Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• EU Pledges Tougher Stress Tests, Seeks Bonus Curbs. Europe’s next wave of bank stress tests will be tougher than exams last year, taking sovereign- debt risk and liquidity into account, the region’s financial- services chief said. “We need more stringent and more reliable tests,” European Union Financial Services Commissioner Michel Barnier told reporters following a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels today. “There was a general agreement that they should be marked by total transparency taking into account sovereign risk.”
• EU Seeks Stronger Safety Net as AAA Nations Mull Cost. Germany pushed back at European Union calls for a rapid reinforcement of the safety net for debt-strapped countries, saying the rally in southern European bond markets buys time to craft a new strategy. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there is no urgent need to act, eyeing a late-March deadline to strengthen the 750 billion-euro ($1 trillion) rescue fund, hammer out a permanent anti-crisis tool and tighten fiscal rules for the 17- nation euro area. “We still have a continuing crisis,” EU Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters after the bloc’s finance ministers met in Brussels today. “We’ve had some respite in the last couple of days, but we cannot afford any kind of self-complacency.”
• International Buying of Long-Term U.S. Assets Climbs More Than Estimated. Global demand for U.S. stocks, bonds and other financial assets rose in November from a month earlier as purchases from private investors offset a record level of sales from foreign government buyers, the Treasury Department reported. Net buying of long-term equities, notes and bonds totaled $85.1 billion during the month, the highest since August, compared with net buying of $28.9 billion in October, according to data released today in Washington. Net foreign purchases of equities were $13.3 billion in November after net purchases of $16.0 billion in October. Investors purchased a net $4.7 billion in U.S. corporate debt in November after buying $1.1 billion in October.
• Gold Advances as This Month's Drop Stokes Demand From Individual Investors. Gold rose in New York as this month’s price drop stoked demand from individual investors for bars and U.S. Mint coins. Australia’s Perth Mint reported stronger demand as prices fell below $1,400 an ounce, Barclays Capital analyst Suki Cooper said in an e-mail today. Gold for February delivery added $7.70, or 0.6 percent, to $1,368.20 an ounce at 12:11 p.m. on the Comex in New York.
• Corn Futures Climb to 3-Month High on Rising Demand for Shrinking Supply. Corn futures rose, extending a rally to a 30-month high, as buyers snapped up supplies from shrinking stockpiles. Output in the U.S., the world’s largest grain exporter, dropped 4.9 percent last year, leaving supply before the 2011 harvest at the lowest in 15 years, the Department of Agriculture said last week. The agency also cut its forecast for global inventories to 127 million metric tons, the lowest since 2007. “Prices have not risen high enough to slow demand,” said Greg Grow, the director of agribusiness for Archer Financial Services Inc. in Chicago. “The attitude among consumers is that you have to buy the breaks to accumulate tightening inventories.” Corn futures for March delivery jumped 8.5 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $6.5725 a bushel at 10:24 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade.
• Burberry Surges as Retailer Forecasts Higher Profit After Revenue Advances. Burberry Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest luxury retailer, surged in London trading after reporting that three-month sales rose 27 percent and saying that adjusted full-year profit will exceed its previous estimate.
• Citigroup(C) Profit Misses Analysts' Estimates on Credit Spreads. Citigroup Inc., the third-largest U.S. bank, posted a profit of $1.31 billion that missed analysts’ estimates as revenue from stock and bond trading fell more than at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• EBay(EBAY) Options Trading Most Bearish in Seven Years Before Earnings Results. EBay Inc. options traders are making the most bearish bets in seven years on the owner of the largest online-commerce marketplace, which analysts say will rally, before the company reports quarterly results tomorrow. The ratio of outstanding puts to sell EBay stock versus calls to buy rose to 1.23-to-1 last week, the highest since July 2003. The total open interest for puts increased 15 percent in the past month to a two-year high of 465,492 contracts.
• Xilinx(XLNX) Short Selling Climbs to a 25-Month High Before Release of Earnings. Short sellers have increased bets against Xilinx Inc.’s stock to the highest level in 25 months as the company, which reports quarterly results tomorrow, rallied to prices last seen in March 2005. Bearish wagers against the San Jose, California-based company rose to 14 percent of shares outstanding, the most since October 2008, according to data compiled by Data Explorers, a New York-based research firm.

Wall Street Journal:

• UN Sees Risk of Double-Dip Recession as Europe Pursues Austerity. The United Nations said the pursuit of austerity measures by a number of European countries could push the euro zone back into recession in 2011, with the U.S. and Japan facing a smaller risk of a renewed downturn.
• IBM(IBM) Ready for Close-Up. Amid Push Into Analytics Software, Company Will Make Case on 'Jeopardy!'
• GameStop(GME) Expands Digital Strategy by Opening Doors to an Android Storefront. GameStop is expanding from primarily selling games in retail stores found in malls around America to a digital strategy that includes a new mobile component starting today.

CNBC:

• Meredith Whitney Upgrades JPMorgan to 'Buy'.
• Why Obama May Be Wall Street's New Best Friend.
  

Business Insider:

• Charlie Gasparino Rips Meredith Whitney, And Accuses Her of Costing Taxpayers Millions. The latest attacker is Charlie Gasparino, who accuses her of causing a muni market panic, thus costing taxpayers millions.
• The Entire European Sovereign Debt Crisis in One Simple Flowchart.
• ECB Allows Ireland to Counterfeit 51 Billion Euros.
  

Zero Hedge:

• Forget Food Riots in Africa, Simon Black Says the Canary in the Inflationary Coal Mine is in Southeast Asia.

New York Times:

• F.C.C. Approves Comcast(CMCSA)-NBC Deal.

Forbes:

• Google(GOOG): Street Gets Buillish Ahead of Earnings.

cnet:

• CDMA iPhone Shipments Could Top 12 Million in '11. Apple's CDMA-compatible iPhone isn't on the market yet, but estimates for the number of units shipping in 2011 are apparently on the rise. Pegatron, the Taiwan-based company that is manufacturing the CDMA iPhone for Apple to sell through Verizon, is expecting to ship 12 million to 15 million units in 2011, component makers told DigiTimes. That's up from previous internal estimates of 10 million CDMA iPhones for 2011, the Taiwan-based tech news site reported Tuesday. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster recently pegged the number of iPhones Verizon would sell the first year at 9 million, which is below Pegatron's first estimate.

Politico:

• Senator Kent Conrad Won't Seek Reelection. North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad will not seek reelection in 2012, handing Republicans a prime opportunity for a pick-up in a red-leaning state. “After months of consideration, I have decided not to seek reelection in 2012. There are serious challenges facing our State and nation, like a $14 trillion debt and America’s dependence on foreign oil. It is more important I spend my time and energy trying to solve these problems than to be distracted by a campaign for reelection,” Conrad said.

Reuters:

• Bangladesh Halts Trading After Stock Market Fall. Trading in Bangladesh shares was halted for the day on Tuesday, for the second time this month, after the benchmark index fell 3.2 percent.
• U.S. Architecture Billings Highest Since Nov. '07. An index of spending on U.S. architecture services, a leading indicator of nonresidential construction activity, reached its best level since November 2007 last month, suggesting a U.S. building recovery is gaining traction, an architects' trade group said on Wednesday. The December architecture billings index rose more than 2 points last month to 54.2, from 52.0, reflecting increasing demand for design services, according to the American Institute of Architects. A separate index of new project inquiries was up 1.2 points to 62.6, on a scale where any number above 50 indicates rising demand. "This is more promising news that the design and construction industry is continuing to move toward a recovery," said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker.
• Oil Trader Takes Control of 10 North Sea Cargoes. Oil trader Hetco has taken control of the first eight North Sea Forties crude oil cargoes loading in February and two Brent cargoes, giving it significant influence over the spot market, trade sources said on Tuesday.
• Delinquencies Continue Fall at Major U.S. Credit Card Cos.
  

Financial Times:

• OPEC Positions Itself to Keep Oil Bulls at Bay.

Bild Zeitung:

• The euro has lost an average of 22% of its purchasing power since the introduction of European Monetary Union in 1999, citing a poll that Allianz SE conducted. The purchasing power of one euro fell to about 82 cents in Germany, slightly below 81 cents in France, 76 cents in Italy and 71 cents in Spain.