Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Egypt's Leaders Vow Progress on Elections as Cairo Protesters Hold Ground. Egypt’s government promised progress within a month toward free elections, a move intended to persuade protesters to leave Cairo’s Tahrir Square after two weeks of rallies aimed at toppling President Hosni Mubarak. Demonstrators held their ground, with many preparing to spend another night in the square, as talks between the government and opposition politicians helped the country’s financial system take steps toward normality. Banks began to open and the sale of Treasury bills resumed today. Stock trading won’t resume until Feb. 13, the bourse said. “I think everyone’s going to be tiptoeing through a number of minefields,” Daniel Charles Kurtzer, ambassador to Egypt from 1998 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “The dialogue that started yesterday has some distance to go before any kind of bridge can be built between each side.”
• Egypt Credit-Default Swaps Decline to Two-Week Low, CMA Says. The cost of insuring Egyptian sovereign debt fell 27 basis points to 339, the lowest on a closing basis since Jan. 25, according to CMA prices for credit- default swaps.
• Ensco(ESV) to Acquire Rival Driller Pride(PDE) for $7.3 Billion. Ensco Plc, the oil driller with rigs from Mexico to Indonesia, agreed to acquire Pride International Inc. for $7.3 billion in a deal that will create the world’s second-largest offshore drilling company. Investors will receive 0.4778 Ensco share and $15.60 in cash for each Pride share under terms of the agreement announced today by London-based Ensco in a statement. The $41.60 a share offer is a 21 percent premium to Houston-based Pride’s Feb. 4 closing price. The Pride acquisition will expand Ensco’s presence to Brazil and West Africa, two of the fastest-growing offshore drilling markets in the $125 billion industry, said Brian Uhlmer, an analyst at Global Hunter Securities LLC in Houston. Ensco’s presence in Brazil will jump from one rig to 10 as a result of the Pride agreement.
• Oil Falls for a Third Day on Ample U.S. Supplies, Demand Drop. Oil declined for a third day on skepticism that a rebounding U.S. economy will reduce surplus inventories in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country. Oil fell as much as 1 percent as supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, climbed to the highest level since at least 2004, the Energy Department said last week. Gasoline rose 6.15 million barrels to 236.2 million in the week ended Jan. 28, the highest level since March 1993, the department reported Feb. 2. “There’s no fundamental reason for the market here to show strength,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. “Gasoline supplies are at an 18-year high, there’s a large amount of crude oil at Cushing and fuel demand is tepid.” Crude oil for March delivery declined 39 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $88.64 a barrel at 10:46 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures are up 25 percent from a year ago. Total fuel demand decreased 0.3 percent to 18.8 million barrels a day in the week ended Jan. 28, the lowest level since November, according to the department’s report.
• Berkshire(BRK/A) Wins Backing of Wesco Board for $547.6 Million Buyout. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. won the backing of Wesco Financial Corp.’s board to buy the 19.9 percent of stock it doesn’t own in the unit. The deal values the stake at $547.6 million, Pasadena, California-based Wesco said today in a statement.
• UBS Raises S&P 500 2011 Forecast to 1,425 on Earnings, Economy. UBS AG boosted its year-end projection for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by 100 points to 1,425, as the outlook for the economy and earnings improve. The new target would mean a 13 percent rally for the full 2011 and an 8.7 percent advance from Feb. 4’s closing price.
• Chesapeake Energy(CHK) Plans to Sell Assets for $5 Billion. Chesapeake Energy Corp., the most- active U.S. natural-gas driller, intends to raise $5 billion this year by selling its Fayetteville shale holdings and its stakes in two companies. It will use the money to cut debt. The sale will include 487,000 net acres in the Arkansas shale field that produce the equivalent of 415 million cubic feet of gas daily, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake said in a statement today. The company also will sell its stakes in closely held service company Frac Tech Holdings LLC and Chaparral Energy Inc.
• Danaher(DHR) to Purchase Beckman Coulter(BEC) for $6.8 Billion. Danaher Corp. agreed to buy Beckman Coulter Inc. for $6.8 billion to expand in health-diagnostic equipment amid increasing demand from an aging U.S. population that needs more frequent testing. Danaher, the maker of microscopes and water-treatment systems, will start a tender offer of $83.50 a share for the 76- year-old company’s outstanding shares within seven days, the company said today in a statement. The total valuation includes available cash and net debt, Danaher said.
• Bloomberg Says Cuomo Budget Costs City $2.1 Billion. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Albany lawmakers his city would lose about $2.1 billion and have to waste money on state-required spending formulas if they failed to change Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget.
• Chinese Steel Drill-Pipe To Face U.S. Dumping Duties, ITC Rules. Chinese makers of steel pipe used to drill for oil will face dumping and subsidy duties averaging 86 percent, after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that competitors may be hurt by the low-cost imports. The independent panel today ruled 3-to-3, a tie that affirmed the decision and makes the action final. Duties will take effect this month.

Wall Street Journal:

• Cairo Normalizes; Sinai Is Shelled. Life in Egypt edged further back toward normal Monday, as a popular uprising entered its third week with no further progress in narrowing the gap between the regime and demonstrators who insist President Hosni Mubarak must step down. Egypt firmed up security in the capital, with lots of plainclothes policemen seen on the streets wearing bulletproof vests and visible sidearms. In northern Sinai on Monday, assailants used rocket-propelled grenades to attack a police barracks in the town of Rafah, which borders the Gaza Strip, according to Egypt's state news agency.
• Tibet Ad Not Likely to Help Groupon in China. A Groupon Super Bowl commercial that pokes fun at the political situation in Tibet has managed to offend viewers both in the U.S. and China, and may have consequences for the fast-growing Internet company’s expansion plans.

Bloomberg Businessweek:

• Ticonderoga Said to Reach Preliminary Agreement to Buy Soleil. Ticonderoga Securities LLC, the New York-based broker-dealer started in 2009, has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Soleil Securities Corp., according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

CNBC:

• Private Equity Driving Up M&A Prices: Morgan Stanley.
• Big Changes Coming for Mortgage Market.
  

Zero Hedge:

• NYSE Margin Debt Hits Fresh Post-Lehman High. (graph)
• Stockholm Syndrome In The Nile: 70% of Egypt's Employed Work for the Government.
• Dallas Fed's Fisher Says Will Dissent To Any Further Quantitative Easing Decisions.
  

New York Post:

• SEC Officials Who Missed Madoff Now in Top Spots at Major Law Firms. They blew off the biggest securities fraud in history -- and got a career boost and hefty pay raise. Several former senior officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission who had the power and tools to stop Bernie Madoff in his criminal tracks -- yet ignored warnings for nearly two decades -- have moved on to lucrative law-firm partnerships, The Post has learned. "Everybody made out like bandits except for the people who were really screwed," said a former ranking SEC attorney, who left the agency before the Madoff case exploded. "It's such an outrage, how bad it was. And they're all making well over seven figures now."

AppleInsider:

• Apple(AAPL) Rumored to Hold "Small Event" in March to Usher in New iPad. Apple may be planning a smaller than usual event to introduce its second-generation iPad as early as next month, according to a scant report, as rumors that the new device will include NFC technology persist.
• Needham Ups Apple(AAPL) Price Target to $450 on Growing iPhone, iPad Sales. Needham & Company on Monday increased its price target for Apple to $450, citing "materially higher" sales of iPhone and iPad than were originally forecast. Analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham said in a note to investors that he has made an upward revision to his forecast, which prompted the price target increase from $375 to $450. "While the increase in iPhone sales was relatively modest, it nonetheless added $50 to our price target because of the profitability of the phone," Wolf wrote. "The migration to feature phone users to smartphones accelerated in the second half of 2010, suggesting that even our new forecast could prove to be conservative."
  

Rasmussen Reports:

• 58% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law; Most Still Expect Costs To Rise and Quality to Suffer.
• 68% Believe Government and Big Business Work Together Against the Rest of Us. President Obama told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today that government and business “can and must work together." But 68% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that government and big business already work together against the interests of consumers and investors. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows that only 13% disagree with this assessment.

Politico:

• How President Obama Plays Media Like a Fiddle.
• Chamber Claps Twice for Obama. The good news for President Obama: The Chamber of Commerce broke into applause twice during his speech Monday morning to welcome his ideas. The bad news: They clapped just twice, in a 35-minute address.
• Heath Shuler: Nancy Pelosi Ignoring Blue Dogs. Centrist Democrats have had “no communication” with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi since the start of the 112th Congress, one of the leaders of the Blue Dog Coalition said Monday. Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), who challenged Pelosi for the leadership spot, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “there’s been really no communication whatsoever” between his group and the California Democrat. “We still have not had the connection between the Blue Dog members and the leadership.”
  

Reuters:

• With New Executive, Google(GOOG) Steps Up Mobile Ad Efforts. Google Inc is reaching out to some of its top advertising customers to promote its mobile marketing services, as the Internet giant moves to expand its advertising business from computer screens to smartphones. The effort is being overseen by Karim Temsamani, Google's first-ever head of mobile advertising, who quietly began the job in October.
• U.S. Travelers Plan More Breaks, Spending: Poll. Despite high unemployment and a slow recovery more people are planning to travel this year and they expect to spend more money than they did in 2010, according to a new report. Thirty five percent of 1,403 consumers surveyed by travel website travelocity.com said they will increase their travel in 2011, and only one percent said they do not plan to go anywhere, compared to four percent last year.
• Anger Simmers at German Austerity Plan for EU.
  

CBS Moneywatch:

• AOL(AOL) Buys Huffington Post: 3 Reasons It's a Big Mistake.

AP:

• Report: Russia Warns US Over Missile Defense Plans. Russia sees the planned U.S. missile defense system as a potential threat to its nuclear forces and may review its participation in a landmark nuclear arms treaty, officials said Monday. The New START deal, the centerpiece of Barack Obama's efforts to reset ties with Russia and the most significant arms control pact in nearly two decades, took effect last week. It limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200. The treaty doesn't prevent the U.S. from building new missile defense systems, but Russia has warned that it reserves the right to withdraw from the treaty if the United States significantly boosts its missile shield.

Telegraph:

• US Backs Brazil in Currency War With China.Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, has voiced tacit support for Brazil in its "currency war" with China in a sign that the two giants of the Americas will work together to tackle the issue.

Ta Nea:

• Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos rejected a proposal by German Chancellor Angel Merkel to include limits on debt in government constitutions, citing an interview with Pangalos.