Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Tuesday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
APSG/.26
HUG/1.16
HNZ/.55
HRB/-.05
DITC/.22
OVTI/.30
RGS/.59
SAFM/1.93
SEAC/.11
SMTC/.21
TTC/1.28

Splits
BLL 2-for-1

Economic Data
Existing Home Sales for July estimated at 6.81M versus 6.95M in June.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Underperform on PVH. Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on JTX.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are mostly higher as oil prices decline for a third day. Nokia, Motorola and other international makers of mobile phones have stopped losing market share in China to local manufacturers, the Financial Times reported. The SEC has ordered a study of off-balance-sheet accounting to determine whether companies are complying with new rules, the Financial Times reported. American International Group will compete with HSBC Holdings and Metlife of the U.S. to buy South Korea's SK Life Insurance, Yonhap News said. Adelphia Communications asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to order the Rigas family, the company's founding family, to repay the bankrupt U.S. cable-tv operator $3.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal said. Afghanistan's voter registration program, which began in December, ended with 10.3 million people enrolled for October's presidential poll and National Assembly elections scheduled for April, Bloomberg reported. Honda Motor said it is developing motorcycles that can run on gasoline-electric engines and fuel cells, extending the so-called hybrid technology for the first time to two-wheeled vehicles, Bloomberg reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices are unch. to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.03%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated unch.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. equities to open modestly higher on better economic data and declining oil prices. However, stocks will likely trade slightly lower later in the day on terrorism fears ahead of the Republican convention and profit-taking. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into tomorrow.

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