Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Wednesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Nokia Oyj(NOK) and Motorola(MOT) widened their lead over competitors in the third quarter as demand in Asia helped boost unit sales by 22%.
- China will double fees for land used for construction next year. The government is restricting land use to keep investment from growing too fast and to limit environmental damage. 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are located in China.
- Imports of crude oil by Japan, the world’s third-largest consumer of oil, fell for a sixth straight month in October as higher prices prompted users to switch to gas. Purchases of liquefied natural gas surged 30% to 5.58 million metric tons.
- DirectTV Group(DTV), IAC/InterActiveCorp(IACI) and Questar Corp.(STR) will join the S&P 500.
- For the month ending November 15th, short interest increased to a new all-time high for the building products group.
- BHP Billiton(BHP) may refrain from bidding for Freeport-McMoRan(FCX) whose copper and gold mine in Indonesia has forecast declining sales to 2010.

Wall Street Journal:
- Russia plans to roughly triple domestic natural gas prices to curb local demand.

Financial Times:
- Time Warner’s(TWX) HBO cable network plans to start a broadband Internet television channel, citing HBO CEO Albrecht.

Xinhua News:
- China plans to build a $763 million solar power plant, the world’s largest, in the northern province of Gansu.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
- None of note

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.50% to +.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated +.04%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated +.11%.

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
Conference Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (HRL)/.63
- (OSI)/.32
- (PDCO)/.34

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 310K versus 308K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 2430K versus 2443K prior.

10:00 am EST
- Final Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for November is estimated to rise to 93.3 versus prior estimates of 92.3.

10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude build of 700,000 barrels versus a 1,283K barrel increase the prior week. Gasoline supplies are expected to fall by 750,000 barrels versus a 3,781,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate inventories are expected to fall by 1,100,000 barrels versus a 3,565,000 barrel drawdown the prior week. Refinery Utilization is expected to rise .75% versus a .83% decline the prior week. Finally, natural gas supplies are expected to fall 7 bcf versus a 5 bcf build the prior week.

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

No comments: