General News:
– There may be tax cut competition in Europe as countries in the continent try to attract business and sustain expansion.
– OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) says that the US should keep rates at 5.25% unless core inflation falls. Then, they can lower them.
– The Wall Street Journal mentioned that some private equity deals could fail in the future.
– The Financial Times ran a story that buy-out bids are now at a record $82 billion. The newspaper says that the deal boom could signal a desire by the buy-out firms to rush into deals before credit markets turn south.
– The National Association of Home Builders report that home foreclosures could rise to $650 billion.
– Oil is lower on easing tensions in Nigeria.
– Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Santander Central Hispano SA and Fortis offered 71.1 billion euros ($95.6 billion) for ABN Amro Holding NV. This hostile takeover bid outdoes Barclays Plc in the largest banking takeover.
Asia/Europe:
Asia:
– Japan’s jobless rate fell to 3.8% when 4.0% was expected.
– Japanese household spending rose 1.1% year over year.
– Japanese small business confidence fell to 49.3 when 49.4 was expected.
– Interest rate expectations in China are at a new high and inventory is rising.
– Shanghai Securities News reports that Chinese brokerage accounts could reach 100 million.
– India’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr. Kamal Nath, mentioned that India will receive $30 billion in foreign investment, which is a substantial increase from last year.
Europe:
– Italian retailer confidence and service sentiment was down.
– ECB’s (European Central Bank) Weber, who is also the Bundesbank president, said that the rate hike cycle is not over for 2007.
Corporate News:
– Toshiba announced that it will use Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips instead of Intel’s.
– There will be a restructuring for Liz Claiborne (LIZ) that includes store closings.
– CDW Corp (CDWC) is rumored to be a possible leveraged buy-out (LBO) target.
– Telecom equipment maker, Avaya Inc., is in talks with private equity and strategic bidders about selling all or part of the company, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
– The engineering and construction company, URS Corp. (URS), reports that it will buy competitor, Washington Group International (WNG), for $2.6 billion.
– Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may soon buy Archstone-Smith Trust for more than $12 billion and assume more than $6 billion in debt.
– Vodafone narrowed its yearly loss and gives a more favorable sales outlook.
– There was a product recall for Advanced Medical Optics (EYE), but notes that it was not a manufacturing issue.
Favorable Comments:
– Apache Corp. (APA), Target (TGT), Lowe’s (LOW), and Staples (SPLS) received favorable comments from analysts over at Bank of America.
– Applied Materials (AMAT), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), ATMI Inc. (ATMI) and MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) received some good news from analysts at Fridman Billings.
– Drug companies, Merck (MRK) and AstraZeneca (AZN), upgraded at HSBC.
– Juniper Networks (JNPR) and IBM (IBM) received favorable comments from Bernstein.
Negative Comments:
– Marsh Mclennan (MMC), EBAY (EBAY), Expedia (EXPE) and Yahoo (YHOO) and were all downgraded at Merrill Lynch.
– RadioShack (RSH) and BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ) get negative comments at Bank of America.
– Netflix (NFLX) is downgraded at Piper Jaffries.
– The Limited (LTD) is downgraded at Morgan Stanley.
– Steel Dynamics (STLD) downgraded at UBS.
– Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) downgraded at Stifel Nicolaus