Month: February 2013

Hoping to avoid crushing across-the-board spending cuts in under a month, President Barack Obama is proposing a short-term fix that involves targeted cuts and some higher taxes.

President Barack Obama is asking Congress to come up with tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to delay automatic spending cuts scheduled to kick in March 1.

Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) announcing its earnings this morning, posting an EPS of 60 cents, higher than 58 cents analysts were expecting. Revenue for the quarter also rose by seven percent to $24.92 billion, beating estimates of $23.67 billion.

House Republicans are seizing on the president’s failure to submit a budget on time for the fourth time in 5 years. The GOP is moving ahead with a bill to require the president to submit a budget that balances within ten years.

People in San Francisco have a new way around town. The ride-sharing app Lyft helps people get a ride when and where they want it.

Timken (TKR) was upgraded by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch (BAC) to buy as the company is well run and should do better as the economy recovers. Shares are higher by about four tenths of a percent.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

Mead Johnson (MJN) was upgraded at Goldman Sachs (GS) to buy form neutral with a price target of $95 as growth should rebound in China. Shares are higher by about a tenth of a percent.

Oracle (ORCL) announced that it will purchase networking equipment vendor Acme Packet (APKT) for $2.1 billion, or $1.7 billion net of cash. The purchase price represents a premium of 22% to the stock’s closing price on Friday.

Investors are kicking off the new trading week assessing stronger US and Chinese economic data, while the euro slips further and Spanish bond yields rise as growing political uncertainty in southern Europe irks investors. Good morning this is Kristin Bianco with the Week Ahead Market Report for February 4, 2013.