Pre-market Summary

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Pre-market Summary

Futures indicate a flat open for the mkt after trading modestly lower overnight. In earnings news, Cisco Systems (CSCO) beat by $0.02 and issued in line Q4 rev guidance on its conference call. But shares, which initially traded higher following the earnings release, lost there gains during the conference call and are trading unchanged pre-mkt. Walt Disney (DIS) easily beat the top and bottom line consensus ests and said on its conference call that room reservations for its domestic resorts for the rest of the fiscal year are slightly ahead of the prior year. Shares are trading 2% higher pre-mkt. Some hawkish-sounding comments on inflation from Kansas City Fed President Hoenig contributed to the negative disposition overnight. He warned the Fed must be ready to raise benchmark interest rates in a timely manner given the "troublesome" inflation outlook. But to the upside, shares of Clearwire (CLWR) are trading 9% higher after it and Sprint Nextel (S) announced they will combine their next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications co. Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG), Comcast (CMSCA), Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks have collectively agreed to invest $3.2 bln into the new co, based on a target price of $20.00 per share of CLWR. Futures bounced modestly at 8:30ET following this morning's first economic release, where preliminary Q1 Productivity came in at a better than expected 2.2% (consensus 1.5%). Dow is currently -2; Nasdaq is currently -2.8; S&P is currently -0.4. For technical levels of interest, click here... The Bond mkt traded flat-to-slightly higher overnight, but sold off modestly following the better than expected Productivity data. The 10-yr is currently -06/32 to 3.940%. Looking ahead on the Fed calendar, Treasury Secretary Paulson speaks about the U.S. economy and Latin America at 10:00ET... In Commodities, the Dept. of Energy will release weekly inventory stats at 10:30ET, with crude expected to show a build of 1.625 mln barrels, gasoline expected to show a build of 100K and distillate expected to show a build of 1.1 mln. Ahead of the data, June crude oil is trading up a dime to $121.94... In Europe, mkts are higher, driven by chemicals and household goods groups following strong results and comment from brokers. FTSE is currently +0.7%; DAX is currently +1.0%; CAC is currently +1.1%. In Asia, mkts fell, reversing earlier gains on concern earnings at banks and refiners will be dragged down by a slowing global economy and record oil prices. Nikkei closed +0.4%; Hang Seng closed -2.5%; Shanghai Composite closed -4.1%... Notable pre-market Calls include Upgrades: NYX at Deutsche Bank; Downgrades: CTRP at Piper Jaffray, SOHU at Deutsche Bank: Initiations: BYD (Sell) at BofA, GOOG (Buy) at Kaufman; Resumptions: MSFT and YHOO (Equal-weights) at Lehman... On the Earnings calendar, 81 companies are confirmed to report today after the close, including CROX... On the Economic calendar, Mar Pending Home Sales m/m (consensus -1.0%; prior -1.9%) are due out at 10:00ET, while Mar Consumer Credit (consensus $6.0 bln; prior $5.2 bln) is due out at 15:00ET.