Thursday Watch

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are -1.25% to -.50% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 151.50 -.5 basis point.
• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 127.50 +.75 basis point.
  
• FTSE-100 futures -.37%.
  
• S&P 500 futures -.40%.
  
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.31%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (CIEN)/-.02
• (TD)/1.84
• (ESL)/1.11
• (OVTI)/.22
• (ZUMZ)/.13
  

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Personal Income for July is estimated to rise +.3% versus a +.5% gain in June.
• Personal Spending for July is estimated to rise +.5% versus unch. in June.
• The PCE Core for July is estimated to rise +.1% versus a +.2% gain in June.
• Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to fall to 370K versus 372K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 3307K versus 3317K prior.
  

11:00 am EST

• The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity Index for August is estimated to fall to 3.0 versus 5.0 in July.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Italian 10Y Bond auction, Germany Unemployment Rate, Japan PMI data, ICSC Chain Store Sales report for August, 7Y T-Note auction, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index and the weekly EIA natural gas inventory report could also impact trading today.
  

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