Friday, December 10, 2004

Friday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
COO/.72
NT/.00

Splits
None of note.

Economic Data
Producer Price Index for November estimated to rise .1% versus a 1.7% increase in October.
PPI Ex Food & Energy for November estimated to rise .2% versus a .3% gain in October.
Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for December estimated at 93.5 versus a reading of 92.8 in November.
Monthly Budget Statement for November estimated at -$54.1B versus -$43.0B in October.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on DTV and A. Goldman reiterated Underperform on CIEN and CVC.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are mostly lower, led down by China and North Korea. AO VimpelCom, the second-largest mobile-phone operator in Russia, and Systema, another Russian cellular-phone service provider, are in talks with BPL Mobile Communications to buy a stake in the Indian company, the Economic Times reported. Gucci Group NV's new CEO, Robert Polet, is aiming to double sales of the company's brand-name merchandise within the next seven years, the NY Times said. China reported the slowest inflation in nine months as improved harvests boosted food supply, easing pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates, Bloomberg reported. Saudi Arabia supports an oil output cut of 1M barrels/day, Al-Hayat reported.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices are -1.25%. to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.07%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.15%

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. equities to open modestly lower on weakness in Asia and concerns over comments from OPEC. However, I expect stocks to rise from morning lows on a better-than-expected consumer confidence report and lower oil prices. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into tomorrow.

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