Wake Up Call - Jan 4

Good Morning. This is your wake up call for Thursday January 4, 2007. The time is 8:15 AM EST, and all major U.S. equity index futures are indicating a lower open today. As we warned in "The Greek's Week Ahead" and yesterday's "Today's Morning Coffee," the discussion and tone of the Fed meeting minutes sent U.S. equity markets astir yesterday. Economic concerns continue to weigh on the market this morning, with factory orders, weekly jobless claims and ISM's nonmanufacturing index on tap for today.

OVERSEAS MARKETS

Asia:
Hang Seng Index -1.9%; Shanghai/Shenzhen 300 +1.28%; NIKKEI 225 +0.74%; SET -1.67%; Ho Chi Minh +4.11%

U.K. & Europe:
DJ STOXX 50 Index -0.34%; FTSE 100 -0.63%; CAC 40 -0.69%; DAX -0.64%; SOFIX +1.82%

KEY HEADLINE NEWS

• The European service sector checked in with growth slightly below expectations, creating concern in Europe and driving most European shares lower today. However, the metric still indicated the sector grew at a healthy rate.
• Threats of further attacks are driving Thailand's shares lower today, and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Index is rebounding sharply as the source of Bangkok's New Year's blasts proved to be a local group.
• Yesterday's rumor has proven true, as Homeland Security Chief, John Negroponte, is changing jobs to become deputy to the Secretary of State. We speculate that the Republican Party may be considering Condi Rice for a more prominent role in 2008 or sooner, the Vice Presidency.
• Crude oil was down 4.47% yesterday, testing the $58 level, on speculation that oil inventory levels could show an unseasonable build this week. 2007 portends to be the warmest year on record.

Check back in later this morning for "Today's Morning Coffee," where we go into greater depth regarding the day's market-moving event schedule. (disclosure)