Glencore offers an 8% deal to close a buyout of Xstrata. (Reuters)

HTC has trouble demonstrating that its stock is worth its premium. (Reuters)

The head of Deutsche Boerse says there will be industry consolidation despite the failure of a deal with NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX). (Reuters)

U.S. corporate profits for the past quarter were choppy. (WSJ)

Greek leaders still have not settled disagreements to close a round of financing. (WSJ)

Federal and state prosecutors are set to settle a mortgage fraud deal with five banks. (WSJ)

A JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) banker will be named head of the FDIC. (WSJ)

Chinese leaders offer aid to the EU but try to make certain it is understood they do not want to “takeover” European finances. (WSJ)

The International Monetary Fund cuts its target for China GDP growth. (WSJ)

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and Malaysia’s Genting continue to press for casinos in Florida. (WSJ)

The National Automobile Dealers Association says used car prices could rise 1.2% in 2012. (WSJ)

Activists get Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to agree to a deal that would make it easier for shareholders to push out board members. (WSJ)

Individual investors take on more risk because of low bond yields. (WSJ)

Retail shoppers likely will cut activity. (WSJ)

High Chinese export prices help Mexico. (WSJ)

An increasing number of print and online media turn to video content. (NYT)

Facebook has not found a way to make money on its mobile users. (NYT)

Greece says it would cut its budget further to get a rescue package. (NYT)

The European Central Bank will challenge capital structures of a number of the region’s banks. (FT)

Iran may not cut oil supplies to Europe as it said it would. (FT)

Global sales of junk bonds hit record levels. (FT)

The IMF says China’s growth could drop 4% from the current projection of 8.2% if global economic problems persist. (Bloomberg)

Many hedge funds will be hurt badly if their bets on Greece go wrong. (Bloomberg)

Indonesia’s economy hits its best growth rate since 1996. (Bloomberg)

The ECB may drop some sovereign debt demands for the region’s banks. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Who is at fault as these issues and, most importantly, the issue of Avon’s financial performance, which has undermined the firm’s stock price and reputation? The board of directors.

The Avon board is an odd mix of people, some of whom are hardly qualified to sit in their positions. The board’s lead director, Fred Hassan, who should have been at the forefront of solving Avon’s management problems, has been much too slow in carrying out his duties. He has been a director as long as Jung has been CEO. He has been in a position to watch all of the firm’s troubles unfold and did nothing until he and others forced Jung out.

Maria Lagomasino, a private banker, has been on Avon’s board since 2000. It is hard to see how someone with her background has any reason to be involved with governance at a large public company. Don Cornwell has been on the board since 2002. He is a former radio executive. Paul Pressler, who was dismissed as the CEO of Gap (NYSE: GPS), is also on the board. His turn as the head of a public retail firm ended badly.

There are few precedents of public boards that have been dysfunctional as long as Avon’s. The best example may be Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), where the board stumbled and bumbled for years. The tech company hired former eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman. Many of the HP board members have left recently. The pressure for them to do so has existed for some time. It is remarkable that the board took so long to do what it should have long ago — bring in appropriately experienced directors.

The changes in Avon management have not been accompanied by changes on the board. Until they are, the reasons to trust that the company’s many problems can be fixed are nonexistent.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Honda (NYSE: HMC) posts a 65% drop in profits and cuts its outlook because of the yen and Thai floods. (Reuters)

Twenty-five nations, led by Germany, sign a bailout fund agreement. (Reuters)

Honda will launch its first business jet next week. (Reuters)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) independent directors agree that the chairman should not be a company executive. (Reuters)

German retail sales fall in December. (Reuters)

The WTO rules against Chinese policies on raw materials, but its rare earth exports are not addressed. (Reuters)

AT&T (NYSE: T) changes the roles of a number of its top managers. (Reuters)

Another director — Larry Babbio Jr. — leaves the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) board. (Reuters)

New 401(k) rules could help millions of American with savings. (WSJ)

State attorneys general have until the end of the week to join a bank mortgage settlement set by the federal government. (WSJ)

Banco Santander’s (NYSE: STD) profits drop 98% on its real estate holdings. (WSJ)

The vice chairman of Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) loses his job over an overseas bribery probe. (WSJ)

Symphony IRI reports that more shoppers are moving to store brands and away from traditional ones. (WSJ)

RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) shares fall on a profit warning. (WSJ)

Portugal’s borrowing costs rise to euro-area highs. (WSJ)

The Manhattan Institute reports racial segregation reached a 100-year low. (WSJ)

Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) home broadband efforts compete with Verizon Wireless products. (WSJ)

Groupon’s (NASDAQ: GRPN) CEO defends the value of the company’s shares. (WSJ)

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) moves into India. (WSJ)

Pep Boys goes private. (WSJ)

Comscore reports that Facebook increased its display market share lead over Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). (WSJ)

Many European companies begin to prepare for the economic fallout of a troubled Europe. (WSJ)

Moody’s says it was unaware of balance sheet risks taken by MF Global. (WSJ)

BSkyB will launch an online TV service. (NYT)

The Treasury Department investigates whether Freddie Mac invested based on an inability of some Americans to refinance their homes. (NYT)

A bill to curtail insider trading in Congress advances. (NYT)

EU banks may take loans of as much as $1 trillion because of financial trouble in the region. (FT)

Strong R&D and innovation can extend the life cycles of technology companies. (FT)

Greece is near a confrontation with the European Union over a rescue. (Bloomberg)

German unemployment fell more than expected in January, according to the Federal Labor Agency. (Bloomberg)

Portugal will sell more assets to help with its national debt reduction. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The case for the extraordinary value of Apple’s share is straightforward. It had revenue of $46.3 billion in the last quarter, up from $26.7 billion in the same period a year ago. Net income was $13.1 billion, an increase from $6 billion. The strength of those numbers is compounded by their rapid growth rates. Apple probably has passed Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) as the largest tech firm in the world by sales.

There have been other, and probably more remarkable, technologies than Apple’s hardware and software, which make the company’s results less impressive.

The sales of Windows-based PCs, a product which is now viewed as nearly ancient, are still about 400 million a year. It is hard to calculate how many of these have been sold since they were first introduced in 1980. It is probably 6 billion or more. In addition to what companies like Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and HP have made on that business, the Windows revenue of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has to be added. The figure is certainly close to $1 trillion.

The video game console and software-based games also would have to be contenders to the sales of Apple’s products. Sales of the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation are above $200 million and growing. Add to that the sales of the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii. The total of all of these has to be $600 million or more.

Apple’s numbers may be stunning, but they are not as stunning on a second look when compared to other technology products, the success of which are almost forgotten.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Thomson Reuters has estimates of $10.08 EPS on $38.85 billion in revenues (56% earnings growth and 45% sales growth).  Apple often offers guidance and the coming quarter is expected to be $8.03 EPS on $32.04 billion in sales (25% earnings growth and almost 30% sales growth).  Keep in mind that Apple is often conservative on its guidance.

Stern Agee has raised estimates ahead of the report but it should b noted that as recently as Monday the WhisperNumber.com report showed that Apple’s earnings estimates had been showing a whisper trend down to $9.99 EPS from $10.01 EPS earlier.  The whisper numbers are less official but are trader-biased.

A few things to consider.  Apple is on the way to having $100 billion in cash on hand.  Last quarter’s earnings report was the first substantial miss in about five years.  This is the first full quarter without Steve Jobs.  Apple is a company which some investors would like to see either a dividend or some use of this cash arsenal now that Steve Jobs is not in charge.  This is also the first report that includes the full sell-thru of the iPhone 4S.

Shares are still around $424.00 per share and the 52-week range is $310.50 to $431.37 with a consensus price target from Thomson Reuters of $514.98.  If Apple only meets its $35.39 consensus earnings estimate for Fiscal 2012 (September-end) then this stock trades just under 12-times expected earnings.

If you use the monthly options rather than the weekly options, options traders appear to be braced for a move of up to about $16 in either direction.

As far as Apple’s chart, there is a lot going on here as you will see with the stockcharts.com chart below.  Apple recently hit all-time highs just last week and that implies a large breakout pattern.  The problem is that the high was hit and then it has stalled.  One could even argue that the chart is awaiting today’s news because shares are settling in right now just above what was resistance in September around $420 and then a firmer resistance around $425 in October.  The stock has also rallied from a low of about $365 around the end of November for a 16% gain since that time.

Some other issues to consider from fresh and recent articles:

• Motorola patent case narrowed
• Apple was a top brand of 2011
• Apple released its full supplier list
• Apple shares made it yet again on the Top Picks List for 2012 from analysts

JON C. OGG

After the close on Tuesday came word that Bill Veghte has been appointed as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer.  It was noted, “In addition to his new responsibilities, Veghte will continue in his current role as executive vice president of HP Software.”  And later in the release it noted, “Veghte will lead HP’s cloud and webOS open source initiatives.”

EVP of HP Software as Strategy head… a former SAP head booted out… a giant Autonomy acquisition… naming Meg Whitman as CEO with internet experience… and keeping the PC unit because it would cost too much to get rid of.  Does anything here tell you that the future direction of HP is going backwards into more and more hardware?

HP noted that this further signals its “commitment to providing customers with the latest platforms, products and services needed for success in a rapidly changing world.”

As far as Veghte’s past, he joined HP in 2010 and was credited for helping to grow HP’s software business by 18% in the most recent year.  Before joining HP he spent ‘two decades’ at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) “in a variety of senior leadership positions” and it was noted that he managed the company’s $15 billion global Windows business and was called “instrumental in the delivery and launch of Windows 7.”

JON C. OGG

Google’s brand value increased by 27%, the third largest gain among the top 100 brands. The second largest gain was posted by Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), which jumped 32% and moved up from 36th on the list to 26th.

The biggest loser was Nokia, which fell -15% and from 8th to 14th in the league table. Another smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics, moved up from 2 places, from 19th, on the strength of a 20% jump in brand value.

Toyota, ranked 11th, is the top automaker, barely ahead of Mercedes-Benz, with BMW in third. Among US carmakers only Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) made the top 100 with its ‘Ford’ brand, at 50th place behind Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) and Volkswagen.

Three brands made the list for the first time: Nissan, John Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), and HTC Corp.

The Interbrand study ranks the top ten brands by dollar value in this order:

1. Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) – $71.86 billion
2. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) – $69.91 billion
3. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) – $59.09 billion
4. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) – $55.32 billion
5. General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) – $42.81 billion
6. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) – $35.59 billion
7. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) – $35.22 billion
8. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) – $33.5 billion
9. Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) – $29.02 billion
10. Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) – $28.48 billion

Paul Ausick

The market for tablets is already mature enough to support substantial sales. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung have proven that. That competition between the two is heated enough for each to spend time in court attempting to block sales of the other country by country.

If any other company is late to the tablet PC market it is Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), which launched its Kindle Fire late last year. Amazon has the advantage of its large content libraries to help buttress sales. Dell will have no such advantage.

Dell also will face other tablet launches in 2012. That will include one by Lenovo. Acer has just entered the market. Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE: HPQ) first foray was a failure, but that does not mean the firm will not try again.

Companies like Dell get caught flat-footed when a market they should do well in grows rapidly. The excuse is usually the same. It is worth a wait to see how the market will flesh out. It is best to hold off to see which features and operating systems have the most momentum. By the time all of those things are known, it is usually too late. Being first to market a risk, but it is a bigger risk to be last. The tablet market has already shown as much.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Most of the largest companies in the U.S. will not have large earnings swings from last year, with the notable exception of financial firms. The majority of banks and investment houses will suffer earnings declines because of poor trading results and bad loans, notwithstanding the fact that JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), arguably the best-run bank in America, is on this list, as is Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) . Corporations like IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) have such huge customer bases worldwide that they can hardly outperform the global economy. What differentiates them is their ability to manage their operations better than peers as they keep expenses low and take all the advantages they can of their significant market shares.

24/7 Wall St. looked at the top 200 companies in the Fortune 500 based on the revenue in the past reported year. We then reviewed earnings and earnings forecast from Thomson/First Call. There were some cases in which earnings appeared to be too low or too high because of events in the past month. We took those into account when we produced the final numbers.

This is 24/7 Wall St.’s 10 Most Profitable Companies for 2012.

If Brocade is in play, investors may want to consider that CommVault Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVLT) might be another candidate.  As far as who the buyers would be or could be, Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) were two such names speculated in the past.  Perhaps International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) could be another.

The aim and value is that Brocade is often “The Poor Man’s Version” of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO).  With Cisco now going after the data center revenue segment, many of these and other technology outfits could be buyers.

For now, just count this as a rumor.  Brocade shares hit the 10% limit halt for a circuit breaker and shares are currently up 8.7% at $5.89. CommVault shares are up 1.2% at $45.97 on the day.

JON C. OGG