Thursday Watch

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are +.75% to +1.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 77.75 -.25 basis point. 

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 13.25 unch.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 75.15 -.01%.

• FTSE 100 futures +1.4%.

• S&P 500 futures +.40%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.50%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (CONN)/.54

• (MON)/3.31

• (SCHN)/.91

• (PSMT)/.90

• (WDFC)/.95

Economic Releases

7:30 am EST

• Challenger Job Cuts YoY for March.

8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 225K versus 215K the prior week.

• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 1843Kversus 1871K prior.

• The Trade Deficit for February is estimated at -$56.8B versus -$56.6B in January.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The German Factory Orders report, Eurozone Services PMI report, Eurozone PPI report, Eurozone Retail Sales report, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report and the (NTAP) analyst day could also impact trading today.

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