Wake Up Call - Jan 22

Good Morning. The time is 9:55 AM EST, and the U.S. market is broadly lower outside of some light strength from the energy and semiconductor sectors.

Asia:
Hang Seng Index +2.19%; Shanghai/Shenzhen 300 +3.97%; NIKKEI 225 +0.66%; BSE SENSEX 30 +0.19%; KRX 100 +0.32%; Ho Chi Minh +0.45%

U.K. & Europe:
DJ STOXX 50 Index +0.19%; FTSE 100 +0.31%; CAC 40 +0.29%; DAX +0.09%; Russian RTS Index +1.14%

KEY HEADLINE NEWS

• The National Association of Business Economists survey showed increased domestic business demand for goods and services, but also showed decreased capital spending plans for 2007. This seems to provide evidence of business owners' and executives' contrasting view of economic conditions between today and tomorrow, and may help to spur a self-fulfilling prophecy in that regard.
• Hugo Chavez is pushing his luck with the United States, as he indicated on his weekly radio address that the government takeover of strategic industries would precede compensation to current owners. It's very clear that there is no hope for foreign investment in Venezuela as long as Hugo Chavez reigns. During his TV broadcast, "Hello President," Chavez commented on varied topics including Brazilian dancers and even went so far as to say to the U.S., "Go Home Gringos!" This paranoid leader is pushing himself into a corner, but it was interesting that the process of nationalization of strategic businesses has sped up just after Chavez met with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We suspect a power loving Ahmadinejad may be planning a coup of his own in Iran, to take power from the Ayatollahs. We also believe that the two nations may be actively preparing for preemptive strike on America and its allies in the Middle East and South America. Iran announced plans for new war games involving its missile forces, as the USS Stennis steams toward the Gulf region. History shows us that in war, surprise is a commonly employed strategic tactic, and Iran has learned well from the destruction of Saddam's Iraq. We believe Iranian forces would be viewed as liberators in Shiite majority Iraq, and gain millions more in manpower to face off against American allies Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Ahmadinejad may be ignorant when it comes to history, but he appears to us a thousand times wiser than Saddam Hussein regarding military and political strategy. We view this as the creeping catalyst that carries the potential to rescue your energy investments, while crashing emerging markets globally. Remember, you heard it hear first.
• Corporate news is likely to lead the market this week, and today started the week off with Pfizer's earnings report. Pfizer beat consensus expectations by a penny, but revenue growth was anything but stellar. The company is expected to announce a wide ranging restructuring plan in its conference call today. PFE shares are up fractionally in early trading.
• Intel cut a deal with Sun Microsystems, in which Sun will use chips from Intel in some of its servers. It's also been reported that Intel will endorse Sun's Solaris operating system. INTC shares were down fractionally in early activity, while SUNW was down 1.4%.

Check out "The Greek's Week Ahead" for your weekly market-moving event planner. We also urge you to read our section within the sidebar, entitled "Headline News", for further important information for traders and investors.

You can receive "Wake Up Call" in your email inbox at the moment we publish it to the site. All you have to do is click here and provide us with your email address. We respect your privacy, and never share your information with third parties. (disclosure)