA/.34
WSM/.16

Splits
RCI 3-for-2

Economic Data
Existing Home Sales for April estimated at 6.45M versus 6.48M in March.
Consumer Confidence for May estimates at 94.0 versus 92.9 in April.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on AA. Goldman reiterated Underperform on VRSN.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are mostly lower tonight on weakness related to rising crude oil prices. Wal-Mart wants stores in every European country via its Asda Group, the Financial Times said. Microsoft is working on a new version of its Windows operating system that will allow multiple personal computers to be linked together to mimic a high-powered supercomputer, according to News.com. Deutshe Telekom bought Cingular's California and Nevada mobile networks, Bloomberg reported. The yen erased losses against the dollar in Asia after S&P said it may raise the credit ratings of major Japanese banks because of progress in cutting bad loans and improving earnings, Bloomberg reported. President Bush said Iraq's interim government will be named this week as a prelude to a five-step process that begins with the June 30 transfer of sovereignty and ends with elections next year, Bloomberg reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices -2.0% to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.20%.
NASDAQ indicated -.18%.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. stocks to open modestly lower in the morning on weakness in Asia and a likely weaker-than-expected Consumer Confidence number. However, this should result in falling interest rates which could bolster shares later in the day. The Portfolio is 125% net long heading into tomorrow.

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