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)

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.

A case in point comes from the share value increases in International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ). HP shares are higher by 50% this year, compared with 5% for IBM.

The argument most frequently offered for the difference is that IBM was already fully valued and that the shares of HP have been overly battered by bad news. The fallacy of that argument is that the trouble at HP has not gotten better in 2013. If anything, the company is in more trouble. Evidence of this is the increased turmoil over its buyout of Autonomy, the confusion of its board structure and its lack of a way to reverse its fortunes from the death of the PC. One the other hand, growth has slowed at IBM, but its profits and the stability of its operations are remarkable. If a bubble has formed in tech stock prices, HP should be considered as strong evidence.

The case in retail shares is just as compelling, if not more so. Thus far, there is little reason to think that electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) can be turned around. Same-store sales have stayed in trouble. On the other hand, the company that ruined Best Buy — e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) — posted revenue growth of 22% to $16.1 billion in its most recently reported quarter. It continues to add new products, the most recently rumored a 3D consumer electronics portable. And some analysts believe that Amazon’s enterprise cloud system eventually will be larger than its e-commerce system as measured by sales. But this year Best Buy’s shares are up 120% while Amazon’s are flat. Once again, an argument for the difference is that Best Buy might be turned around and that Amazon has low margins as its spends to expand several of its business. But Best Buy could turn out to be an outright failure, while Amazon is the most admired retail company in the world.

If it takes three examples to make a case, the value of the shares of Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) round out the argument. Zynga’s shares have risen almost 40% this year and Facebook’s are flat. Facebook powerfully made the case that it can continue to grow rapidly and that much of that growth is in mobile. Just last year, the markets were worried that mobile revenue was Facebook’s Achilles heel. In the first quarter, Facebook’s revenue rose almost 40% to $1.5 billion. The social network reported that “mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 30% of advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2013.” Zynga’s revenue fell 30% in its first quarter to $264 million. And its most crucial measure of health fell apart:

Daily active users (DAUs) decreased from 65 million in the first quarter of 2012 to 52 million in the first quarter of 2013, down 21% year-over-year. On a consecutive quarter basis, DAUs were down 8% from 56 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Those who believe that Zynga’s share price increase is justified fail to take into account that the company has lost almost all of its promise. Even on a relative basis, the stock trades based on the viability of Zynga, or the odds it might be taken over, both of which are in doubt.

The bull market may press shares of weak companies up more than those of strong ones. The problem is that the weak companies may not have any future at all.

The Facebook video ad program will begin as early as July. The first of its initiatives in the sector will be via member feeds. If this works, and it will if Facebook offers low enough rates and impressive targeting, the firms that hope to dominate the business, which include Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and Google’s Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube, likely will have to drop their own rates to hold market share.

The precedent for Facebook’s undermining ad prices came when it ramped up its display effort recently. Facebook’s share of the display ad sector has been estimated as larger than Google’s, and no other Internet destination company is even close, according to eMarketer. The fact that advertising revenue is relatively flat among most large websites is a sign that they cannot keep rates as high as is required to improve earnings.

Video advertising revenue has increased as more and more sites add video content. YouTube dominates the market. Unique visitors to video content hit 153.9 million on Google sites in March, according to comScore. Yahoo! sites posted 50.3 million, followed by AOL at 40.1 million. However, unique visitors to video content at Facebook were 68.3 million, which puts the social network in second place. Because so much of the video on YouTube is posted by amateurs, the number of marketers who run video ads at the site is limited by the low quality.

Wall Street remains skeptical about YouTube’s ability to become a major player in the advertising markets, both on traditional PCs and mobile devices. Facebook’s total revenue in the first quarter was only $1.46 billion. That puts it light years behind Google, which posted revenue of $14 billion in the first quarter.

Facebook’s only option to get a much larger share of the video advertising market quickly is to buy its way in with low rates. For the social network, there would be nothing new to that approach.

A new Gallup poll on stock ownership shows:

Despite strong gains in the stock market over the past year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s reaching record highs in the past month, stock ownership among U.S. adults is at its lowest level in Gallup trends since 1998, essentially unchanged from a year ago. Just over half of Americans, 52%, now say they personally, or jointly with a spouse, own stock outright or as part of a mutual fund or self-directed retirement account.

Gallup’s conclusion about the data is that unemployment is a major cause of low participation. However, the public perception of whether the markets are fair likely has a greater effect.

Individual investors need only look to the news to find that certain professional investors have inside tracks on the market, whether or not these are legal. The stories of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) director Rajat Gupta being convicted of security fraud has to undermine confidence in whether the markets are fair. So does the news of “flash crashes” and firms that can trade shares electronically in a matter of less than a second. For an individual investor, a stock purchase can take seconds or even minutes.

Another cause for suspicion about whether the markets are set against individuals is the availability of stock research from large firms that is given to huge customers who trade with them frequently. The Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) initial public offering (IPO) debacle left some investors questioning how many shares they held and at what prices in the hours after trading in the social network began. Shortly thereafter, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was fined for giving certain investors access to estimates that Facebook revenue might be lower than expected. Obviously, individual investors burned financially by the Facebook IPO process had no such access.

Individual investors have cause to stay on the sidelines. Their impression that the markets are not fair is sometime correct.

Methodology: Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted April 4 to 14, 2013, with a random sample of 2,017 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

With inflation below Federal Reserve targets, the central bank may have to increase bond buying. (Reuters)

Some hedge funds move into Detroit debt. (Reuters)

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) will use Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) to offer shoppers discounts. (Reuters)

Softbank management will meet Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) investors and might raise its bid for the carrier. (Reuters)

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) says better game products should increase sales next year. (Reuters)

American use of credit begins to improve from a six-year slump. (WSJ)

Airline mergers substantially cut routes served. (WSJ)

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) says sales fell sharply in the first quarter. (WSJ)

Carl Icahn and Southeastern, both large Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) shareholders, may challenge to get board seats. (WSJ)

The Dow closes above 15,000 for the first time. (WSJ)

More people from recession-racked nations move to Germany for jobs. (WSJ)

Start-ups based on Bitcoin e-commerce begin to raise large sums of money. (WSJ)

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) tries unsuccessfully to pull out of its search partnership with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). (WSJ)

The share price of Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) may have risen too quickly in the past several months. (WSJ)

A second proxy firm supports a split in the roles of chairman and CEO at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). (FT)

“Iron Man 3″ is expected to greatly help the earnings of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS). (FT)

Gold prices have their biggest drop in 30 years, but that does not dissuaded some investors. (Bloomberg)

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) plans to upgrade Windows 8 to boost sales. (Reuters)

New York state will file charges against Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) over mortgage instrument abuses. (Reuters)

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) set a partnership for Star Wars games. (Reuters)

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) makes changes to its Atom chip in a bid for more mobile sales. (Reuters)

The Securities and Exchange Commission charges officials of Harrisburg with misrepresenting the city’s financial state. (WSJ)

Bank of America pays MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) $1.7 billion to settle mortgage-related charges. (WSJ)

European Union officials issue a complaint against Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Motorola over its patent violations of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) intellectual property. (WSJ)

The three largest J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) investors fail to support the plan to allow Jamie Dimon to keep both his chief executive and chairman roles. (WSJ)

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sues Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) over sales of its drinks to underage children. (WSJ)

The European Union will put tariffs on Chinese solar panels. (WSJ)

Some telecom companies adopt mobile OS products that compete with Apple’s iOS and Google Android. (WSJ)

To fight online sales of fake drugs, among other things, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) will sell Viagra online. (NYT)

Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, begins to manufacture its own TVs. (NYT)

Google’s YouTube will allow some providers of content to charge subscription fees. (NYT)

Slow increases in health care costs could be due to the recession and higher co-pay charges. (NYT)

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) will introduce video ads. (FT)

Swiss unemployment reaches a two-year high. (Bloomberg)

Of course, investors could be gun-shy after the collapses of the share prices of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) and Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA). Twitter has not demonstrated that it can bring in a critical mass of advertising, at least not enough for it to be considered a large media company. Analysts estimate that the company could be worth $10 billion currently, which may be much to pricey for Wall Street.

The New York Times says of the new Twitter corporate development chief:

The company has hired Cynthia Gaylor, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, to be its head of corporate development, Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter’s chief lawyer, said in a tweet on Thursday.

Adding:

Over her career, Ms. Gaylor has worked on technology deals including the sale of Zappos to Amazon.com, according to her profile on LinkedIn. More recently, she has advised on financing transactions like initial public offerings.

Among her clients are Facebook, Zynga, Netflix and LinkedIn, the LinkedIn profile says. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2006 after working at Hambrecht & Quist, which became part of JPMorgan Chase.

Europe believes that it is doing poorly, financially. The European Commission (EC) put out its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) activity for this year and next. This year, at least, the prediction is awful. All that EC officials can say is that the region’s leaders have to do better. It is a refrain heard repeatedly for government leaders and other policy makers. From the EC report on the slow EU economic recovery:

Following the recession that marked 2012, the EU economy is expected to stabilise in the first half of 2013. GDP growth is projected to turn positive gradually in the second half of the year before gaining some traction in 2014.

Further:

Annual GDP growth this year is now forecast at -0.1% in the EU and at -0.4% in the euro area. For 2014, economic activity is projected to expand by 1.4% in the EU and 1.2 % in the euro area.

And, the deep concern:

Olli Rehn, Commission Vice-President for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro said: “In view of the protracted recession, we must do whatever it takes to overcome the unemployment crisis in Europe. The EU’s policy mix is focused on sustainable growth and job creation. Fiscal consolidation is continuing, but its pace is slowing down. In parallel, structural reforms must be intensified to unlock growth in Europe.”

So far, “whatever it takes” has not been nearly enough.

Twitter Going Public?

Twitter has added an investment banker to its staff. This has prompted speculation that the company may begin the process for an initial public offering. Of course, investors could be gun-shy after the collapses of the share prices of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) and Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA). Twitter has not demonstrated that it can bring in a critical mass of advertising, at least not enough for it to be considered a large media company. Analysts estimate that the company could be worth $10 billion currently, which may be much to pricey for Wall Street. The New York Times says of the new Twitter corporate development chief:

The company has hired Cynthia Gaylor, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, to be its head of corporate development, Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter’s chief lawyer, said in a tweet on Thursday.

Adding:

Over her career, Ms. Gaylor has worked on technology deals including the sale of Zappos to Amazon.com, according to her profile on LinkedIn. More recently, she has advised on financing transactions like initial public offerings.

Among her clients are Facebook, Zynga, Netflix and LinkedIn, the LinkedIn profile says. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2006 after working at Hambrecht & Quist, which became part of JPMorgan Chase.

Barnes & Noble Teams with Google

Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) may have gotten an investment for Nook, its e-reader and e-book operation, from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) as the software company presses into tablets. But the book company has decided to hedge it bets. Barnes & Noble management understands what most other tablet producers do. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) control the application markets for these devices. So, Barnes & Noble has set a partnership with Google. The book company reported:

NOOK Media LLC, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. , the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced it is expanding its extensive catalogue of reading and entertainment content with the addition of the Google Play digital content experience on its acclaimed NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ devices. With Google Play on NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, customers will now have access to more than 700,000 Android apps and games, millions of songs and more.

The U.S. dollar index is trading up 0.91% today, now at 82.226. The GSCI commodity index is down 2.1% at 611.06. WTI crude oil closed up 3.2%, at $93.99 a barrel. Brent crude trades up 2.9% at $102.83 a barrel. Natural gas is down 6.4% today at about $4.05 per million BTUs on a larger-than-expected build in U.S. inventories (more coverage here). Gold settled up 1.5% today at $1,467.60 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 131 points to 14,831.58 (0.89%), the NASDAQ rose about 41 points (1.26%) to 3,340.62, and the S&P 500 rose 0.94% or nearly 15 points to 1,597.59.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) raised to ‘market perform’ at Northland Securities; Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) raised to ‘buy’ at Sterne Agee; Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) raised to ‘equal weight’ at Morgan Stanley; Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (NYSE: GNK) cut to ‘underperform’ at Credit Suisse; and SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) is down fractionally at $33.58; Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR) is up 1.4% at $28.85; CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) is up 2.6% at $47.62 after posting a new 52-week high of $48.30 earlier today; Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is up 5.6% at $28.97 (more coverage here); JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) is up 4% at $13.02; Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) is up 1.5% at $57.09 after posting a new 52-week high of $57.88 earlier today (more coverage here); Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) is up 7.5% at $39.71 after posting a new 52-week high of $39.92 earlier today; Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) is up 5.8% at $53.83; Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is up 5.7% at $175.44 after posting a new 52-week high of $179.66 earlier today; Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) is down 4.2% at $7.16 (more coverage here); Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) is up 4.2% at $68.10 after posting a new 52-week high of $68.87 earlier today; Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) is down 0.6% at $28.67(more coverage here); and Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW) is up 8.3% at $4.64.

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG), Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Kraft Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT), LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD), SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR), Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADT), and Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) is up 6.7% at $14.73 after posting a new 52-week high of $14.90 earlier today. The hotel and casino operator posted a surprise profit on the strength of its Macau business.

Halcon Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK) is down 9% at $5.72. The independent energy company reported poor earnings this morning.

ING U.S. Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) is up 5.7% at $20.62. The U.S. insurance arm of Dutch giant ING held its IPO today. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Friday. Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker are giving speeches. We have also noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 8:30 a.m. – Non-farm payrolls and employment situation
• 10:00 a.m. – Factory orders
• 10:00 a.m. – ISM non-manufacturing index