Daily Highlights: 4.26.10

• Asian stocks, commodities rally on economic recovery, Greece.
• Bond traders declare inflation dead with yields below 2008 crisis levels.
• China is considering introducing new or higher taxes on real estate.
• Consumer spending in US probably stepped up, carrying expansion in 2010.
• Dollar rises versus Yen amid signs of global recovery before Fed meeting.
• Finance Ministers urge IMF, EU to speed aid to Greece at Washington Talks.
• Germany is laying the legal ground for its contribution to the financial aid package for Greece.
• Japanese 10-year bonds fell for the first time in three days.
• Regulators closed 7 Illinois banks on Friday, bringing the year's total to 57.
• UK house prices rose in April at the slowest pace in three months.
• Weaker yen boosted exporters in Japan, with Nikkei up 2%.
• Bank of Ireland will embark on a €3.4B capital-raising exercise in the private market.
• CAT's March net income rises from a $112M loss last year to a $233M gain this year.
• Charles River Lab likely to announce acquisition of China's WuXi AppTec, for $1.6B.
• CKE agreed to be sold to Apollo Management group for $694M.
• Daimler, BYD join forces and share know-how to establish a new brand of electric cars.
• Ensco Plc sold a jackup rig for $47M, higher than the book value of $30M.
• Germany's E.On is said to weigh bids for $5B Kentucky utility unit.
• Goldman Sachs clashes with Senate's Levin ahead of Blankfein's testimony.
• Hertz Global to buy Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. for about $1.2B in cash and stock
• J&J's Q1 profit rose 29% to $4.5B, lowers 2010 EPS view on impact of health-care reform.
• L'Occitane may raise $707M in Hong Kong share sale to expand store.
• T. Rowe's Q1 net triples to $153M as revenues gained 44% to $557.1M.
• Toyota rose the most in seven weeks in Tokyo.
• Travelers Cos. Q1 net falls 2% on higher claims from Chilean earthquake, US snowstorms.
• UAL, Continental Airlines continuing their merger talks, but disagreements emerge over which share price to use for stock-swap deal.
• Whirlpool 1Q profit more than doubles as sales of its appliances improve.
• Xerox swings to $42M loss on acquisition related costs, sales soar 33% to $4.72B.

Earnings Calendar: AAN, AMP, BLK, BSX, CAS, CAT, CX, ELX, GAS, HMA, HUM, HXL, MDU, NRG, RSH, SANM, TXN, WRB.

RECENT RATING ACTIONS
NEW YORK TIMES CO/THE (NYT)
MDC HOLDINGS INC (MDC)
XEROX CORP (XRX)
SEARS HOLDINGS CORP (SHLD)
PEPSICO INC/NC (PEP)
UNITED RENTALS INC (URI)
DIAMOND OFFSHORE DRILLING (DO)
CELLCO PARTNERSHIP (VZW)
BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC (BAX)
PACKAGING CORP OF AMERICA (PKG)
VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC (VZ)
QWEST COMMUNICATIONS (Q)

Data provided by Egan-Jones Ratings and Analytics

Comments

[Sucks_to_be_Smart]

Haha, yes!  Rally on Greece.  FACT! 

when do we wake up?  I feel like i'm in a financial nightmare on elm street.  They should make a movie "Nightmare on Wall Street" and have Blankfein with a Krugger hand running around forcing people to hand him over their checkbooks!

[Bigdaddydvo]

2.26.10 should be 4.26.10 imo