Bloomberg:
- Iran’s president said 15 British sailors and marines in captivity in Iran will be released. Oil is falling .60/bbl. on the report.
- Best Buy(BBY), the largest US consumer electronics retailer, said fourth-quarter profit rose 18% on gift-card redemptions and strong sales of flat-panel televisions. Best Buy’s 21% jump in revenue was the most in three years.
- Illinois Senator Barack Obama raised at least $25 billion in the first quarter of his presidential campaign, just below the total of Democratic rival and top fundraiser Hillary Clinton.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus in defiance of President Bush, who called the visit “counterproductive.”
- Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) had its third-quarter profit and revenue estimates raised by Citigroup Inc. on the outlook for the Windows Vista operating system.
- WJ Bradley Company Merchant Partners LLC, a Denver-based firm that’s bought almost a dozen home lenders and brokers, agreed to purchase MortgageTree Lending of Modesto, California.
- Brazil’s soybean and corn harvests will be even bigger than the records previously forecast after abundant rainfall over the past three months boosted yields.
Wall Street Journal:
- The US Air Force says it can save $1.7 billion over six years if it is allowed to be the central purchaser of flying combat drones, citing Bruce Nelson, the service’s technical adviser for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
- Many illegal immigrants in the US are paying income taxes in a bid to adhere to US laws. Immigrants, even if they are in the US illegally, are still required to pay taxes, citing IRS Commissioner Mark Everson.
- General Mills(GIS) has hired celebrity chef Mario Batali to produce a new line of frozen Italian pasta meals.
- SEC officials are taking a closer look at regular sales of company stock by top executives as part of insider-trading scrutiny.
NY Times:
- New Jersey redirected billions of dollars from its workers’ pension fund for other purposes in the past 15 years and overstated what it actually contributed by hundreds of millions. State officials say the $79 billion public fund, the nation’s ninth-largest, faces a serious deficit and could collapse without large contributions.
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, established in 1968 in the US by one of the founders of Johnson & Johnson(JNJ), will spend at least $500 million to fight childhood obesity over the next five years.
- US authorities are planning to spend about $2.5 billion on water projects in four states with areas scorched by prolonged drought, the biggest expansion in the West’s water infrastructure in decades.
- Vermont’s lucrative tax breaks have made the state a viable alternative to the Cayman Islands and Bermuda as the “offshore” insurance destination of choice for US companies.
Detroit News:
- Blackstone Group LP, Cerberus Capital Management LP, and Magna International have made formal bids to DaimlerChryler AG(DCX) to buy its Chrysler Group unit.
NY Post:
- Billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad may increase their bid for Tribune(TRB) to top the $8.2 billion agreement reached by Sam Zell and the newspaper.
Financial Times:
- Accredited Home Lenders Holding(LEND), a San Diego-based subprime mortgage company, may have bought itself some breathing room as it secured a loan from a hedge fund. The company can now make new loans, and it can keep them, instead of selling them into a slumping secondary market.
Lloyd’s List:
- Shipping markets are unsustainable and the value of vessels will fall because too many carriers are being built, citing DVB Bank and Nordea Bank. There will be a “pretty heavy” oversupply of oil tankers in one or two years’ time, quoting the CEO of DVB Bank.
Military.com:
- The US Army plans to equip soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with better body-armor vests. The Army said the Improved Outer Tactical Vest is lighter, more comfortable and offers more protection.
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