Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Democrats won a US Senate seat in Virginia, giving them majorities of both chambers of Congress for the first time in 12 years.
- Time Warner(TWX) sold $5 billion of bonds in its first sale since 2002 to refinance debt and buy back stock.
- A federal judge temporarily blocked a law approved yesterday by California voters that bars registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park frequented by children. US District Court Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued an order halting the state from enforcing the new law, saying a sex offender who sued today is likely to succeed on his claim that the restriction is unconstitutional.
- Over-sized dogs and those without photo identification in Beijing are being snatched by the city police to curb the spread of rabies, which has killed about 200 people a month in China this year.
- Archer Daniels Midland(ADM), the world’s biggest grain processor and ethanol producer, said it may expand its se of palm oil in Indonesia and sugar in Brazil to produce bio-fuels as demand for alternative energy soars.
- As many as 60 million Chinese are considered obese, 20 million of them suffer from diabetes while 160 million have high blood pressure, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday on its Web site.

International Oil Daily:
- Natural Fuel Ltd., an Australian renewable energy company, will build a $130 million biodiesel plant in Singapore, citing the CEO.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.25% to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.01%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.24%.

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
- (AIG)/1.42
- (CPKI)/.33
- (DLB)/.11
- (ENER)/.09
- (EXPE)/.30
- (GLBC)/-1.55
- (GT)/.24
- (HANS)/.33
- (JCP)/1.22
- (KG)/.38
- (KSS)/.64
- (MTZ)/.24
- (NVDA)/.34
- (RRI)/.34
- (SNDA)/.18
- (TXU)/1.95
- (URBN)/.18
- (VIA)/.48
- (DIS)/.34

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Trade Deficit for September is estimated to shrink to -$66.0 billion versus -$69.9 billion in August.
- The Import Price Index for September is estimated to fall -1.0% versus a -2.1% decline in August.
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 318K versus 327K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 24245K versus 2415K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for November is estimated at 93.6 versus 93.6 the prior month.
- Wholesale Inventories for September are estimated to rise .5% versus a 1.1% gain in August.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology shares in the region. I expect US equities to open modestly higher and to maintain gains into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

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