Monday, February 13, 2006

Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Fidelity Investments is in talks to build a facility for as many as 5,000 workers in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.
- Amgen(AMGN) plans to sell $4 billion of convertible notes to fund a $3 billion stock repurchase plan.
- Whirlpool(WHR) agreed to delay the completion of its acquisition of Maytag(MYG) so that the US Justice Dept. can have more time to review the transaction.

Wall Street Journal:
- Starbucks Corp.(SBUX) Chairman Howard Schultz said the coffee chain will continue its aggressive expansion in China.
- India may invest as much as $1 billion to develop oil-sands projects in Canada within the next 12 months, citing an Indian government official.
- Morgan Stanley(MWD) CEO John Mack, who last month ended talks to buy a majority stake of money-manager BlackRock(BLK), may try to buy as many as 12 smaller hedge funds.

DigiTimes:
- Intel Corp.(INTC) plans to reduce prices of some of its newest microprocessors by as much as 50% in April to spur demand.

London-based Time:
- Unilever NV will award an $871.3 million outsourcing contract to Accenture Ltd.(ACN).

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on (EBAY), (BSX), (UHCO), (MRVL) and (SYMC).

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50% to +.25% on average.
S&P 500 indicated unch.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.03%.

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
(ANF)/1.78
(CEPH)/.74
(DE)/.83
(EXBD)/.51
(FAF)/1.10
(ITRI)/.48
(JAH)/.52
(LVS)/.27
(MMC)/.31
(MAS)/.50
(STR)/1.11
(SIAL)/.93
(RIG)/.48
(WMI)/.40

Upcoming Splits
- (WGOV) 3-for-1

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Advance Retail Sales for January are estimated to rise .9% versus a .7% increase in December.
- Retail Sales Less Autos for January are estimated to rise .8% versus a .2% gain in December.

10:00 pm EST
- Business Inventories for December are estimated to rise .5% versus a .5% gain in November.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, pressured by exorters in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly lower and to trade higher into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.

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