Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Tuesday Watch

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
CDT/.06
PLL/.39
UNFI/.20

Splits
AVP 2-for-1
BCR 2-for-1
CNQ 2-for-1
IEX 3-for-2

Economic Data
Construction Spending for April estimated +.4% versus +1.5% in March.
ISM Manufacturing for May estimated at 61.5 versus 62.4 in April.
ISM Prices Paid for May estimated at 89.3 versus 88.0 in April.

Weekend Recommendations
Forbes on Fox had guests that were positive on DVN, UNFI, BBY, mixed on SIL, AVTI and NKE. Bulls and Bears had guests that were positive on CME, EBAY, AUO, EON, SNP, mixed on SI and negative on NT, AMD and NOK. Cashin' In had guests that were positive on CLX and mixed on GE, MSFT and HOV. Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street had guests that were positive on CMCSA, BSX, PRU, JNJ, MKL, STA, NTRS, XOM, MSFT, AA, IR, DOW and negative on energy and semis. Wall St. Week w/Fortune had guests that were positive on HKF, ACAI, SUP, OCA, NTZ, ET, WLP, OHP, HUM, MEAS and OLGC. Barron's had a negative column on CYBX.

Weekend News
The U.S. market for wind and solar power is expected to increase 20% annually for the next five to 10 years, Barron's said. U.S. demand for second, or vacation, homes is likely to rise due to low mortgage rates and an aging, affluent baby-boomer population, Barron's said. Radio-frequency identification, which tracks goods from production to consumers' shopping carts, has the potential to lift economies worldwide, Barron's reported. Nokia may cut its sales forecast for this quarter because it hasn't been able to start selling enough new products, Kauppalehti reported. Hewlett-Packard will increase its backing of so-called open source software by offering programs made by MySQL and JBoss, the Wall Street Journal reported. Many U.S. public schools are focusing more on reading, writing and math in an effort to raise low test scores to comply with new federal educational standards, the Washington Post reported. China won't raise interest rates anytime soon because declining aluminum and steel prices signal the government's efforts to curb inflation are working, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. military in Iraq is moving its focus from combating insurgents to protecting a new Iraqi government and helping to rebuild the country, the NY Times said. Goldman Sachs, UBS and Lehman Brothers said this week that the dollar will fall against the euro and yen in coming months after a 3-month rally. A statement purportedly issued by the al-Qaeda terrorist network said it carried out a hostage-taking incident in Saudi Arabia over the weekend that resulted in the deaths of 22 people, Agence France-Presse reported. Intel and other personal computer and electronics makers will tout home entertainment features at Taiwan's Computex 2004 trade show, Bloomberg reported. JP Morgan has joined Citigroup in eclipsing Merrill Lynch in the $80 billion market for underwriting U.S. stock sales. Morgan Stanley has an interesting analysis of the energy market.

Late-Night Trading
Asian indices are higher, +.25% to +1.75% on average.
S&P 500 indicated unch.
NASDAQ indicated -.14%.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect U.S. stocks to open higher in the morning as there were no significant terrorist attacks over the weekend. Moreover, Asian strength, U.S put/call and arms readings, and a low AAII % Bulls should provide the catalysts to push shares higher. The Portfolio is 125% net long heading into the week.

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