Daily Highlights: 4.27.10

• Brazilian policy makers poised to raise borrowing costs at the fastest pace since 2003.
• China may use capital requirements for developers as policy tool to cool property market.
• Cost of insuring Greece's debt against default soared to a new record.
• Portugal suffering Greek debt contagion puts pressure on EU's bond markets.
• Republicans joined in the Senate to block Democrats' overhaul of financial regulation.
• Shanghai shares down 2.1%, with real estate stocks down on policy concerns.
• Trend in U.S. home prices may have been positive for first time since 2006
• Yen gains, Asian shares fall on concern over Greek bailout, China economy.
• Alberto-Culver's net rises 7.3% to $30.1M on moderate commodity costs. Revs up 12%.
• Altria, Reynoldsa and Liggett lose $20 Million verdict in Florida smoker case
• Alcon beats by $0.16, beats on revs; Q1 EPS at $1.91. Revs rose 15.3% to $1.72B.
• Best Buy Co. is targeting opening 60 to 150 "big box" stores in the UK.
• Boston Scientific's Q1 loss widened to $1.59B on steep write-down related to its U.S.
• BP's Q1 replacement cost profit jumped to $5.6B, from $2.4B at the same point a year ago.
• Canon Inc's Q1 net profit more than tripled to $604.2M, propelled by brisk camera sales.
• Caterpillar swung to a Q1 profit of $233M despite 11% dip in revenues to $8.24B.
• Charles River to buy WuXi PharmaTech for about $1.6B in cash and stock
• Deutsche Bank's profit jumps 48%, beating estimates on investment banking
• Electrolux first-quarter profit beats estimates as U.S. begins to recover
• Ford's March quarter earnings swing from a $1.4B loss last year to a $2.1B gain.
• Google backed away from plan to make its Nexus One smartphone compatible with Verizon.
• Humana's Q1 net rises 26% to $258.8M on reversal of prior reserves for medical claims.
• Imperial Tobacco returns to profit in first half after increasing prices
• Norsk Hydro swings to Q1 profit of $157.1M as revenue gained 10%.
• Oracle's CEO to adopt trading plan that would enable him to sell up to 50M shares.
• RadioShack posted Q1 profit of $50.1, up 16% YoY. Revenue grew 4% to $1.04B.
• Rent-A-Center's Q1 profit up 13% at $51.5M; raises full-year EPS f'cast to $2.60-2.80.
• Roper Industries' Q1 profit rose 16% to $59.7M, revs up 6% at $534M - misses estimates.
• Texas Instruments' Q1 profit soared to $658M as revenue climbed 54% to $3.21B.
• Universal Health beats by $0.04, posts Q1 EPS of $0.73; revenues rose 2.7% to $1.35B.
• Whirlpool reported Q1 earnings of $164M as sales surged 20% to $4.27B.

Economic Calendar: Data on Case-Shiller 20-city Index, Consumer Confidence to be released today.

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Data provided by Egan-Jones Ratings and Analytics