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Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:

- The yen fell after the Bank of Japan said it will resume a program of buying corporate shares held by financial institutions, helping revive demand for higher- yielding assets. Japan’s currency ended a three-day winning streak against the dollar and the euro as the nation’s central bank said in a statement today that it will purchase 1 trillion yen ($11.1 billion) in equities through April 2010. The Australian and New Zealand dollars also climbed versus the yen after Australia’s government said it will spend A$42 billion to help prevent the economy entering a recession. “The packages being announced by governments worldwide are likely to have a large positive impact on market sentiment,” said Ryohei Muramatsu, manager of Group Treasury Asia in Tokyo at Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-biggest lender. “The yen may be sold.”

- Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to the lowest level in more than four decades and the government announced it will spend another A$42 billion ($26 billion) to ward off a recession. Governor Glenn Stevens lowered the overnight cash rate target to 3.25 percent in Sydney today, two hours after Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government will spend A$12.7 billion in handouts to families and A$28.8 billion on infrastructure, sending the budget into its first deficit since 2001-2002.

- The U.S. Senate’s proposed stimulus plan would boost the economy faster than an alternative version approved last week by the House, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan agency said in a report today that the Senate plan, which it said would cost $885 billion, would pump about $700 billion into the economy by the end of next year. That would amount to nearly 80 percent of all the spending in the package and would let President Barack Obama meet his goal of getting three-quarters of the money out the door within 18 months. It may also help tamp down complaints from lawmakers in both parties that the House-backed version of the plan would take too long to help the economy.

- General Motors Corp.(GM) and Chrysler LLC, propped up with $13.4 billion in emergency federal loans, are offering new buyout programs to about 91,000 factory employees to reduce labor costs as sales slow. GM’s program covers about 64,000 workers willing to retire or quit and consists of a $25,000 voucher to buy a new auto and $20,000 in cash, said a United Auto Workers official, who didn’t want to be identified because the details are private. Chrysler said all 26,800 U.S. hourly workers are eligible for its plan, without giving details.

- Aflac Inc.(AFL), the largest provider of supplemental insurance, said fourth-quarter profit fell 48 percent on investment losses. Shares rose in extended trading as the company said it doesn’t need to raise capital. The insurer, known for its quacking duck mascot, advanced 6.4 percent to $24.50 at 5:28 p.m. in New York. Shareholders’ equity, a measure of assets minus liabilities, increased by more than 1 percent over three months to $6.6 billion, and the company said its capital position, as measured by U.S. regulators, is “very strong.”

- OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc.(OSIP) said a safety panel recommended ending a clinical trial of the drug Tarceva in lung cancer patients because the treatment significantly extended the time patients lived compared with a placebo. Tarceva, marketed in the U.S. with Genentech Inc.(DNA), was used with Avastin after patients with non-small cell lung cancer were initially treated with Avastin and chemotherapy, Melville, New York-based OSI and Genentech of South San Francisco, California, said in a statement. OSI gained $3.81, or 10.5 percent, to $40.20 at 5:13 p.m. New York time in extended trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

- Japan Airlines Tests Camelina Biofuel in Boeing(BA) 747. (video)

- Ningbo Sunhu Chemical Products Co., China’s biggest nickel trader, said its post-Lunar New Year sales slumped as 90% of its customers remained closed because of lack of demand. Sales in the first two days after the week-long holiday dropped 95% from the same period last year, Kevin Ji, chief analyst, said in a phone interview today. “The global nickel industry seems to be pinning much hope on post-vacation Chinese demand, yet we’re feeling pretty desperate right here,” Ji said. China accounts for about 25% of global nickel demand. Ningbo Sunhu, which trades around 50,000 metric tons of the metal yearly, sells most of its products in the weeks after the Lunar New Year holiday and in the fourth quarter.

- American International Group Inc.(AIG), the insurer selling units to repay a government loan, has enough assets to settle its debt to taxpayers, according to the Federal Reserve. The $60 billion credit line granted to AIG “will not result in any net loss to the Federal Reserve or taxpayers,” Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke said in a Jan. 12 letter to Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Duke was responding to questions posed after an Oct. 23 hearing on turmoil in U.S. credit markets.

Wall Street Journal:

- Congress is poised this week to delay until June the date when TV stations must begin broadcasting in all-digital format, but industry insiders estimate that 400 to 500 stations could shut off analog signals before then. Early analog cutoffs could catch some viewers off guard. Once TV stations turn off their analog broadcasts, people who rely on over-the-air TV won't receive their signals unless they buy a digital television, a converter box, or subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service.

- Policy makers intent on quickly revamping the U.S. financial-regulatory system say they are discussing expanding the Federal Reserve's authority and extending oversight to currently unregulated products such as derivatives. The moves could bring more scrutiny of lightly regulated hedge funds and private-equity firms that deal extensively in such complex financial instruments.

- International Business Machines Corp.(IBM) has been racking up contracts with immigration agencies around the globe, in part by reusing software originally developed to spot Vegas card counters. In deals worth about $1 billion over the next four years, IBM is helping the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland figure out how to automate visa applications and to use software to look for suspicious applicants who may be hiding an unsavory past.

- The global slowdown is taking a toll on China, claiming the jobs of an estimated 20 million migrant workers and dimming their prospects as they set out in search of work after the New Year holiday. The year ahead appears no more promising: Officials forecast the number of migrants looking for jobs will reach at least 25 million. Chen Xiwen, who heads the Chinese Communist Party's office on rural policy, said Monday that about 20 million migrant workers -- nearly a sixth of the total -- lost their jobs in recent months. That number, the first official estimate, underscores the government's challenge in maintaining employment and avoiding unrest. "For those migrant workers who have lost their jobs, what are they going to do for income when they return to their village? How are they going to manage? This is a new factor affecting social stability this year," Mr. Chen said at a news conference in Beijing.

- Lobbyists for industry and labor are gearing up to add costly proposals Tuesday to the Senate's nearly $890 billion economic stimulus plan.

- President Barack Obama will nominate Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire as Commerce secretary Tuesday, adding a third Republican to his Cabinet. The deal was set after Sen. Gregg made clear that he would not take the post unless he was replaced in the Senate by another Republican. Responding to New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch's suggestion that he would pick a GOP replacement, Gregg said in a statement Monday afternoon, "I have made it clear to the Senate Leadership on both sides of the aisle and to the Governor that I would not leave the Senate if I felt my departure would cause a change in the makeup of the Senate. The Senate Leadership, both Democratic and Republican, and the Governor understand this concern and I appreciate their consideration of this position." If Gregg were replaced with a Democrat by New Hampshire's Democratic governor, and if Al Franken prevails in the contested Senate race in Minnesota, the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority.

- Avoiding Japan’s Stimulus Miscues.

- The Senate confirmed Eric Holder as attorney general Monday, though debate earlier turned partisan when his chief supporter denounced Republicans who sought a pledge not to prosecute intelligence agents who participated in harsh interrogations. To the satisfaction of Democrats and consternation of some Republicans, Mr. Holder told his confirmation hearing, "Waterboarding is torture." The statement about an interrogation technique that simulates drowning was an important signal of a policy change from Mr. Bush's view that the tactic was legal and not torture.

CNBC.com:
- No Reason to Buy Stocks? Why You Might Be Wrong.

NY Times:

- Bank of America(BAC) faces a rising tide of lawsuits over its troubled, shotgun marriage to Merrill Lynch. The latest came late last week, filed in a New York court on behalf of Bank of America shareholders. Lawyers for Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, which specializes in class-action suits, claim that the bank’s chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis, along with its chief financial officer, Joe L. Price, and Merrill Lynch’s former chairman and chief executive, John A. Thain — who was recently pushed out of BofA — defrauded investors by issuing materially false and misleading statements regarding the health of Merrill Lynch’s financial results.

- We’re sorry. That’s the message the hedge fund manager and political power player Richard C. Perry sent to his investors recently after his firm, Perry Partners, experienced its first annual loss in its 20-year history. “We are deeply disappointed and apologize for these results,” the firm said in its annual review sent to clients on Jan. 20. Mr. Perry’s flagship fund, Perry Partners International, declined 27 percent in 2008 after experiencing a 20 percent drop in the fourth quarter, according to the client letter, which was obtained by DealBook. In September, Mr. Perry was featured in a glowing profile in Fortune magazine that called him “one of the most successful investors of our time.” In the article, Mr. Perry, who is known for having hosted a meeting between then-presidential hopeful Barack Obama and Caroline Kennedy at his Manhattan penthouse, said he saw opportunities buying bank debt issued by companies involved in leveraged buyouts. That turned out to be one of many wrong bets. According to the letter, part of the fund’s negative performance in the fourth quarter came from “investing prematurely in U.S. leveraged loans on an unhedged basis.” Other losses came from Perry Partners’ short position in the German carmaker Volkswagen, whose shares experienced a fourfold increase in just a few days in October, wiping out positions held by many hedge fund investors including David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital.

- More money is moving in a new direction in China — out. Some Chinese are so eager to turn their yuan into other assets that when an online real estate brokerage organized a tour of foreclosure auctions in the United States, it received so many applications that it had to turn away nearly 400 people. In Shanghai, cash-rich Chinese companies are buying high-yield bonds issued by distressed American companies at a time when many Western investors are steering clear of bonds even from solid companies. All over the world, Chinese companies are sending home fewer of the billions of dollars they earn from exports, parking them in overseas bank and brokerage accounts instead. And in Hong Kong, wealthy mainlanders are turning up at jewelry stores in growing numbers seeking diamonds, big ones. “They’re looking for five-carat diamond rings and six-carat diamond earrings — three carats for each ear,” said Yollanda Lam, the marketing manager for the King Fook jewelry store chain here. Together, these trends represent a potentially tectonic shift. As Chinese citizens are starting to send more money out of the country, foreign investors are pulling money out too, and slowing the pace of new investment.

CNNMoney.com:
- 6 companies born during downturns. Think a recession is a bad time to start a company? Imagine if the founders of these major corporations had thought the same…

Reuters:

- Chris Hill, a career U.S. diplomat who has been Washington's lead negotiator with North Korea, is expected to be nominated U.S. ambassador to Iraq, a U.S. official who asked not to be named said on Monday. Hill has spent the last four years as the senior U.S. official in multilateral talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programs and as the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

- Citigroup (C) plans to use some $36.5 billion of its U.S. government capital infusion for new mortgages, credit card loans and to buy mortgage-backed securities in the coming months, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Citigroup will announce details on Tuesday of how it will increase lending by using funds provided under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the AP said. "Our responsibility is to put these funds to work quickly, prudently and transparently to increase available lending and liquidity," Citi Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said in a statement seen by the AP.

- Gold extended losses on Tuesday, after posting its biggest daily percentage fall in three weeks the previous day because of profit taking, but record exchange traded fund holdings still boosted sentiment. The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, said holdings rose 9.78 tons to a new record of 853.37 tons of gold as of Feb. 2 -- an increase of more 9 percent in the past month.

Financial Times:
- France is considering requiring carmakers to commit to buying specific volumes of parts and services from local suppliers as part of a government aid package for the industry, the Financial Times has learned. According to people familiar with the matter, Nicolas Sarkozy, the president, wants Peugeot and Renault to help support the fragile network of domestic component suppliers and subcontractors in return for soft loans and loan guarantees. This package might also reduce the investment – and risk – suppliers have increasingly been asked to take on in the development of new models.

TimesOnline:
- The Chinese Prime Minister narrowly avoided being hit by a flying shoe yesterday as his three-day visit to Britain ended with an Iraqi-style protest from a member of the audience at the University of Cambridge. Wen Jiabao was nearing the end of his lecture to a hand-picked audience of Cambridge students when a young man in the auditorium blew a whistle and shouted: “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator?” As security guards converged on him, the man, who had a pronounced German accent, continued to shout. “How can you listen to these lies?” Before the guards could stop him, the unidentified protester took off his shoe, a heavy grey trainer, and threw it at the stage, missing Mr Wen by a few feet.

Sankei:

- North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a Taepodong-2 long-range missile, citing Japanese government officials. Preparations may be completed in two months. The country may test an improved version of the Taepodong-2 missile capable of reaching the US mainland, the newspaper said.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:
- Downgraded .

- Reiterated Buy on (HUM), raised target to $53.

- Reiterated Buy on (AMAT), target $14.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are unch. to +1.50% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.45%.
NASDAQ 100 futures +.50%.

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Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (IACI)/.20

- (CMI)/.41

- (PNR)/.40

- (COCO)/.15

- (NOC)/1.56

- (EMR)/.57

- (ADP)/.57

- (AVP)/.59

- (MRK)/.74

- (MAN)/.79

- (ADM)/.71

- (MRO)/.89

- (CME)/3.45

- (DHI)/-.56

- (SGP)/.30

- (AMSC)/-.20

- (MYGN)/.34

- (DOW)/.08

- (MOT)/.00

- (UPS)/.85

- (DIS)/.52

- (CTX)/-3.52

- (ILMN)/.17

- (MET)/.13

- (JLL)/1.20

- (ERTS)/.89

- (MEE)/.81

- (YUM)/.45

- (TUP)/.80

- (ADS)/1.16

Economic Releases

10:00 am EST

- Pending Home Sales for December are estimated unch. versus 4.0% decline in November.

Afternoon:

- Total Vehicle Sales for January are estimated to fall to 10.2M versus 10.3M in December.

Upcoming Splits
- None of note

Other Potential Market Movers
- The weekly retail sales reports, JPMorgan Global High Yield/Leveraged Finance Conference, CSFB Energy Summit, (OSK) shareholders meeting, (BDX) shareholders meeting and (EMR) shareholders meeting could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by financial and technology stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.

Stocks Finish Mostly Higher, Boosted by Education, Healthcare, Telecom and Software Shares

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In Play

Stocks Mostly Higher into Final Hour on Bargain-Hunting

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is slightly higher into the final hour on gains in my Biotech longs, Healthcare longs, Education longs and Computer longs. I covered some of my (IWM)/(QQQQ) hedges and some of my (EEM) short today, thus leaving the Portfolio 75% net long. The tone of the market is mildly positive as the advance/decline line is modestly higher, sector performance is mixed and volume is below average. Investor anxiety is above average. Today’s overall market action is mildly bullish. The VIX is falling rising 1.0% and is very high at 45.31. The ISE Sentiment Index is below average at 115.0 and the total put/call is below average at .80. Finally, the NYSE Arms has been running high most of the day, hitting 1.68 at its intraday peak, and is currently 1.0. The Euro Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index is rising 1.56% today to 119.17 basis points. This index is up from a low of 52.66 on May 5^th, but down from 157.81 on Sept. 16^th. The North American Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index is rising 4.16% to 205.32 basis points. The TED spread is rising 2.44% to 98 basis points. The TED spread is now down 368 basis points in under four months. The 2-year swap spread is rising 17.0% to 72.25 basis points. The Libor-OIS spread is rising 4.46% to 96 basis points. The 10-year TIPS spread, a good gauge of inflation expectations, is falling 4 basis points to 1.07%, which is down 163 basis points in over six months. The 10-year TIPS spread bottomed at .65% in October 1998 during the Asian financial crisis and at 1.24% in October 2001 during the technology bubble-bursting meltdown. The 3-month T-Bill is yielding .24%, which is up one basis point today. Small-caps are displaying meaningful relative strength today. Education and healthcare stocks are particularly strong. As well, there are an unusual number of stocks rising on volume given the major averages’ performances. It is noteworthy that the 10-year yield is at session lows, despite the rebound in stock and better-than-expected ISM report. Nikkei futures indicate an +67 open in Japan and DAX futures indicate an +24 open in Germany tomorrow. I expect US stocks to trade mixed into the close from current levels as more shorting and rising credit angst offset bargain-hunting.

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

- Estonian new car registrations fell 62% in January from a year earlier as the Baltic country’s deepening recession deterred customers. New car registrations fell to 1,017 units from 2,706 units a year earlier, the vehicle registration center said in an e-mailed statement today. New and used car registrations fell an annual 65% to 1,604 units, it added.

- JPMorgan Chase(JPM) and its competitors have maintained their lending, contrary to media reports that the nation’s biggest banks are holding on to their cash, Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Dick Bove said. “Banks have not pulled back,” Bove said. “The press, for whatever reason, continues to perpetuate false comments on this subject.” Bove said the media’s motive in misrepresenting the state of consumer lending was “simply mystifying.” “Bad information often leads to bad policy making,” Bove said.

- The International Energy Agency will probably revise its forecast for world oil demand this month because of slowing economic growth, the agency’s executive director said. The Paris- based agency, which advises 28 developed nations on energy policy, is scheduled to publish its monthly report on Feb. 11. Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased their net-long position in New York crude-oil futures in the week ended Jan. 27, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 51,652 contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitment of Traders Report. Net-long positions rose by 5,518 acts, or 12 percent, from a week earlier.

- Mario Gabelli is buying Wyeth to book a 13 percent profit from its takeover by Pfizer Inc. Managers at Cohen & Steers Inc. are scooping up closed-end funds trading at a 16 percent discount to the value of their holdings. Huntington Asset Advisors Inc. is betting the widest gap between silver and gold prices in 14 years will narrow. A year ago, these so-called arbitrage strategies would have been favorites of hedge funds whose debt-fueled trading squeezed out other investors. Since then, the credit-market seizure wiped out about 920 of the 10,096 funds in business at the start of 2008, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc.

- Bond investors are telling Hugo Chavez he should be voted out of office instead of winning his campaign to serve as Venezuela’s president another 10 years. Venezuelan bonds fell the most in Latin America since December, when Chavez began pushing for a referendum to abolish term limits so he can serve through at least 2019. The average yield on the government’s dollar bonds rose to 17.40 percentage points more than Treasuries, from 14.74 points when he took office a decade ago, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The combination of Chavez’s political strategy and the 72 percent plunge in oil from a July record is increasing investor concern about the country’s ability to pay its $46 billion of debt. Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in the Americas, raised government spending to the equivalent of 36 percent of gross domestic product in 2007 from 23 percent in 1998, according to Standard & Poor’s. “The Chavez model is based on the idea of spending lots of money,” said Michael Atkin, who helps oversee $12 billion in fixed-income assets as head of sovereign research at Putnam Investments in Boston. “The credit quality is deteriorating. It’s hard to want to own Venezuelan debt even at these spreads.”

- The ruble slumped to its weakest level against the dollar in 11 years as investors speculated Russia will be forced to give up its currency defense after draining reserves.

- Barack Obama said he “absolutely” stands behind Thomas A. Daschle, the president’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary who amended his U.S. tax returns Jan. 2 to pay $140,000 in back taxes and interest. Daschle also won the support of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, whose panel will meet today with the nominee. Daschle, a former Senate Democratic leader, also had been named by Obama to head a new White Office of Health Reform and was viewed as the new administration’s leading spokesman on its efforts to expand health coverage to more Americans and reduce medical costs. Daschle, in a letter to the Finance Committee, said he was “deeply embarrassed” about his tax errors. He amended his 2005, 2006 and 2007 returns to add unreported consulting fees, unspecified charitable contributions and a car and driver provided by Leo Hindery Jr., founder of the private-equity firm InterMedia Advisors, a committee draft report said.

Wall Street Journal:

- The chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs tried to meet a top aide to Iran's supreme leader in mid-December but was rebuffed at the last minute, a snub that illustrates the challenges to dialogue with Tehran pushed by President Barack Obama. Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, notified Mr. Obama's transition team and the Bush White House of the planned meeting in Bahrain, according to senior Obama administration officials. The engagement with Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, would have marked one of the highest-level meetings between American and Iranian officials since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. It's unclear why Mr. Larijani pulled out.

- The House Democrats’ political arm is launching a radio, email, and telephone campaign against 28 House Republicans in 20 states who voted against the $819 billion economic stimulus package last week. The “Putting Families First” campaign will being airing Tuesday morning on drive time radio and run throughout the week. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also said they will target three million voters with an email campaign and make 100,000 phone calls.

- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will give a speech next week in which he will outline the Obama administration's financial-rescue plans, according to a Treasury official. The plan will include an effort to help homeowners in danger of foreclosure, as well as additional steps to shore up the financial sector.

- President Barack Obama's choice for Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Daschle, apologized and tried to explain lapses in his personal taxes in a letter to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee. "As you can well imagine, I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed by the errors that required me to amend my tax returns," the former South Dakota senator wrote in the letter, released Monday. "I apologize for the errors and profoundly regret that you have had to devote time to them."

- With a slew of high-profile hires, President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser is raising the clout of the White House National Economic Council -- as well as the prospects of internal conflict in the Obama administration. Lawrence Summers's effort may lift the NEC to a level of prominence unmatched since President Bill Clinton created the body in 1993 to give economic issues equal weight with national-security matters. White House aides say that is an appropriate response to the economic challenges facing the nation. But Mr. Summers has raised concern outside the White House that clashes with the Obama cabinet on policy and personality may be inevitable as Mr. Summers transforms a policy-coordinating council into a center for policy making.

NY Times:

- Kirsten E. Gillibrand, New York’s new senator, suggested to Latino elected officials on Sunday that she would take the lead on some immigration issues — and perhaps quickly drop some positions that they considered objectionable. In particular, she promised to take a lead in promoting a Congressional bill to roll back a federal provision that discourages states from charging in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants who attend state-supported universities. The bill also would permit illegal immigrants who have grown up in the United States and are attending college to apply for legal status. And despite her vote in Congress when she was a representative from upstate New York, Ms. Gillibrand said she no longer supported cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities like New York that fail to enforce all immigration laws.

- As Wal-Mart(WMT) undergoes a changing of the guard, with a new chief executive in office since Sunday, the company says that it has improved fleet efficiency by more than 25 percent since 2005. The retailer, which has one of the largest trucking fleets in the country, is also testing out alternative fuels with a small number of its trucks, according to a statement scheduled for release today.

Politico:

- The Albuquerque Journal reports that federal investigators have asked the Democratic Governors Association, which Bill Richardson headed, for documents in their expanding pay-to-play investigation:

Washington Post:

- Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd says he'll refinance two mortgages that he received through a VIP program from Countrywide Financial Corp. Dodd told reporters Monday that the mortgages for his homes in Washington and East Haddam, Conn., will be refinanced with a different company. Dodd has acknowledged receiving mortgages in 2003 through a VIP program at Countrywide, which was sold to Bank of America Corp. earlier this year and has been the focus of allegations that it gave favorable loan terms to lawmakers.

AppleInsider:

- Even as the economy has continued to falter, Apple’s(AAPL) share of web users has climbed up to a landmark 9.93% in the first month of 2009 while Windows’ own share continues to slide downwards. Web tracking data compiled from tens of thousands of websites by Net Applications shows Apple reaching the all-time high with an 0.3 percent bump to the number of Macs making page requests.

The Detroit News:

- Ford’s(F) electric car project charges ahead. Canadian supplier’s prototype fuels drive to bring battery-powered vehicle to market in ’11.

InformationWeek:

- Recent stories on Apple's(AAPL) iPhone patent have focused on Cupertino's threatened legal action against Palm, which is launching the iPhone-like Pre smartphone. But a closer examination of the Apple patent yields much more interesting news. Namely, Apple is considering adding a video record feature to the iPhone -- an omission users have long complained about -- and it may soon become a handheld videophone platform, with support for mobile video-conferencing calls.

Reuters:
- Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher warned on Monday against "Buy America" provisions in a proposed fiscal stimulus law and said it could lead to devastating trade protectionism. "Let me just be blunt. Protectionism is the crack cocaine of economics. It may provide a high. It's addictive and it leads to economic death," Fisher told C-Span television in an interview for its "Washington Journal" program. President Barack Obama seeks a $825 billion stimulus plan to end the country's yearlong recession. U.S. lawmakers are debating rules that will insist that public money is spent on U.S-made products, although the White House has already said it will review any Buy America provisions.

MailOnline:
- Google(GOOG) Ocean will let users explore shipwrecks and reefs in the deep blue sea. The latest version of Google Earth lets people plunge beneath the sea, swim around underwater volcanoes, hover above shipwrecks and navigate mountains on the sea bed. The Ocean in Google Earth software also includes video and photographs of thousands of marine species, and lets virtual divers follow whales and sharks tagged with satellite tracking devices. The undersea 3D world was created with help from more than 25 leading marine scientists.

Lusa:

- Macau’s casino revenue fell about 17% in January, citing provisional data collected from operators. Billionaire Stanley Ho’s casinos had a market share of “a little more” than 28% and his casino operator was the only one with revenue of more than 2 bilion patacas, Lusa said. Las Vegas Sands(LVS) was ranked second with “a little more” than a 22% market share, followed by Wynn Resorts with “slightly” more

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Xinhua:
- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday called on the United Nations to bring Israeli leaders to justice, the official IRNA news agency reported. The president made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting chief of Hamas Political Bureau Khalid Mashaal who arrived here Sunday for talks with senior Iranian officials on major regional and international issues. Ahmadinejad urged the United Nations to bring Israeli leaders to justice for "crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza," the report said.

Hurriyet:
- Petrol Ofisi AS, Turkey’s biggest fuel distributor, expects gasoline sales to decline by 11% this year, citing CEO Melih Turker. Gasoline sales fell 11% last year.