Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- South Korea’s industrial production rose 5% in November to a record as car companies and chipmakers expanded to meet export orders and rebounding domestic demand.
- Deutsche Bank AG advises betting on the dollar continuing its advance against the yen.
- South Korean laboratories used by scientist Hwang Woo Suk no longer have any stem cells created from patients’ tissues, the result of the researcher’s landmark May 2005 paper.

Financial Times:
- Public US companies may have to provide investors with valuations of senior executives’ pensions and stock options as part of an overhaul of disclosure rules on executive pay by the SEC.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on BSX.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.50% to +1.0% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.10%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.12%.

Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Global Commentary
Asian Indices
European Indices
Top 20 Business Stories
In Play
Bond Ticker
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
FRE/1.02
NAV/3.06

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 320K versus 318K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2625K versus 2638K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Chicago Purchasing Manager for December is estimated to fall to 60.0 versus a reading of 61.7 in November.
- Existing Home Sales for November are estimated to fall to 7.0M versus 7.09M in October.

10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude drawdown of 500,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories are estimated to fall 125,000 barrels, and distillate supplies are expected to fall 1,500,000 barrels. Finally, refinery utilization is expected to rise 0.63%.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by exporting shares in the region after US consumer confidence improved. I expect US equities to open mixed and to rally modestly into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

No comments: