ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) was reiterated Buy and the ADR price target was raised to $56 at Canaccord Genuity.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) was raised to Positive at Susquehanna.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was reiterated Outperform but the target price was raised to $60 from $53 based on earnings diversification and Latin American growth prospects.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was raised to Buy with $72 price target from Neutral and $59 target at Stern Agee.

Galena Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ: GALE) was started as Outperform at JMP Securities.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was reiterated as Buy at Argus but the target price was raised to $90 from $85 based on higher earnings estimates for 2013 and 2014.

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE: IFF) was reiterated Buy at Argus but the target price was to $93 from $87 based on higher earnings expectations.

Read also: Lessons of the 2013 Solar Bubble Versus the 2007-2008 Solar Bubble

Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) was raised to Buy from Hold late on Tuesday by S&P Capital IQ.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Popular Inc. (NASDAQ: BPOP) was started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Terex Corp. (NYSE: TEX) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Read also: Top Chip CapEx and Materials Stocks to Buy Now from UBS

UBS gave a list of 10 wireless trends for investors to bank on 2013.

Jamie Dimon has floated the idea that he may consider leaving if his role is split. We noted that one analyst recently signaled a $20 billion or 10% risk that could come out of the stock if Dimon decided to leave the firm if his role is split. We have also warned of a coming activist investor bubble that seems to be forming as activist investors are attacking billions and billions worth of companies if you count the market caps.

Dimon has maintained that the issues behind the London Whale have been resolved. Unfortunately, many top lieutenants have left the firm in recent months. While this may be a sign that things were not as good as some analysts hope, this also has created a bit of a management vacuum and that leaves no heir apparent if Dimon chooses to just leave J.P. Morgan.

Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) has taken sides, saying Jamie Dimon is one of the greatest bank CEOs that exists. Ken Langone, a founder of Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), also has been in full support and said that he would sell J.P. Morgan shares if Dimon leaves. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) recently talked up its own split role position. The bank said that the split of a chairman and CEO role have worked well for it during the restructuring.

J.P. Morgan remains one of our top banks as one of the seven safest banks in America for 2013. Unfortunately, the London Whale issue and the loss of Jamie Dimon’s ability to speak against regulation and legislation has taken the bank’s leadership role away.

So, tell us what you think in our anonymous poll below.

Foxconn, once one of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) largest suppliers, says it needs additional time to cut back worker overtime. (Reuters)

Dell Inc.’s (NASDAQ: DELL) profits fall, but that may not stop the fight over its future ownership. (Reuters)

Samsung runs out of some key parts for its smartphones and may have to turn to competitors for more inventory. (Reuters)

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.’s (NYSE: JCP) new CEO says it will take several quarters to salvage the company. (Reuters)

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) will press the FCC to look at the Softbank bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). (Reuters)

EBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) could create apps for Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Glass product. (Reuters)

Northrup Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) will try to buy back 25% of its shares by 2015. (Reuters)

The Securities and Exchange Commission to charge Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) with a record fine for failing to keep track of trouble in its own markets. (WSJ)

The stock market is not hurt by an earnings season with many poor results. (WSJ)

Shareholders of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) are sent a letter supporting Jamie Dimon’s attempt to remain as both chief executive officer and chairman. (WSJ)

Wages in China rise sharply in the past year. (WSJ)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) says that consumers are “stretched” due to an uneven economy. (WSJ)

A new way to account for leases may increase the amount of debt some companies carry on their balance sheets. (WSJ)

Google says several companies, including CNN, Twitter and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), have made apps for Google Glass. (NYT)

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) traders will not longer use the chat feature on Bloomberg terminals as the scandal over journalist access to data grows. (FT)

U.S. farm land prices grow sharply despite weak demand for wheat. (FT)

Monthly car sales in Europe rise for the first time in 19 months, mostly on strength in Germany. (Bloomberg)

We saw new positions taken in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) of 1 million shares and in Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) at 2.7 million shares. Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) was a new stake and that was put at 5 million shares.

Some 2.8 million shares were also seen in Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) which is likely an arbitrage play of sorts in a Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) deal over Verizon Wireless. Paulson also has a merger-arb piece left over in H. J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ) with a stake of 1 million shares.

Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CIE) was a new position, but this was put at about $80 million in shares and in debt securities combined. InterOil Corporation (NYSE: IOC) was a new stake of 1.87 million shares.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) was a new stake of 17 million shares which has since risen in value, but there was an additional $152 million in debt securities held there.

Paulson’s position in the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) was listed as 21,837,552 shares worth some $3.37 billion as of March 31. That compares to a December 31, 2012 value of $3.538 billion. Based upon the closing price of $134.63 on Wednesday, that value would be down to $2.94 billion as of now.

Some of these positions were higher in the after-hours from the report. With Paulson under much more criticism than praise of late, you have to wonder if the cynical view of shorting Paulson’s picks may start to take shape. Just keep in mind that Paulson’s losses in gold might not mean that he makes bad decisions elsewhere and indefinitely.

PAULSON’s FULL HOLDINGS

The Financial Times this morning is citing “two people familiar with the situation” who say that Softbank, which owns about one-third of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been telling investment bankers that if they want a piece of Alibaba’s coming initial public offering (IPO), the banks had better pass on helping fund an offer from Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Softbank’s $20.1 billion offer for Sprint has been topped by an offer of $25.5 billion from Dish.

Alibaba’s IPO is the hottest thing on Wall Street since the IPO of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB). The IPO is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year at a valuation in the neighborhood of $60 billion to $80 billion. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) sold about half of its 40% stake in Alibaba back to the Chinese firm late last year for total consideration of about $7.6 billion. That placed a valuation of around $40 billion on Alibaba.

A consortium of nine banks, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB), HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) recently refinanced $8 billion in Alibaba debt at lower interest, and the nine are believed to have the inside track on the coming IPO.

How credible is a threat from Softbank to withhold the IPO from banks that cooperate with Dish? Investment banks are almost desperate for profitable Asian business and Softbank’s message is pretty clear, even if the Japanese company has not said as much directly. But even though Softbank owns a big chunk of Alibaba, the Japanese probably cannot tell the Chinese which banks to use. The banks will get the message without having to be told.

Yesterday’s announcement that Fannie Mae would repay $59.4 billion in bailout funds spiked our interest in how the TARP payback is going. Here is what we have found.

The Capital Purchase Program was the largest of the TARP programs, paying out $250.46 billion to 707 financial institutions. The total amount repaid so far comes to $270.81 billion. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) took TARP funds of $45 billion and fully repaid the funds in early 2010. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) paid back TARP loans of $20 billion and $25 billion, respectively, in early 2010 as well. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) repaid $25 billion in the summer of 2009, and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) repaid $10 billion each at the same time.

In addition to these repayments, the Treasury received dividend payments of nearly $12 billion on from the Capital Purchase Program, some $9.4 billion from banks with assets greater than $10 billion.

Smaller banks received $14.57 billion in TARP funds and have repaid $12.13 billion so far, including $1.63 billion in dividends.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) received $67.84 billion in TARP funds and has repaid $55.31 billion to date, include $640 million dividends.

The U.S. auto industry received a total of $79.69 billion. Chrysler Group received $12.37 billion and has repaid $11.13 billion to date, including $1.13 billion in interest. General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) received $51.03 billion and has so far repaid $31.1 billion, including $770 million in interest. Ally Financial, formerly GMAC, received $16.29 billion and has repaid $5.94 billion, including $3.27 billion in dividends. As a group, the automakers and Ally have repaid $48.17 billion of the original bailout funds.

The out-of-pocket cost to taxpayers as of yesterday totaled $42.29 billion, and collections are continuing. That’s not exactly chump change, but in late 2008 no one would have dared predict that TARP would end up costing that little.

See the U.S. Treasury’s daily report.

This is an interesting take because it has yet another call to increase the capitalization of the so-called too big to fail banks. It sound great and 24/7 Wall St. is all in favor of big banks being on solid ground. The ultimate problem is that the big banks are so big that increase their capitalization requirements effectively withdraws too much capital from the economy.  It is without any doubt that you have heard of the calls to break apart the big banks before. You will here those same calls tomorrow and beyond as well.

When you consider that a mere handful of banks have about half of the country’s personal and commercial bank deposits you have a right to be scared. Increasing the capital requirements above the 10% hurdles set by Basel banking standards. Imagine how strong and able these banks would be able to hold up in another recession if their bank capital requirements went from 10% to say 15%.   Now for the bad news if you look at the tally of assets as of the end of 2012. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was about $2.36 trillion in assets and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) has $2.2 trillion in assets, with Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) behind it at $1.86 trillon and then followed by $1.42 trillion for Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

These four banks alone have $7.84 trillion in assets. The CIA World Factbook tracks just about all global economies and its final estimate for 2012 GDP was put at $15.66 trillion for 2012. Different regulators have many different means of calculating what they think the capitalization are best and keeping up with the flavor of the day or week is for government accountants and regulators. Still, this asset base for just the four biggest banks is right at half (actually 50.06%) of 2012 GDP on the purchasing power parity calculation preferred by economists.

It is very easy to merely say in a vacuum that the too big to fail banks should just increase their capital to hedge against future bailouts. Various regulators have various means of evaluating capitalization metrics and requirements. The unfortunate outcome is that by forcing banks to hold even more capital will tighten credit even further than it has been. With much of the world back in recession, that puts the U.S. back in recession.

Here is what Mr. Plosser said,

“Today, I will highlight why I think current efforts may not be sufficient and discuss a two-pronged approach to ending the problem of too big to fail. The first aspect of this approach is establishing a framework that permits a large financial institution to, in fact, fail without placing the financial system at risk. Large financial firms, and particularly their creditors, should not be rescued or protected by government guarantees or supports or by regulatory discretion. The second line of defense that I will discuss is to expect all financial firms to maintain sufficient levels of capital to significantly reduce the ex-ante risk of failure. Increased capital requirements can lower the incentive for financial institutions to become systemically important and lower the probability that such firms will fail in the first place.”

There is an admission that these “TBTF” banks would become less systemically important. We have no problem with the notion that 20 of the top 50 banks should be allowed to grow and take assets from the top 4. The question is how you can do it without creating a recession. No one seems to have the stomach to actually break apart these businesses. Merely lifting capital reserve requirements comes with a serious price due to the economies of scale here.

Finally, just imagine breaking all of these big banks up as the ultimate step that many people would like to see. This would be very messy and would likely throw the economy back into a self-imposed recession. At first there would be many layoffs and many immediate hits in the economy. That would likely reverse itself and perhaps in as short as one or two quarters of the year. During that period of chaos, businesses would have limited access to capital again just like in 2008 and 2009 at the same time that individuals would not be able to easily get mortgages and loans. The list of problems can just go on and on even though we agree that the big banks are just too big and too economically important.

It is easy for politicians and regulators to propose more strict and tighter standards. As you can see, the actual path to take is harder to walk down than it is to talk about. If you do not believe that there would not be real problems here, ask yourself why the moves have been so slow even after the financial crisis. Even with the anti-money sentiment that much of the public and their elected officials have today, the powers that be must also believe that the price to pay would be too costly.

In a new report, the analysts at Deutsche Bank move their exposure on the industrial sector from Overweight to Equal Weight. Banks and technology are upgraded to Overweight and are expected to outperform for the summer and the rest of 2013. Dividend guidance and hikes from technology, as well as earnings strength from the banks, are the main drivers for their rotation.

Here are the technology and banking stocks to buy from Deutsche Bank.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has shown tremendous earnings strength, both domestically and around the world. The Deutsche Bank price target here is $53. The Thomson/First Call estimate is right in line at $53.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) recently received a vote of confidence for CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon from none other than Warren Buffett. The Deutsche Bank target for the stock is $53, while the consensus is at $55.50. Investors receive a solid 3.20% dividend.

U.S Bancorp (NYSE: USB) is a Midwest mega-regional bank that makes the list. With its more than 3,000 branches in the Midwest and the West, earnings have been solid. The Deutsche Bank price objective is $38. Consensus is at $37. Investors are paid a 2.40% dividend.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) is another solid regional name to make the list. With shares recently hitting 52-week highs, the bank has seen solid insider purchasing. Deutsche Bank has a $17 target. The consensus estimate is at $18. Investors are paid a 2.60% dividend.

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC) rounds out the bank stocks to buy. Led by CNBC regular and Wall Street favorite Jim Rohr, the bank has continued to raise earnings and dividends. Deutsche Bank has a $74 price target, while the consensus is at $72. Investors receive a 2.60% dividend.

Qualcom Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) leads off the technology stocks to buy. Qualcomm is a major force in the high-mobility business, selling the smarts in smartphones and the intelligence in tablets. Deutsche Bank has a $78 price target. The consensus for the name is $76. Investors are paid a 2.20% dividend.

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) is the leader in storage and also a majority owner of cloud software company VMWare Inc. (NYSE: VMW). Deutsche Bank has a $28 price target. The consensus target for the stock is higher at $29.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) makes the list. With everything from Internet search domination to Google Glass to YouTube, this may be the leading technology stock to own for years to come. Deutsche Bank has a $930 price target. The consensus is at $900.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) provides information technology (IT), consulting and business process outsourcing services worldwide. Deutsche Bank has a $92 price target, while the consensus is at $86.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) completes the list of tech stocks to buy. Big Blue has become the preeminent technology services company in the world. The Deutsche Bank price objective is $225. The consensus is right in line at $225. Investors are paid a 1.90% dividend.

Clearly the Deutsche Bank list is dominated by mega-cap stocks that are the leaders in their respective sectors. Investors, especially those with a long-term objective, can feel comfortable buying these stocks at this level. It may be wise to buy half positions now, and see if we do indeed experience the 5% pullback that Deutsche Bank expects.

Spanish financial firm Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) shares are battered after poor earnings. (Reuters)

Spain’s unemployment rate in the first quarter is 27.2%. (Reuters)

Competition in Asia hurts Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) earnings. (Reuters)

Low supplies of the Samsung Galaxy S4 may hurt sales. (Reuters)

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will make its first bond offering. (WSJ)

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) will soon release a streaming video service. (WSJ)

Fiat may buy the part of Chrysler its does not own and them launch an IPO of the U.S. company. (WSJ)

Bad European Union sales hurt earnings of the region’s big car companies — Daimler, Volkswagen and Peugeot. (WSJ)

Profits on new locations may not match those that already exist as Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) expands. (WSJ)

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) will stream old episodes of Saturday Night Live in an effort to boost revenue from video ads. (NYT)

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) wins shareholder support for its new executive pay policy. (FT)

South Korea’s GDP expansion in the first quarter is 0.9%, a two-year high. (FT)

Central banks buy equities because of low bond yields. (Bloomberg)

First and foremost, all of the slated directors were approved as were the compensation plans. The bank has maintained that it cannot cut its way down to glory and that no one should be satisfied in management until it has rebuilt its credibility. This was on the heels of noting that the regulatory and political headwinds remain significant while the economic environment is challenging. As a reminder, regulators have more oversight on Citigroup than on most of the other heavily regulated banks.

Citi’s dividend and share buyback plans were addressed. While there will be an even focus spread between the share buyback efforts and between the dividend payouts in the longer term, Citi said that it plans to remain more focused on buying its stock as long as that stock is trading under its book value. When you see the discount to book value this may make more sense. We would also note that Citi pays a dividend yield on its common stock of not even quite 0.1%. That being said, it may just make more sense to keep buying down its stock to avoid public sentiment headlines against the bank rasing its dividend fivefold or tenfold just to be competitive with other bank payouts.

The bank is signaling that the bulk of its shrinking efforts has been done, although that did not imply that more divesting or layoffs might not be seen here and there. This was after discussing a reviewing of alternatives routinely and saying that the current path is the best for the bank.

Our main takeaway for investors is that Citi may divest operations here and there, but the major portion of the restructuring has been seen. We would also expect that the bank will buy its shares when it can and the focus is going to be there over begging regulators to start paying higher and higher dividends.

Apparently the results are good enough so far. On a day when the S&P 500 is teetering between red and black and when the DJIA is down 25 points we have Citigroup shares trading up 1.7% at $47.25 against a 52-week trading range of $24.61 to $47.92. At the first quarter earnings report, Citi represented that its stated book value increased to $62.51 per share and its tangible book value increased to $52.35 per share.

As a reminder, Fitch just warned on Tuesday that the best in earnings trends have already been seen in the first quarter for the rest of 2013 at the major banks.