Every morning the Street of Walls team puts out an update on market levels, today’s top stories, and active M&A deals.
Today’s Top Stories:
- Geithner Not Trying to Hurt Banks: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sought to calm fears that the Obama administration’s bank reforms were hostile to the U.S. financial industry, saying on Wednesday the reforms were “tough where they need to be tough.” http://reut.rs/xZGhVz
- Tax Overhaul: President Obama said to plan offering proposal to overhaul U.S. corporate tax system in Feb
- Citi Overhaul: Citigroup’s costs will be $2.5b-$3b lower next year as bank embarks on re-engineering, CEO Vikram Pandit says in BTV interview in Davos
- Home Foreclosures: sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2011, down from 22 percent of all sales in the second quarter and down from 30 percent of all sales in the third quarter of 201 (RealtyTrac)
- US Military Plans: the Pentagon plans on calling for a large increase in unmanned drones and special forces “lily pad” bases in an effort to project US military muscle globally w/o having to deploy large amounts of resources (WSJ)
- Ackman Nominates Board Member for CP: Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has nominated 5 individuals to the Board of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (TSX:CP: NYSE:CP) http://bit.ly/xn8qdf
- Jefferies Buying RBS Unit: RBS is nearing an agreement to sell its Hoare Govett corporate broking unit to JEF (BBG)
- BAC Cuts Bonuses 25%: BAC told its investment bankers to expect their bonus packages to be down 25% this year http://bit.ly/znDYs7
- BAC Bonus in Stock: will be paying a portion of cash bonuses in unrestricted common stock that will vest immediatelyhttp://on.wsj.com/AkAlU4
- Office Sales Jump +44%: $48bn of office deals were completed last year (BBG)
- NFLX Large Beat: “After beat and raise Q, we view the 4 key signs as critical reads into co’s return to growth status. You can buy stk at < 20X P/E for its domestic business and get a free call option on its Int’l segment” (Citi)
- Fortress CEO Resigns: Daniel Mudd has resigned from his position as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Fortress Investment Group (NYSE:FIG) http://bit.ly/zroGKG
M&A Watch:
- Weekly M&A Trends: Announced M&A volumes for the week rose +35% to $25.9 billion. ECM volumes declined by -61% from a tough comparable last week http://bit.ly/Ap6olP
- AMGN to buy Micromet (MITI) for $1.16B
