Daily Highlights: 3.8.10

• Asian share markets were higher Monday with the Nikkei up 1.4% as exporters gained.
• China pledged to keep prices stable this year, to rein in lending and manage consequences.
• China to nullify local governments' loan guarantees as credit risk grows.
• Fed is battling to keep Congress from cutting its supervisory power.
• India plans to accelerate sales of state assets to about one a month.
• Sarkozy says Europe ready to help Greece fund debt, fend off speculators.
• Oil prices rose to near $82 a barrel Monday in Asia.
• ABC returns to Cablevision, tentatively ended a dispute over fees.
• AIG, MetLife putting finishing touches on the $15.5B deal for AIG's second-largest foreign life-insurance unit.
• Andrew Farkas to buy Centerline Holding for $100M in new equity, assume $180M of debt.
• Bristol-Myers sees its 2013 earnings about 9-13% lower than anticipated 2010 levels.
• BYD, the automaker backed by Warren Buffett, plans to start selling electric and hybrid cars in western Europe next year.
• China Eastern Air sees 2010 passenger volume up over 20%.
• China Unicom is working with Apple to introduce iPhones with Wi-Fi capability.
• Daimler to inform investors on possible charge related to its 15% stake in EADS on April 27.
• EADS sees EBIT, net loss in 2009 due to Airbus A400M settlement which rose by €1.8B.
• Fujitsu fell more than 4% on Monday amid a dispute with former president Kuniaki Nozoe.
• Hormel Foods wants to expand in China with an acquisition or a joint venture.
• HP revises previously reported Q1 net lower by $73M due to litigation charge.
• India-based Essar Group is considering a $8B LSE listing for its power, oil assets.
• Shell, PetroChina offer $3B cash for Arrow Energy to tap coal-seam gas.
• Sybase Inc. it boosted its share repurchase by $150M.
• UK regulators are investigating whether Kraft misled employees, investors during its battle to take over Cadbury.
• Veolia's 2009 net rises 44% to €584.1M, beating expectations, on cost cutting efforts.
• Wal-Mart De Mexico February same-store sales up 4.5% on year.

Earnings Calendar: AEPI, AVD, CAS, CASY, CHINA, FGP, HRB, LACO, RSCR, THO.

RECENT RATING ACTIONS

PHH CORP (PHH)
DENBURY RESOURCES INC (DNR)
SCOTTS MIRACLE-GRO CO/THE (SMG)
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP (ORB)
NABORS INDUSTRIES LTD (NBR)
HOVNANIAN ENTERPRISES INC (HOV)
CENTRAL GARDEN AND PET CO (CENT)
WILLIAMS COS INC/THE (WMB)
RYDER SYSTEM INC (R)
MASSEY ENERGY CO (MEE)
DOMINO'S PIZZA INC (DPZ)
AK STEEL HOLDING CORP (AKS)

Data provided by Egan-Jones Ratings and Analytics

Comments

[deadhead]

Sarkozy says Europe ready to help Greece fund debt, fend off speculators

Sarkozy, ostensibly taking a page from the Iceland PM's book, has just reached new lows in his approval rating. His party is expected to get hammered in upcoming local elections.  Will Merkel follow the pattern????

[Anonymous]

Dont worry about him. The guy knows how to float his boat. He is revamping the entire electorate system to ensure that any party with a 30 per cent support at first voting round is elected. His party is the one in this position, others are too divided to hit the 30 pc level at first round. The rest is a piece of cake: strip the 70 pc others in order to better the 30 pc, which warrants both that the 30 pc will know where to vote if they want to keep their standard of life and that the other 70 pc can never unite to hit the 30 pc at first voting round.

Guy and his party are going to be in power for the next decade and half.

[deadhead]

thank you for the insights!

[mouser98]

China pledged to keep prices stable this year, to rein in lending and manage consequences.

China to nullify local governments' loan guarantees as credit risk grows.

this cannot end well

[Anonymous]

Evil damned speculators... doubtless the same ones who destroyed the savings of a generation by shorting the yen lo these many years.

I understand they even had the temerity to attempt to turn the US dollar into a carry trade vehicle, but our vigilant and virtuous Fed managed to thwart them!

[omi]

In a government vs speculator battle, my money is always on speculator.

[mark456]

Good Linux hosting option package offered by ucvhost which not only provides the best in terms of hosting packages but also believes in truly being there for the customer, 24x7. vps web hosting Moreover , they offer unlimited bandwidth as well as nearly 1GB storage along with database maintenance, email facility along with storage, availability of sub domain and many other important features for a very low price. ucvhost thanks