Awaiting New Catalysts

Good morning. We start the new week with some M&A news between Cablevision (CVC) & News Corp. (NWS), some mixed news from financials (see MBI & HBC), and lowered earnings guidance at Fedex (FDX). The dollar is up amid chatter that the Bush administration is trying strengthen the currency while oil prices dip.

Ahead of the opening bell, premarket futures are showing a slight positive bias primarily due to carryover strength from overseas markets.

Premarket gainers: RADN, TDSC, TSFG, CNTF, SILC, VC, RIMM, SPWR, SIRI, ANN, PLCE, ZRAN, EP, CHTR, ECA, WMT, CVC, VCGH, HOGS, FEED, RICK, CAM, MVL, SWPR, CPST, and ESLR.

Premarket losers: GENC, IMCL, PSUN, MBI, MOVE, ERIC, OMNI, MBI, FDX, and TTI.

This week's economic calendar starts out slow with no economic data today but we have some Fedspeak later this morning from Fed President Evans. Much like we saw on Friday, traders will be watching whether the S&P (and other major indexes) hold their respective 20 day and 50 day moving averages this week. Last week's pulled helped relieve some of the overbought condition as investors await new catalysts especially this week's inflation data.