Corporate events calendar & Economics Headlines $$

· Wed Mar 3: earnings before the open (Adidas, Standard Chartered, Taylor Wimpey, VRS, NNI, HSNI, NZ, JOYG, COST, PGR, URS, Adecco, RY, DIN). Earnings out after the close (FL, FNSR, TTWO, CBEY, DIVX, PETM, SINA, SIGM, BELM). Sales releases (WAG, HOTT). Analyst meetings (NYX, SWY, MYGN, TAP, VRSN). Mid-Q updates (ALTR)

· Thurs Mar 4: earnings before the open (Aviva, BUD, WRN, WEN, TYPE, STP, TK, CIEN, TD). Earnings after the close (MENT, MOVE, EVC, SLW, GA, ARST, ALSK, MRVL, COO). Retail companies will report their Feb sales before the open. Analyst meetings (A, PRGS, ENTG, BMY).

· Fri Mar 5: earnings before the open (AYR, BBGI). Analyst meetings (GAS, THI).

Economics Headlines

· J.P. Morgan’s all-industry PMI output index—which is a proxy for global GDP growth—rose slightly to 53.6 in February from 53.2 in January. Taken at face value, the February level would appear to be consistent with GDP growth of about 2.6% annualized. However, the global PMI undershot GDP growth by an average of 1.4% pts over the three quarters from 2Q09 to 4Q09. This track record suggests that global GDP growth may well top 3% this quarter. David Hensley

· China – new report from JPMorgan’s Jing Ulrich – “Debunking the myth of a China collapse”

· US The ISM non-manufacturing survey came in better than expectations last month, rising 2.5 points to 53.0. Perhaps the most encouraging detail was the employment index, which jumped 4 points to 48.6, the highest reading since April 2008. The business activity index also made a good move up, rising to 54.8 from 52.2. New orders edged up to 55.0 from 54.7. It was also good to see that inventories and the inventory sentiment gauge indicated there is still some restocking to do at retailers and other non-manufacturing firms. Overall, a good move in the right direction. Feroli.

· ADP Jobs report - The Macroeconomic Advisers/ADP employment report estimated that private nonfarm payroll employment dropped 20,000 in February. The key thing to note is that the February snowstorms probably had a much smaller impact on the ADP report than they will have on Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Given this, we continue to expect that the BLS report will show a 120,000 drop in private nonfarm employment and a 90,000 drop in total nonfarm employment. Reinhart

· Challenger layoff report – major US companies in February announced that they would cut 42,090 jobs. February's total of 42,090 planned layoffs was 41% below January's 71,482 and 77% lower than the 186,350 job cuts tracked in February 2009. DJ