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:
- FREE HF 13F Report: Next week the StreetofWalls team will be releasing the 4Q 2011 Hedge Fund Intelligence Report, free sign-up http://bit.ly/y2CMbx
- Coatue Updates Positions: Coatue has completely sold out of its position in Universal Display Corp. (Nasdaq:PANL) http://bit.ly/w4Su6j
- Goldman Insider Trading: U.S. investigating Goldman analyst on insider tips, WSJ says
- Harbinger’s Largest Holding: LightSquared to be blocked by FCC after U.S. interference report
- Berkshire Additions: Berkshire takes Liberty Media, DaVita stakes as Weschler joins
- S&P Earnings Growth: earnings for all S&P500 companies are set to rise 6.6% in Q4. However, ex AAPL and that number drops to just 2.8% http://on.wsj.com/zMgKo9
- BAC Pressures: gets second sell-side downgrade in as many days. On Tues, Citi cut the stock Buy to Neutral. On Wed, Bernstein is coming out and cutting the stock from Outperform to Market Perform
- Paulson Dumps Banks: Paulson Eliminates Big Stakes in BofA (BAC), Citi (C) and Regions (RF)http://on.wsj.com/zSmGo6
- HIG Breakup: HF manager John Paulson pushed for a break-up of the company in a securities filing out Tues after the close
- HSBC Expansion: the co may seek to expand in China by increasing its brand network nearly 8x or by doubling its stake in Bank of Communications
Economic Calendar:
- 8:30am: Empire Manufacturing, Feb., est. 15 (prior 13.48)
- 9am: Net Long-term TIC Flows, Dec., est. $45b (prior $59.8b)
- 9:15am: Industrial Production, Jan, est up 0.7% (prior up 0.4%)
- 9:15am: Fed’s Fisher speaks in San Marcos, Texas
- 10am: NAHB Housing Market index, Feb., est. 26 (prior 25)
- 10:30am: DoE crude inventories,e st. build 1600k (prior build 304k)
- 2pm: FOMC minutes from Jan. 24-25 meeting
M&A Watch:
- Weekly M&A Trends: This week saw some a big jump in M&A while ECM/DCM activity declined. Announced investment banking M&A doubled from the prior week to $80.9 billion, M&A volumes are still very low for the start of the year http://bit.ly/yuWbVv
- TRGL shrholder vote on proposed merger w/ ZaZa Energy 12pm
- Yahoo-Alibaba talks falter as investor steps up pressure
