Thursday, February 16, 2006

Friday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Almost one in six children worldwide smoke or use tobacco in another form such as snuff, a study by the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control Prevention found.
- Japanese bonds rose, pushing benchmark 10-year yields to a three-week low, after a government report on gross domestic product showed the country is struggling to end a more than seven-year bout of deflation.
- Nike Inc.(NKE) sued rival Adidas-Salomon AG, claiming a patent violation.
- Japan’s economy expanded at an annual 5.5% pace in the fourth quarter of last year, the Cabinet Office said.
- Dell Inc.(DELL) expects to overtake Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and Lenovo Group Ltd., its two closet rivals in Asia, in the next few years, helped by demand for notebook computers.
- Oil prices may fall for a fifth week as gains in inventories indicate supplies are ample to meet demand, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Goldman Sachs:
- Reiterated Outperform on (STZ), (NFP), (SYMC), (CG) and (DNA).
- Reiterated Underperform on (AEIS) and (PFG).

Business Week:
- Pozen Inc.(POZN) shares may gain as earnings rise on the company’s Trexima treatment for severe headaches, which is set for US regulatory approval by June, citing SG Cowen’s Joshua Schimmer.
- Shares of United Parcel Service(UPS) may increase more than 33% in the next two years because of growth in Asia, citing Stephen Leeb, head of Leeb Capital Management.
- The shares of PNC Financial Services Group(PNC) may rise after the company reduced its stake in BlackRock(BLK).

Night Trading
Asian Indices are -.50% to +.50% on average.
S&P 500 indicated -.03%.
NASDAQ 100 indicated -.06%.

Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Global Commentary
Asian Indices
European Indices
Top 20 Business Stories
In Play
Bond Ticker
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Daily Indices
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
(BEC)/.73
(CPB)/.59
(SJM)/.73
(PCG)/.43
(RSH)/.67
(SIRI)/-.22
(TEX)/.96
(ZLC)/1.91

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Producer Price Index for January is estimated to rise .2% versus a .6% gain in December.
- The PPI Ex Food & Energy for January is estimated to rise .2% versus a .1% increase in December.

9:45 am EST
- The Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence reading for February is estimated to fall to 91.0 versus a reading of 91.2 in January.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by real estate firms in the region on speculation Japan would raise interest rates. I expect US equities to open mixed and to trade higher into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

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