Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Tuesday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
HOV/2.07
UTIW/.56
SAFM/.22

Splits
None of note.

Economic Data
Final 3Q Non-farm Productivity estimated to increase 2.0% versus a 1.9% prior estimate.
Final 3Q Unit Labor Costs estimated to rise 1.6% versus a 1.6% prior estimate.
Consumer Credit for October estimated at $6.0B versus $9.9B in September.

Recommendations
Goldman Sachs reiterated Outperform on BBY. Goldman reiterated Underperform on PBG, NFB and SLG.

Late-Night News
Asian indices are mostly lower on worries over slowing Chinese growth and a bounce in oil prices. Johnson & Johnson is in advanced talks to buy Guidant Corp. for more than $24 billion, the NY Times reported. China shut 16,400 mining companies after a government investigation uncovered widespread violations of environmental regulations, the China Daily reported. OAO Gazprom, the world's biggest natural gas producer, has received about $4 billion in investment from hedge funds in anticipation that Russian barriers to international investment are about to be eased, the Financial Times said. Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest computer maker, may say this week it will pay $2.0 billion in cash and stock for IBM's personal-computer business, the Financial Times said. Central bank governor Xiaochuan says China is facing a financial crisis if non-performing loans continue to build up, the China Securities Journal reported. The US is against moves by Taiwan to drop references to China in its official name, saying it would disrupt the status quo in cross-Strait relations, Agence France-Presse reported. Ukraine's President Kuchma said he agreed that a new election law aimed at ending voting fraud must be in effect before the Dec. 26 re-run of the disputed presidential election, Bloomberg reported. Japan will probably extend its troop deployment in Iraq beyond Dec. 14 when authorization for the current mission expires, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hosoda told a news conference in Tokyo.

Late-Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.75%. to unch. on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.04%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated unch.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. equities to open modestly higher on strength in technology and medical-related shares. The Portfolio is 125% net long heading into tomorrow.

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