Morning Note (Tyler)...

Futures +15 bps this morning on the back of stronger overseas markets.  European stocks rose to a 14-month high and Asian shares rose on news that China said its economy grew faster than estimated this year.  Morgan Stanley is out this morning saying that shorting US treasuries will be a great play in 2010.  They forecast the yield on 10-yr notes will climb 40% to 5.5% by year-end 2010.  Barclays’s analyst Dean Maki is also out this morning saying the US will turn in its best performance this upcoming year since 2004.  Don’t be surprised to see some year-end window dressing or some funds trying to get ahead of strong 2010 sentiment this week.  The only major event this week will be the Senate final Healthcare vote on Thursday morning around 7 am.  Dallas Fed Manufacturing comes out at 10 am as well.  The treasury will auction $118 Billion of Treasuries this week (quote section).

It seems most of Wall Street took the day off this morning as the theme of considerably low trading volumes pervades.  I’ve heard more news this morning on Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, than any pertinent financial news (although, I have to be honest- I saw Avatar on I-max 3D and it’s shockingly awesome technology).  Only one upgrade across the street this morning, as Capital One upgrades SLB.  WSJ’s Natural gas prices aren’t likely to rise significantly anytime soon, as evidenced by XTO’s willingness to sell itself to XOM for just a modest premium. The article discusses how low natural gas prices are a positive for the chemical industry, which may be able to regain some of its lost competitive edge in the global market. Lobbying by Wall Street has resulted in watered-down financial regulation of derivatives in the House of Representatives.

Asia mixed overnight.  Europe +75bps on average.  USD -17bps.  Oil +45bps.  Gold +70bps.

Brightpoint News:

Brightpoint PreMarket (yest close/premkt/% change/volume):

S&P 500 PreMarket (last/% change prior close/volume): 

MBIA INC                       4.3300  4.59      +6.0 %

GANNETT CO                 15.6300 16.15    +3.33%

AMERICAN INTERNA       30.1200 30.88    +2.52%

H&R BLOCK INC              21.5900 22.00    +1.9 %

SCANA CORP                 38.4200 39.10    +1.77%

FREEPORT-MCMORAN    81.8100 83.07    +1.54%

COGNIZANT TECH-A       46.2300 46.94    +1.54%

WINDSTREAM CORP       11.4800 11.65    +1.48%

L-3 COMM HLDGS           85.6300 86.80    +1.37%

MEDTRONIC INC             44.1200 44.72    +1.36%

SOUTHWESTRN ENGY     50.6200 51.30    +1.34%

APPLE                           209.040 211.35  +1.11%

DYNEGY INC-A                1.8400  1.82      -1.09%

FLUOR CORP                  45.4000 45.8800 +1.06%

JDS UNIPHASE               8.5100  8.60      +1.06%

MEMC ELEC MATER        13.5700 13.71    +1.03%

Today’s Trivia:  What is the second largest city in each of these countries: a. Mexico b. China c. France?

Yesterday's Answer:  The official name of “The Night before Christmas” is "A Visit From St. Nicholas"

Best Quotes:   “The administration sure is learning how to take advantage of the Ritalin addicted, holiday sales overbonanza'ed (1% increase over last year's gruesome December performance surely must be terrific news) public. Not only did Obama hope the whole Fannie/Freddie situation would slip by unnoticed even as he paid the failed public servants over at the nationalized-in-perpetuity GSEs an insane amount of money, but this week the Cottonelle experts over at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue tried to sneak a $118 billion in coupons and another $57 billion in bills, a total of $175 billion pieces worth of one-ply bidet replacements, for the last weekly auctions of the "noughties"” –Zero Hedge Blog