Monday, June 26, 2006

Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- General Motors(GM) persuaded about 35,000 US union workers to retire, a move aimed at helping return the company’s financial health.
- Merrill Lynch(MER), Morgan Stanley(MS) and Lehman Brothers(LEH), three of the world’s biggest securities firms, sued Theflyonthewall.com Web site, claiming it “pirated” their equity research.
- Take-Two(TTWO) said it received requests from the NY District Attorney for documents related to statements about earnings and hidden sex scenes in its “Grand Theft Auto” video game.
- Seven present and former pro football players sued the NFL and the NFL Players Assoc., saying the organizations recommended unfit financial advisers and caused them to lose $20 million.
- South Korea’s government said it will take “measures” against North Korea in the event the country tests a long-range missile, as President Bush told North Korea to refrain from such a “provocative” act.
- Japan will start receiving its first shipments from the $13 billion Sakhalin-1 oil and natural gas project this year, helping the world’s second-largest economy ease dependence on imports from the Middle East.

Financial Times:
- A US proposal to tighten restrictions on exports of technology products to China is expected to draw criticism from Beijing and protests from US industry groups.

Security Times:
- China should raise interest rates further to curb lending, citing Chen Dongqi, deputy director of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, a government-affiliated body.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.25% to +1.0% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.05%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.10%.

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
- (FLS)/.49
- (FRE)/1.21
- (FUL)/.69
- (NKE)/1.40

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
10:00 am EST
- Existing Home Sales for May are estimated to fall to 6.6M versus 6.76M in April.
- Consumer Confidence for June is estimated to rise to 103.8 versus a reading of 103.2 in May.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by commodity and technology stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to maintain gains into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.

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