Last updated March 10, 2010: 4:10 PM ET — The major US equity indices closed higher Wednesday after the government reported that companies’ sales rose in January and on M&A news and speculation. The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories fell 0.2% in January after falling 1% in December. Companies’ sales rose 1.3%, which is the 10th straight gain. Barclays (NYSE:BCS) is considering another acquisition in the US and is looking for a retail bank that will give it more deposits and extend the presence of its Barclays Capital unit, according to a Wall Street Journal report
Good Morning. It’s Monday, March 8, 2010. At this hour, US equity futures are trading down. Overseas, the Asian markets were mixed, while the European markets are generally lower.
3/3/2010-The Ukranian parliament has passed a motion that ousted the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a no-confidence vote, according to various media reports. The no-confidence decision was passed with 243 votes in the 450-seat chamber. She and her cabinet will now have to resign, and a new majority coalition is expected to form around Yanukovych’s Party of Regions and would then be able to put forward a new prime minister. “If the dismissal of the government is passed today, at that very same moment our government will leave the cabinet
3/3/2010-Verizon (NYSE:VZ) users experienced a “nationwide” data outage Wednesday morning, as clients using Droid, Pre Plus and Storm2 handsets were unable to access various applications like Facebook. However, shortly after the early morning data outage, at approximately 8:00 am the issue was reportedly handled. Shares of Verizon Communications are trading 0.1% lower to $29.22 Wednesday.
3/2/2010- Honda Motor Co. (NYSE:HMC) said sales were up 12.7% year-over-year to 80671 vehicles. Honda said that total car sales rose to 46111 units, up from 40960 a year ago, and total truck sales increased 34560 vehicles, up from 30615 a year ago.
3/2/2010- Ford (NYSE:F) US sales are up 43% year-over-year and up 22% compared to January. Ford brand sales are up 46% year-over-year, Lincoln sales are up 19% year-over-year, and Mercury sales are up 24% year-over-year. Production in Q2 is up 144000 vehicles versus a year ago. Year to date through February, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales totaled 250050, which is up 34% versus a year ago.
3/2/2010-Shares of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) are trading 0.4% higher to $534.78 premarket Tuesday after Reuters reported the search giant has acquired online photo-editing site Picnik, a 5-year-old Seattle-based start-up which said on its website that it has 20 employees. Google did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Google spokesman Andrew Pederson said in an email message that the Picnik team has joined Google’s Seattle office and will work with Google’s Picasa photo sharing service group.
3/2/2010-lyondellbasell’s board of directors has reportedly rejected a $14.5 billion revised bid from Reliance Industries Tuesday. Reliance Industries Ltd., which owns the world’s largest oil-refining complex and is run by India’s richest man, boosted its offer for bankrupt lyondellbasell Industries AF to approximately $14.5 billion last month. The offer was raised from an earlier bid of $13.5 billion. The offer puts billionaire Mukesh Ambani against creditors that included NY-based PE firm Apollo Management LP.
2/23/2010-Citigroup maintained its Hold rating on Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) but adjusted its price target lower, from $110 to $106. Analyst Michael Rollins said, “Our study of ongoing capital spending intensity shows the potential for higher capital intensity than long-term guidance, which is dilutive to our valuation analysis. However, we believe returns for the business model remain on a solid footing and we may revisit our thesis if the share price pulls back to the $80-90 range given the support levels implied by our discretionary FCF/share analysis. Prefer Buy-rated Cogent with upside potential to FY10 consensus revenue with exposure to growth from both its enterprise & data center (net-centric) segments.” Rollins continued, “Our bottom-up analysis of capital spending coupled with our analysis of gross PP&E suggests that capital spending for the existing portfolio is likely to stay in a range between 7% and 10% of revenue over time, implying an economic useful life of 20-32 years, versus EQIX guidance of 5% or a useful life of 40 years.” The bank expects the company to report 2010 EPS of $2.07, versus consensus estimates of $2.06.
In order to offset its round of recalls and avoid ballooning of inventories, Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) announced that it was idling two plans in the United States. The company said it was suspending production at its truck plant in San Antonio for two weeks and scheduled one day of halted production at its plan in Georgetown Kentucky. In addition, the world’s largest automaker is facing a number of class-action lawsuits, which a law professor told the Financial Times, could wind up costing the carmaker $3.6 billion, based on an average loss of $600 per vehicle. Toyota Motor is trading 1.5% lower Tuesday to $75.95 on the news.