Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The benchmark index for U.S. stock options exceeded 80 for the first time in its 18-year history, driven higher by equities extending the biggest slide since 1987 on concern the economy will continue deteriorating. Europe's volatility benchmarks also jumped to records. The VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, rose a third day, adding 9.6 percent to 75.92 at 12:50 p.m. in New York after climbing as high as 81.17.

- Money-market rates in London fell after central banks provided $254 billion of emergency cash to ease the paralysis in the credit markets and UBS AG got a $59 billion government bailout. The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, that banks charge each other for three-month loans in dollars declined for a fourth day, sliding 5 basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 4.50 percent today, the British Bankers' Association said. The overnight rate fell 20 basis points to 1.94 percent, the lowest level since November 2004 though still 44 basis points above the Federal Reserve's target. Asian rates also dropped.

- Emerging-market banks plunged after Standard & Poor's warned that South Korean lenders will struggle to refinance debt, raising pressure on developing nations to bail out their own institutions. All emerging stock markets fell, led by declines in Russia, South Korea, Peru, Hungary and Brazil.

- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said his plan to inject capital into financial companies is focused on banks and thrifts, indicating unregulated firms such as hedge funds won't initially get government aid.

- Tumbling prices for energy and metals led commodities to their lowest since September 2004 on signs of plunging demand for raw materials as the U.S. economy slows. Crude oil fell as much as 8 percent, dropping below $70 a barrel in New York for the first time since August 2007. Gold dipped below $800 an ounce for the first time in four weeks. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities fell as much as 3.2 percent to 273.95, the lowest since Sept. 21, 2004. ``Global conditions are no longer commodity-supportive,'' analysts at Standard Chartered Plc wrote in a report today. ``Demand for commodities is already suffering and we expect further weakness.''

- Morgan Stanley(MS) Chief Executive Officer John Mack said tumbling markets may drive some hedge funds out of business. ``Some of my friends in that community say that by year- end, you'll see the number of firms in the hedge-fund area shrink, I've heard as large as 30 percent,'' Mack, 63, told CNBC today.

- Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said a deal with Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO) may still make economic sense for shareholders of both companies, pushing Yahoo stock up as much as 17 percent.

- Highland Capital Management LP will close its flagship Highland Crusader Fund and another hedge fund after losses on high-yield, high-risk loans and other types of debt, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.

- Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC, says oil may fall to $65/bbl. (video)

- US farmers probably will apply less fertilizer per acre on crops next year to reduce costs amid falling wheat, corn and soybean prices, said Mike Rahm, Mosiac Co.’s(MOS) vice president of market analysis.

- Gold declined to a one-month low on speculation that investors will sell the precious metal to cover losses in other markets. Silver fell to the lowest since February 2006.

Wall Street Journal:

- In the campaign's final two weeks, voters will take a last serious look at both presidential candidates. The outcome of the race isn't cast in stone yet.

NY Post:

- The bankers, Joseph Sauvage, Todd Guenther and Jack Paris, who had been brought into Barclays Capital as a part of its purchase of Lehman, are expected to start work at Citi next month.

- Renowned New York hedge-fund honcho and political powerbroker Richard Perry is facing down his first losing year in hedge-fund investing since launching his fund some 20 years ago. The ex-Goldman Sachs billionaire manager of Perry Capital is shrinking his staff and battening down the hatches at his firm, which boasts tony digs in the General Motors Building. His flagship fund Perry Partners International recorded a third-quarter loss of 6.13 percent, bringing his year-to-date performance down 9.32 percent, according to people familiar with the matter.

MSNBC.com:
- The FBI is investigating whether federal money was misused when Democratic Congressman Tim Mahoney hired a mistress to work in his office, a senior federal law enforcement official said Thursday. Federal agents also are examining whether a second affair Mahoney was having with a high-level official in his Florida district was behind his push for federal funds for her county.

Powerpage.org:

- Apple(AAPL) to Release Revised 17” MacBook by Early 2009.

CFO.com:

- Few who know anything about executive compensation, it seems, are fans of how the government's financial-services rescue programs address the issue.

SF1 television:
- UBS AG(UBS) CEO Marcel Rohner said the worst is “definitely” over for Switzerland’s largest bank after the country’s government agreed to a $59.2 billion package to relieve it of toxic assets. While the bank’s losses have “clearly” damaged confidence in UBS, today’s announcement means “the problem of illiquid assets is definitely solved” for the bank, Rohner said.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
Mid-cap Value (-1.87%)

Sector Underperformers:
Gold (-10.16%), Insurance (-8.10%) and Papers (-6.86%)

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
ITRI, EBAY, ITMN, JOYG, GOOG, AAUK, EEFT, PAAS, CPRT, CYBS, RGLD, WY, MR, KNM, GG and POT

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
1) JDSU 2) EK 3) AES 4) CCK 5) MAS

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
Small-cap Growth (-2.65%)

Sector Outperformers:
Airlines (+1.51%), Restaurants (-1.10%) and Wireless (-1.43%)

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
SPTN, RYAAY, CENX, PLCM, SPWRA, FSLR, ISRG, TEVA, GILD, DECK, QCOM, ENER, FEIC, PACW, HAYN, CPO and HIT

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
1) TSM 2) CX 3) AMAG 4) VRTX 5) SII

Links of Interest

Market Snapshot Commentary
Market Performance Summary
Style Performance
Sector Performance
WSJ Data Center
Top 20 Biz Stories
IBD Breaking News
Movers & Shakers
Upgrades/Downgrades
In Play
Exchange Volume vs. Average
NYSE Unusual Volume
NASDAQ Unusual Volume
Hot Spots
Option Dragon
NASDAQ 100 Heatmap
DJIA Quick Charts
Chart Toppers
Real-Time Intraday Quote/Chart
Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes

Thursday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said his plan to inject $250 billion into banks is aimed at instilling confidence in financial markets and denied he forced the nation's biggest lenders to accept the money.

- US dollar money-market rates fell after the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank offered lenders unlimited U.S. currency for the first time in a coordinated effort to unlock credit markets.

- NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson said the city is considering alternatives to the equity market for investments from its $110 billion pension fund. Thompson, who spoke in an interview on CNBC today, said the city plans to expand its holdings in options such as hedge-fund investments.

- JPMorgan Chase & Co.(JPM) increased prime-brokerage assets by about 25 percent as hedge funds pulled accounts from securities firms, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

- Citadel Investment Group Inc.'s biggest hedge fund fell as much as 30 percent this year, because of losses on convertible bonds, stocks and corporate bonds, said two people familiar with the Chicago-based firm.

- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission extended a rule forcing hedge funds to tell the agency about short-sale positions amid concerns investors bet against companies after spreading false rumors they will fail. Investment managers who oversee more than $100 million must to disclose to the SEC the stocks they've bet will fall in price until Aug. 1, the agency said in a statement on its Web site today.

- Copper and zinc plunged by the exchange-imposed daily limit for a second day in Shanghai, tracking losses in London prices on concern a global recession may slash commodity demand as the credit crisis intensifies.

- Crude oil fell for a third day, taking its decline from the July record to more than 50 percent, after a global stock plunge heightened concern bank bailouts won't prevent a recession. OPEC, supplier of more than 40 percent of the world's oil, cut its forecast yesterday for oil demand next year by 450,000 barrels a day, or 0.5 percent, to 87.21 million barrels a day.

- South Korea's won slumped as much as 11 percent, the most since the International Monetary Fund bailed the nation out in 1997, after Standard & Poor's said it may cut credit ratings for Kookmin Bank and six other companies.

- Latin America's plunging commodities and fleeing investors are putting an end to the fastest period of economic growth in the region in more than three decades.

Wall Street Journal:
- The U.K.'s $697 billion financial-rescue plan -- hailed as a model for other countries trying to stem the banking crisis -- is starting to show some cracks. Some banks are pushing back with complaints that the conditions are too harsh, especially after seeing the more generous terms of the U.S. bailout. As details emerge, U.K. banks are concerned the price the government plans to charge them to guarantee their debt is too high -- in some cases more than the banks earn on their existing loans. "It's going to become another hit on earnings," says a Citigroup analyst.

- Oil giant BP PLC(BP) is exploring a potential deal to buy natural-gas properties from once highflying Chesapeake Energy Corp.(CHK), according to people close to the British company's thinking.

- Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama confronted one another over the increasingly bitter tone of their presidential race, with each man blaming the other during sharp exchanges Wednesday in their third and final televised debate.

CNBC.com:

- The stock market has hit a low and will end the year higher than it is today, a top market watcher told CNBC Monday. Byron Wien, Pequot Capital Management's Chief Investment Strategist, said "we've made a low, we're going to rally and then retest it." Wien is optimistic enough about the market to see "opportunities in every sector," including financials, which will benefit from an "enormous number of policy moves."

- The US Treasury is considering taking an equity stake in bond-insurance companies including Ambac Financial Group Inc., MBIA Inc. and PMI Group Inc.

MarketWatch.com:
- Whatever else you might say about corporate insiders, they sure have the courage of their convictions. Not only have they, on balance, behaved bullishly over the last year, they have become even more bullish as the stock market has declined.

Financial Times:
- Investors pulled at least $43bn from US hedge funds in September as market turmoil led to unprecedented withdrawals, an analysis by a leading research house shows.

- A group of the largest US hedge funds has called on the Bank of England to intervene to free an estimated $65bn (£38bn) in assets frozen in London in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, warning that delays “could be disastrous for UK plc”. The funds, through the Managed Funds Association, said the scale of the problem was so great that it could undermine bank rescue plans as tens of billions of dollars would be kept out of the market. It was also likely to lead to the failure of some fund managers, said Richard Baker, chief executive of the MFA.

Philstar.com:

- The Philippine government expects the country’s exports to slow down next year, with growth seen between negative two percent and four percent due to a global financial crisis.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (CCK), target $32.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -7.25% to -3.50% on average.
S&P 500 futures -.86%.
NASDAQ 100 futures -.59%.

Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Pre-market Stock Quote/Chart
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Global Commentary
WSJ Intl Markets Performance
Commodity Movers
Top 25 Stories
Top 20 Business Stories
Today in IBD
In Play
Bond Ticker
Economic Preview/Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Upgrades/Downgrades
Rasmussen Business/Economy Polling

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (LUV)/.07

- (CAL)/-1.48

- (MER)/-5.19

- (PNC)/.96

- (UTX)/1.31

- (UNH)/.73

- (C)/-.70

- (BAX)/.82

- (HSY)/.64

- (CIT)/.18

- (HOG)/.78

- (BK)/.69

- (TXT)/.87

- (DHR)/1.13

- (PH)/1.38

- (BBT)/.66

- (ITW)/.86

- (SYK)/.67

- (SHW)/1.27

- (NUE)/2.19

- (GILD)/.52

- (COF)/.92

- (AMD)/-.39

- (IBM)/2.00

- (BTU)/.87

- (PPG)/1.30

- (GOOG)/4.78

- (ISRG)/1.27

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

- The Consumer Price Index for September is estimated to rise .1% versus a .1% decline in August.

- The CPI Ex Food & Energy for September is estimated to rise .2% versus a .2% gain in August.

- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 470K versus 478K the prior week.

- Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 3670K versus 3659K prior.

9:00 am EST

- Net Long-term TIC Flows for August are estimated to rise to $30.0 billion versus $6.1 billion in July.

9:15 am EST

- Industrial Production for September is estimated to fall .8% versus a 1.1% decline in August.

- Capacity Utilization for September is estimated to fall to 77.9% versus 78.7% in August.

10:00 am EST

- Philly Fed for October is estimated at -10.0 versus 3.8 in September.

1:00 pm EST

- The NAHB Housing Market Index for October is estimated at 17 versus 18 in September.

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The weekly EIA energy inventory report, (CHK) analyst meeting and (UMH) investor presentation forum could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are sharply lower, weighed down by automaker and commodity stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.

Stocks Finish Sharply Lower, Weighed Down by Commodity, Financial, Construction and Technology Shares

Evening Review
Market Summary
Top 20 Biz Stories
Today’s Movers
Market Performance Summary
WSJ Data Center
Sector Performance
ETF Performance
Style Performance
Commodity Movers
Market Wrap CNBC Video(bottom right)
S&P 500 Gallery View
Timely Economic Charts
GuruFocus.com
PM Market Call
After-hours Commentary
After-hours Movers
After-hours Real-Time Stock Bid/Ask
After-hours Stock Quote
After-hours Stock Chart
In Play