Thursday Watch

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are +.25% to +1.5% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 163.0 -4.0 basis points.
  
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 135.0 -.5 basis point.
  
• FTSE-100 futures +.34%.
  
• S&P 500 futures +.29%.
  
• NASDAQ 100 futures +.50%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (FCS)/.16
• (DO)/.91
• (BBT)/.70
• (KEY)/.18
• (GPC)/1.07
• (TRV)/1.32
• (ADS)/1.91
• (DGX)/1.17
• (AN)/.59
• (UNH)/1.20
• (DHR)/.80
• (LUV)/.32
• (FITB)/.35
• (PM)/1.35
• (VFC)/.94
• (JCI)/.66
• (BAX)/1.11
• (MS)/.29
• (VZ)/.64
• (UNP)/1.97
• (FCX)/.74
• (SHW)/2.12
• (BX)/.11
• (PPG)/2.36
• (SWY)/.49
• (NUE)/.48
• (CMG)/2.30
• (SNDK)/.18
• (ETFC)/.11
• (ISRG)/3.57
• (MSFT)/.62
• (GOOG)/10.15
• (NCR)/.57
• (AMD)/.07
• (CY)/.18
  

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to rise to 365K versus 350K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 3300K versus 3304K prior.

10:00 am EST

• Philly Fed for July is estimated to rise to -8.0 versus -16.6 in June.
• Existing Home Sales for June are estimated to rise to 4.62M versus 4.55M in May.
• Leading Indicators for June are estimated to fall -.1% versus a +.3% gain in May.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Bloomberg weekly Consumer Comfort Index and the Bloomberg Economic Expectations Index for July could also impact trading today.
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by technology and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.