Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The US Supreme Court tightened the constitutional limits on punitive damages, setting aside a $79.5 million award in a smoker case against Altria Group’s(MO) Phillip Morris USA unit.
- Crude oil is falling $1.60/bbl. to $57.79/bbl. on forecasts for milder weather and comments from Russia that oil would decline in price this year and next.
- Wal-Mart Stores(WMT) said fourth-quarter profit rose 9.8%, exceeding analysts’ estimates after discounts on toys and electronics attracted holiday shoppers.
- Shire Plc, the UK maker of attention-deficit drug Adderall XR, agreed to buy New River Pharmaceuticals(NRPH) for $2.6 billion to gain full control of Vyvanse, a potential successor.
- Buyout funds have the potential to acquire more than $2 trillion worth of stocks this year, according to strategists at Credit Suisse Group.
- Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) trounced Dell Inc.(DELL) in the personal-computer market last quarter, widening its lead and boosting sales and earnings.
- The yen dropped for a third day against the dollar and euro as the Bank of Japan began a two-day monetary policy meeting under pressure from politicians to keep borrowing costs low.
- General Motors Corp.(GM) stands a 50% chance of buying DaimlerChrysler’s(DCX) Chrysler unit and may seek the purchase as a “defensive maneuver,” Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy said.
- Frontier Oil Corp.(FTO) announced today the acquisition of Ethanol Management Company. EMC’s primary assets are a 25,000 barrel-per-day products terminal and blending facility.
- Gold is falling the most in two weeks, $12/oz., in NY as a rising dollar, falling oil and lower inflation readings make the precious metal a less attractive investment.
- Copper is falling 2.2% on another 1.3% increase in Comex copper inventories.
- Russia, the world’s fourth-largest steel producer, will impose three-year duties on stainless-steel sheet imports from the European Union that are likely to help domestic producers win market share from competitors.

Wall Street Journal:
- The Container Store, a closely held retailer specializing in storage-and-organization items, has hired JP Morgan Chase(JPM) and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP to find a buyer.
- US women took more than half the new jobs in the first half of this decade and also managed to find better-paying positions, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2000-2005.
- Callaway Golf(ELY) has tripled the marketing budget for its Top-Flite golf balls to boost sales of the redesigned ball.
- Kraft Foods will sell more complete meals with its products as ingredients as part of a new strategy as it gets ready to spin off from Altria Group(MO).

NY Times:
- JetBlue Airways(JBLU) will begin reimbursing customers who last week were stranded as a result of the airline’s missteps when a winter storm swept the US East Coast.

Globe and Mail:
- Canada’s governing Conservative Party moved into the lead in voter popularity largely because of the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, according to a new poll.

Daily Telegraph:
- Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the Intl. Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), said countries possessing nuclear weapons can’t without hypocrisy tell others, such as Iran, that they may not do so.

Interfax:
- Russia expects weapons exports to increase to $7.5 billion this year, led by India and China, citing First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.

Asharq al-Awsat:
- Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul, the Arab world’s biggest stock market that is down 60% from its high last year, is among the region’s “weakest” in terms of attracting new listings, citing a bourse official.