Consumer Confidence Up

Morning News of Note:

• TWX: TIME LOOKS TO TRIM $100M TIME Inc. CEO Ann Moore is under pressure to come up with $100 million in cost savings next year, when more than one company insider expects a new bloodbath. One source said the new cuts could translate into 400 more job cuts early in 2006 — a number that accounts for 3 percent of the unit's 13,200-person workforce. (Full Story) NY Post
• MSFT YHOO: M'SOFT EYES YAHOO! TIES Fresh from losing the AOL sweepstakes to Google, Microsoft is wasting little time seeking another ticket to battle the search giant — and industry analysts believe the most likely candidate is Yahoo! Speculation about an alliance between the two companies has been mounting since Ian McAllister, a program manager at Microsoft's MSN division, wrote on his blog last week that he had recently met with "senior players at another Tier 1 Internet company" about "ways in which our companies might work together." (Full Story) NY Post
• AAPL: Sources: Intel developing next-generation Power Mac for Apple In a move that may surprise some Apple watchers, reliable sources tell AppleInsider the Mac maker has contracted the design duties for its next-generation Power Mac motherboard over to industry heavyweight Intel Corp. Specifically, sources said Intel's facilities in Oregon picked up the project in late-October after Apple sought the chip maker's help in meeting deadlines associated with its accelerated transition from PowerPC processors to Intel chips. (Full Story) Apple Insider
• MOT: Digitimes reports the four leading Taiwan makers of handset-use PCBs -- Compeq Manufacturing, Unimicron Technology, Wus Printed Circuit, and Unitech Printed Circuit Board -- all indicated that backlogs of orders received so far will enable them to operate at full capacity until the first quarter of 2006. Motorola has been pinpointed as the main source for the surge in demand, with some sources at the makers indicating that orders placed by Motorola for the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2006 were 50% or even 100% higher than the usual peak season orders placed by the US vendor.
• TGT: Target-TGT sees S S S up 4%-5% for the month of December-CNBC

Market Comments: The market opened slighlty higher this morning, but as we saw yesterday, its how it closes that is important. Consumer confidence came in above expectations at 103.6 vs. 102.5 consensus.

Target said that is sales remain on forcast , which is a good sign considering all of the handwringing over holiday sales. Target is a pretty good barometer for the averge consumer (I love my local Target).

The debate in the media continues to focus on the inversion of the yield curve between the 2-10 year yields. It should be no suprise that this could be indicating an economic slowdown, but I do not think it is correct to assume it is forecasting recession.

long MSFT, TWX