June Average Weekly Hours 33.0 vs 33.1 consensus

Initial Claims 614K vs 615K consensus, prior revised to 630K from 627K; Continuing Claims falls to 6.702 mln from 6.738 mln

10:00am  Factory Orders                                                 est. 0.9%      range –0.7% to 2.0%     prior 0.7%

10:30am   EIA Natural Gas Storage Change                  est. 74          range 69 to 85                 prior 94

Technical                   Moving Averages                                                           

                                50-Day                   200-Day                                                                

S&P                        907                          889                                                                         

Dow                        8436                        8452

NASDAQ              1766                        1639

Futures

S&P futures vs fair value: -7.50. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -11.00

Pre-Market Movers

Trading higher: ELN +26.2% (JNJ agreement), GST +24.4% (asset sale), ESLR +11.6% (JPM upgrade), IPCR +6.2% (FSR makes offer), ENER +4.6% (JPM initiates overweight), SAY +2.4% (Tech Mahindra may raise stake).  

Trading lower: DSCO -47.6% (Surfaxin update, Wedbush downgrade), LEA -25% (bankruptcy filing), ACUR -15.3% (FDA complete response letter for Acurox), SEPR -14.7% (trial results), ILMN -14.3% (guidance), TIVO -13.6% (Echostar injunction blocked), HMY -5.7%, FRPT -3.3% (follow-through).  

Thursday July 2nd, 2009 Top News Stories

NRG Exelon increases its offer to acquire all of the outstanding NRG common stock in an all-stock transaction with a fixed exchange ratio of 0.545 of a share of Exelon common stock for each NRG share, a 12.4%  increase over the initial exchange offer of 0.485.

ELN Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and ELN announced a definitive agreement whereby JNJ will acquire substantially all of the assets and rights of Elan related to its Alzheimer's Immunotherapy Program (AIP Program), through a newly formed company. In addition, Johnson & Johnson, through its affiliate, will invest $1 bln in Elan in exchange for newly issued American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of Elan which will represent 18.4% of Elan's outstanding ordinary shares.

The European Central Banks leaves rates unchanged at 1.00%, as expected

Thursday July 2nd, 2009

Earnings

XLNX Co discloses that its June quarter sales are expected to be down approximately 5% sequentially. This is a revision from previous sales guidance of down 4% to up 4% sequentially. The shortfall in sales is primarily due to supply constraints on certain Virtex-5 devices that are in high demand.

Other Stock News

ACUR Acura Pharma and King Receive FDA Complete Response Letter Regarding Acurox(R).

FCSX FCStone and IAAC announce merger in which FCSX's stockholders will receive 0.2950 shares of IAAC common stock for each share of FCSX.  

Wednesday July 1st, 2009

Earnings

ILMN Co announced, based on management's preliminary financial review, second quarter revenue of approximately $161 mln compared to guidance of $168 to $173 mln ($172 mln consensus).

Other Stock News

SCMP Co reportS top-line results from its phase 2 clinical trial of orally administered cobiprostone for the prevention of gastric ulcers and other gastrointestinal injuries in patients treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). A top-line analysis of data from the trial indicates that patients receiving cobiprostone experienced a lower overall incidence of ulcers.

LEA Lear Reaches agreement in principle on consensual debt restructuring; plans to commence proposed restructuring under Chapter 11.

SEPR Sepracor determined that SEP-225289 did not meet the primary efficacy endpoint; the positive control in the study (venlafaxine extended-release) did achieve separation from placebo that was statistically significant on the primary endpoint.  

DSCO Discovery Labs learned that the FDA will now apply a newly-defined standard to determine whether Discovery Labs has adequately demonstrated comparability of Surfaxin clinical to commercial drug product.

Offerings/IPO’s

Overseas Markets

FTSE...4309.01...-31.70...-0.70%. DAX...4827.22...-78.20...-1.60%

Nikkei...9876.15...-63.80...-0.60%. Hang Seng...18178.05...-200.70...-1.10%

Upgrades/Downgrades

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