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Germany’s Gfk consumer confidence index has held steady at 8.5 heading into June
Pfizer PFE has abandoned its attempt to acquire AstraZeneca AZN for £69.4B
The NHTSA has closed an investigation into Tesla Motors TSLA relating to Model S fires
McDonald’s MCD announces it will run a free coffee promotion from March 31 to April 13 across the U.S.
RCS Capital Corporation (RCAP) declares $0.18/share quarterly dividend, in line with prior
Cameron CAM repurchased 12.8M shares this year at a total cost of $780M.
Genuine Parts Company GPC declares $0.575/share quarterly dividend, 7.0% increase from prior dividend of $0.5375.
ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ANIP): Q4 EPS of $0.35
Duke Energy DUK: Net profit rose 58% to $688M
Coca-Cola Q4 EPS falls to $0.38
U.S. Steel X is downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a price target cut to $23 from $28 at Citigroup
Maxim Group upgrades Navios Maritime Acquisition $NNA to a Buy rating from Hold
Wedbush downgraded Insmed INSM to Underperform, and cut PT to $7 from $18
U.S. Department of Energy approves exports from Sempra Energy’s SRE Cameron liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana.
American Electric Power’s AEP net profit $346M from $21M a year earlier
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. RCL Q4 EPS of $0.23 beats by $0.05.
Caterpillar approves $10 bln buyback through 2018
Jefferies is reiterating a Buy and $42 PT for MSFT
Call option bets on the VIX this week soared to a record high 8.4M contracts at the CBOE.
E2open EOPN has priced its 4.7M-share stock offering at $25
West Bancorporation WTBA: Q4 EPS of $0.27 vs. $0.22 in 4Q12
State Street Corporation STT: Q4 EPS of $1.15 misses by $0.05.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation KMB: Q4 EPS of $1.44 beats by $0.05
Procter & Gamble PG reports organic sales grew 3% during FQ2
Global Hunter downgrades Hercules Offshore $HERO shares to Neutral from Buy and lowers its target price to $6 from $12
Guangshen Railway GSH is being upgraded from BofAML to Buy from Neutral.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. FCX: Q4 EPS of $0.68 misses by $0.12
JPMorgan, lowering IBM PT to $175.
Credit Suisse reiterates its Sell rating and $160 for IBM
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated ATI: Q4 EPS of $-0.08 beats by $0.13.
RBC Capital downgrades Travelers TRV to just a Buy with price target of $98 (from $100) following earnings
Coach COH reports sales fell during its FQ2
Motorola Solutions, Inc. MSI: Q4 EPS of $1.67 beats by $0.05
United Technologies Corporation UTX: Q4 EPS of $1.67 beats by $0.14
McDonald’s MCD counters a report in the French media indicating it evades taxes in France.
California First National Bancorp CFNB: FQ2 EPS of $0.21
Comerica Inc. (CMA): Q4 EPS of $0.77 beats by $0.03 –
On Track Innovations OTIV closes the sale of its SmartID division to SuperCom SPCB for $10M in cash. –
Three months after raising $116M in gross proceeds through its 4M-share IPO, Rocket Fuel FUEL has obtained a $100M credit facility –
Kimco KIM narrows its Mexican exposure with an agreement to sell its 50% interest in a portfolio of nine retail properties
Anworth $ANH boosting its stock repurchase program by 5M shares. This quarter, the company has bought back 2.8M shares vs. a float of 140M.
BlackBerry BBRY co-founder Michael Lazaridis has cut his holding in the smartphone maker to 4.99%
Apollo Education APOL agrees to buy a majority stake in Open Colleges Australia, and will purchase 70% of the common stock
Piper is reiterating an Overweight and $96 PT for CommVault CVLT
Fifth Street Finance #FSC CEO Leonard Tannenbaum takes advantage of the recent dip in the stock price to add a small bit to his stake, buying 20K shares at $8.98 each.
Speculation is running around the options pits that Campbell Soup CPB could be the next food company to be purchased in a mega-buyout.
MoneyGram $MGI inks an agreement with New Albertson’s to offer its service offerings at over 400 ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Markets locations.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and a Ukraine subsidiary agree to pay ~$54M to settle charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Responsys (MKTG ) closed today at $27.40, $0.40 above Oracle’s (ORCL) $27/share acquisition price.
Corvex Management discloses a 5.28% stake in Williams Cos. WMB and seeks to add two members to WMB’s board of directors.
Honeywell HON is green-lighted by its board for a new $5B plan. –
KapStone Paper KS announced a two-for-one stock split via a stock dividend –
Allison Transmission ALSN announces the sale of 12.5M shares by “investment funds affiliated with The Carlyle Group and Onex Corporation
Franklin Resources BEN ups its buyback authorization to 30M shares from a previous program with 9.7M shares –
Yandex YNDX is offering $600M worth of convertible senior notes due 2018. Underwriters will have a $90M overallotment option. –
Verizon VZ is close to a deal to acquire Intel’s INTC TV unit, whose planned Web TV service never got off the ground. –
Apache APA and Marathon Oil MRO are downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup –
Cooper Companies COO boosts its buyback program by $200M to $500M, allowing another $261.5M in repurchase authority with no expiration date –
HFF (HF) closes two deals, the sale of Denver City Center, a two-building Class A office property with about 1.3M square feet, and the $237M sale of The Wellesley Office Park near Boston –
Stock market news and quotes
ValueClick (VCLK) is selling its Owned & Operated Websites business, which includes properties such as Investopedia and U.K. price-comparison site PriceRunner, to InterActiveCorp (IACI) –
The U.S. government has sold the remainder of its stake in GM, with the final sale netting $9.2B. –
Ares Capital ARCC is offering 14.3M shares of common stock with the underwriters granted a greenshoe option of 2.145M shares. –
Alpha Natural Resources ANR agreeing to sell its 50% interest in its Marcellus shale joint venture for $300M in cash and stock. –
Moody’s upgrades to B3 from Caa2 the mortgage covered bonds of Alpha Bank OTCPK:ALBKY and National Bank of Greece NBG
Morgan Stanley has lowered its passive stake in First Solar FSLR to 5.9% from 11.2%. –
Akamai AKAM CEO Tom Leighton discloses he bought 25K shares on Friday at a price of $45.28. –
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering ASX announces revenue grew 12.4% Y/Y and 5.8% sequentially in Nov. to $747M.
