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What’s Important in the Financial World (5/16/2012) New Greek Elections, Oil Prices Fall

247wallst — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:43:32 +0000

It appears increasingly likely that concerns about the future of Greece will depress equity markets worldwide. Politicians in the country have failed to set a coalition government, despite several efforts. The chance that Greece will withdraw from the eurozone has heightened as new elections may be called in a matter of days. Those elections could be held a month from now. Politicians who reject austerity measures as a means to gain financial aid likely will do extremely well. The relationship of the southern European country to its neighbors is in limbo. But the actions of such a small nation have pulled down stocks in Asia and Europe, and they continued to do so today. Most major indexes have fallen many of the days in the past two weeks. Part of the cause for the sell-offs may be concerns about a global economic slowdown, but each piece of news from Greece is the trigger for additional lack of belief in equities.

Oil Prices Fall

WTI crude reached a six-month low, which is positive news for nearly everyone other than the oil and gas industry. The price moved below $92, down from close to $110 less than 90 days ago. One reason is that U.S. supplies of oil are higher than expected. But the most substantial reason is belief that demand in Europe will be historically low for this time of year. A drop in the rapid expansion in China’s gross domestic product may also be a cause for lower prices. The most important effect on the U.S. economy is that gasoline prices are plummeting. The cost for a gallon of regular based on a nationwide average calculated by the AAA is $3.728, compared to $3.727 the day before and $3.907 a month ago. The fall from the year ago price of $3.955 is extraordinary. The price of premium appears ready to drop below $4 for the first time in months. There is school of thought among some economists that whatever factors might slow U.S. GDP growth in the middle of this year will be partially offset by the lower cost of gas for American families that live paycheck to paycheck. With regular gas above $4, many could not be consumers of anything other than bare necessities. As gas prices fall, that should change.

GM and Facebook

Investors do not seem to care that General Motors (NYSE: GM) has dropped Facebook as an advertising medium. The press made a great deal of the news, but GM’s investment was only a few million dollars over the past year. Maybe skeptics about Facebook’s future reason that other very large advertisers will be unhappy with the result of their marketing on the social network and will withdraw as well. But, in the face of the GM news, Facebook as raised the number of shares it will sell in its initial public offering to 421 million, according to several media reports. That is up 25% from the number expected just a few days ago. This would set the amount of money collected by Facebook at $16 billion and value the company at over $110 billion. Many analysts believe that Facebook’s valuation is much too high. But that has not stopped a nearly insatiable appetite for ownership in the company. Perhaps Facebook users want to be shareholders are well. It works that way with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), so there is a precedent.

Relational Investors vs. Pepsi

Shareholder activist firm Relational Investors has bought $600 million of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) shares, according to the Wall Street Journal. Large companies are not immune from the kind of attacks recently experienced by AOL (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). The market has been concerned about the stewardship of Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi for some time. Soda sales have dropped in many parts of the world, in part because of health concerns. That has caused Pepsi and rival Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) to rely more on sales of bottled water, noncarbonated drinks and snacks. Soda sales have been so huge for so long that replacing them is almost impossible. PepsiCo is too large for almost any one shareholder to attack. Its market capitalization is more than $100 billion, so the Relational Investors position is inconsequential, whether or not the group has reasonable concerns.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Market Open Tagged: AAPL, AOL, GM, KO, PEP, YHOO

Media Digest (5/16/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:28:37 +0000

The number of shares Facebook will sell rose 25% and the company could raise as much as $16 billion. (Reuters)

Greeks take hundreds of millions of dollars out of banks there and the government calls national elections. (Reuters)

Shares of JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) fall sharply after it announces poor earnings. (Reuters)

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) says commodities prices will drop more than they have in the past month. (Reuters)

T-Mobile USA will cut 900 jobs as its subscriber count falls. (Reuters)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) will stop advertising on Facebook because of poor results. (Reuters)

Global mobile phone sales drop 2% in the first quarter, according to Gartner. (Reuters)

Activist fund Relational Investors takes a $600 million stake in PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and may press to shake up management and strategy. (WSJ)

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) begins to move graphics functions from PCs to the cloud. (WSJ)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) sharply increases the size of its work force. (WSJ)

House Speaker John Boehner says an increase in the national borrowing level would need to be accompanied by budget cuts. (WSJ)

Two of seven transport workers unions reject contract offers from bankrupt AMR, leaving a judge to decide their fates. (WSJ)

The FBI begins investigating the trading at JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) that created a $2 billion loss. (NYT)

As consumers move away from soda, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) must rely more on bottled water sales. (NYT)

Merkel and Hollande say they want Greece to remain in the eurozone and state that stimulus measures might be in order. (FT)

European car sales fall more than 6% in April, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AMZN, BHP, GM, JCP, JPM, KO, NVDA, PEP

Big Shareholder Attacks Pepsi

247wallst — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:28:03 +0000

Shareholder activist firm Relational Investors has bought $600 million of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) shares according to The Wall Street Journal. Large companies are not immune from the kind of attacks recently experience by AOL (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

The market has been concerned about the stewardship of Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi for some time. Soda sales have dropped in many parts of the world, in part because of health concerns. That has caused Pepsi and rival Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) to rely more on sales of bottled water, non-carbinated drinks, and snacks. Soda sales have been so huge for so long that replacing them is almost impossible.

PepsiCo is too large for almost any one shareholder to attack. Its market capitalization is over $100 billion, so the Relational Investors position is inconsequential, whether the group has reasonable concerns or not.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Activist Investor Tagged: KO, PEP

Investors Seeking Defensive Stocks Where 3% to Over 5% Dividends Rule!

Administrator — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:14:54 +0000

A stock market that sells off eight of nine days is not a good market. Even the Facebook IPO is being viewed as a one-off item rather than a systemic item which will make the market stronger. With “Sell in May and go away!” remaining prevalent and with Europe in meltdown as Asia slows, the big question is where to hide. Some investors just refuse to accept the floor-level rates of CDs and Treasury bills and Treasury notes, so they go hide out in the defensive stocks like tobacco, consumer staples, basic level food, utilities, big-pharma, and maybe even those high-yields in telecom. This is a market where defensive stocks should rule the roost.

People are going to buy Coke and Pepsi, most likely, in almost any economy. Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) is actually up 0.6% at $67.23 against a 52-week high of $71.89; Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is down 0.6% at $76.95 against a 52-week high of $77.82. With yields of about 3% on average, these pay about the same as the 30-Year Treasury’s long-bond. The beer segment remains uncorrelated to defensive stocks as it did last week (in part due to currencies): Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (NYSE: BUD) is down by 0.7% at $71.43 and Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP) is down 1.2% at $40.81. Even the best water utility in America via American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) is down another 1% $33.99 against a 52-week and all-time high of $34.89.

Food is supposed to be defensive. You gotta eat, right? McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is down almost 0.4% at $91.55 and getting further and further away from that $102.22 all-time high recently seen. The rest of the defensive food segment is up to mixed as food is defensive and with dividends:

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is up 0.4% at $39.20 with a 3% yield that challenges the long-bond;
ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is down 0.2% at $25.67 with a 3.7% yield that beats the long-bond;
Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) is up 0.25% at $34.49 with a 3.4% yield that beats the long-bond;
Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) is down only 0.1% at $29.08 but its 2.1% yield is ‘only’ paying what the 10-year has been paying recently.

Smoking has those nice 5%-plus yields for the defensive tobacco sector: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) is down only 0.1% at $31.75 against a 52-week high of $32.62; Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE: VGR) is down 0.5% at $16.73; and Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) is down only 0.2% at $40.41 against a high of $42.81.

Diapers, toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving… consumer products are acting defensive: Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is down only 0.3% at $63.50 with a 3.5% yield; Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) is up by 0.3% at $79.62 with a 3.7% yield; Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) is down 0.1% at $99.20 but it only pays about 2.5% for a dividend yield.

Drug and medical is mixed to positive: Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) is up by over 0.8% at $38.35 with its 4.4% yield; Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is down only $0.01 at $22.64 with its 3.9% yield; and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is down 0.5% at $64.00 with its 3.8% yield.

Those smartphones and telephones are not acting defensive at all today with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) down 0.9% at $40.80 with its 5% yield and with AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) down 0.7% at $33.36 with a 5.4% yield.

Some investors are willing to suffer from the near-zero return of Treasuries, while others are going to try to look for the safest of stocks to seek safe and steady dividends. The DJIA is down 0.7% and the S&P 500 was down 0.6% at last look. Both are actually much better than what we were looking at just two hours or so ago.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Defensive Stocks, Dividend Tagged: AWK, BUD, CAG, CL, CPB, HRL, JNJ, KFT, KMB, KO, MCD, MO, MRK, PEP, PFE, PG, RAI, T, TAP, VGR, VZ

Monster… A Tale of Earnings Clouded By M&A Dreams (MNST, KO, PEP)

Administrator — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) is looking like a monster all on its own after earnings this morning. The specialty energy drink maker is seeing shares rise in the double-digit percentages after this company managed to handily beat earnings expectations on Wednesday evening.

Today’s share price reaction to the earnings news is enough that you might wonder if those old buyout rumors might be surfacing again. The question is whether or not The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) or another outfit wants to pay more than $12 billion for an acquisition.

Earnings came in up 38% to $0.41 EPS and revenues came to $454.6 million. We had estimates of $0.38 EPS and $447.1 million in revenues. There was also an impressive operating margin gain which grew to 27.8% from 24.8% as growth in Asia is paying off. Shares closed at $65.31 on Wednesday and the pre-market action has shares up 12% at $73.20. The market cap at yesterday’s close was $11.4 billion and the 52-week trading range is $32.35 to $83.96.

From an outsider’s view, Monster looks like a beverage company where the time to acquire it may have come and gone. Monster trades at well over 30-times expected 2012 earnings against about 18-times earnings for Coca-Cola and about 16-times expected earnings for Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP). Coca-Cola has finally come back in favor for defensive investors, and Pepsico is in a state of flux where many feel it has lost its way. It seems like for now these two beverage giants would not be wanting to spend well over $12 billion to buy an energy drink outfit, but in the end everything may just boil down to price.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Earnings, Food, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: KO, MNST, PEP

The Market Where Defensive Shares Are Working Again (PEP, KO, BUD, TAP, AWK, MCD, KFT, CAG, CPB, HRL, MO, VGR, RAI, PG, KMB, CL, MRK, PFE, JNJ, T, VZ)

Administrator — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:07:03 +0000

Blame whatever you want. A weaker U.S. economy, a weakening and flailing Europe, a move to socialism in France and Greece, a weaker BRIC and emerging market story, commodity prices and on and on… Commodity prices and their tracking shares are getting hosed today. Why does the “Sell in May and go away!” profile often coincide with sell-offs so well?

After the weakness in the broad market has the DJIA down 140 points (or -1.1%) and the S&P 500 Index down 15 points or 1.1%, it turns out that most of the defensive stock sector leaders are holding up far better than the broad market in our go-to defensive stock portfolio. We have taken a look at each of these with share price snapshots right before Noon EST.

No matter what, you gotta drink! Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) is down 0.5% at $66.28 against a 52-week high of $71.89; Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is down 0.4% at $76.97 against a 52-week high of $77.82. With yields of about 3% on average, these are now challenging the 30-Year Treasury yields. The beer segment is not acting defensive as it should, perhaps because they are foreign issues now with more currency risks: Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (NYSE: BUD) and Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP) are not acting very defensive with price corrections of 3% and 2$ respectively.

Perhaps the most defensive you can get is water, and the top water utility is American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) with a premium valuation. This water leader is down 0.8% at $33.73 against a 52-week and all-time high of $34.89.

Food is supposed to be defensive, although a drop of 1.5% in McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) to $94.10 is causing some added stress in what was the darling of the DJIA in 2011. The rest of the defensive food segment seems to be less damaged when you evaluate the moves: Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is down only 0.4% at $39.11; ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is down 0.7% at $25.52; Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) is down only 0.3% at $33.97; and Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) is down only 1 penny at $28.92 as the world is getting excited about Spam again.

Smoking is defensive again and the tobacco stocks are holding up much better than the broad market with those 5% and higher dividends: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) is down only $0.3% at $32.10 against a 52-week high of $32.62; Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE: VGR) is down only 0.2% at $16.88; and Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) is down only 0.2% at $40.18 against a high of $42.81.

Shaving, diapers, toilet paper, and other consumer products are acting defensive with some gains on a weak day. Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is trading up $0.11 at $64.36 and Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) is up $0.08 at $79.08 with KMB challenging the 52-week high. Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) is down ‘only’ 0.5% at $99.10 against a 52-week high of $100.81.

Drug and medical is holding up on the consumer end with losses look far less than the broader market: Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) is down 0.35% at $38.40; Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is down 0.3% at $22.38; and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is down the least with a drop of 0.2% at $64.65 against a 52-week high of $68.05.

Those smartphones and telephones are somewhat defensive, and those 5%-plus yields sure shield investors who are worried about chasing the hottest growth stocks. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is down only 1-penny at $40.52 with a 5% dividend yield and AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) is actually up 0.2% at $33.08 with a yield of about 5.4%.

When investors want safety and when the Treasury yield is so low on the longer-term Treasury market, many investors turn to the safety of the higher dividends and safer stocks that are defensive. Greece and the rest of PIIGS may fall again, but the logic is that U.S. consumers still have to eat, drink, shave, put on deodorant, and tend to stick with their core vices as best as they can.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Consumer Goods, Defensive Stocks, Dividend, Drug companies, Food, Telecom, Tobacco Tagged: AWK, BUD, CAG, CL, CPB, HRL, JNJ, KFT, KMB, KO, MCD, MO, MRK, PEP, PFE, PG, RAI, T, TAP, VGR, VZ

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (FSLR, PEP, PG, ILMN, CCL, ANV, AWR, BBEP, CDE, DISH, LPX, TSN, HFC, CHTR, DMD, HL, OMX, THC, WEN, DIS, VRTX, CTSH, BSFT)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:08:20 +0000

The major US stock indexes opened lower this morning following a weekend of elections in Europe. A new Socialist party president in France and a still very cloudy future in Greece have left investors in a quandry. We have more coverage here on the French election and here on the election in Greece. By the last hour of trading, shares had recovered nearly all of the early losses and the three major indexes are either slightly positive or on the way to positive territory. The US dollar index rose today, now up 0.09% at 79.573. The GSCI commodity index is down about -2.3% at 653.60, with commodities mixed on the slightly stronger dollar. WTI crude oil closed down -0.6% at $97.94/barrel and Brent crude trades down -0.08% at $113.09/barrel. Gold settled down -0.4% today, at $1,639.10/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 30 points to 13,008.53 (-0.23%), the NASDAQ rose less than 2 points (0.05%) to 2,957.76, and the S&P 500 rose 0.48% or less than 1 point to 1,369.58.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) cut to ‘neutral’ at Argus; Pepsico Inc. (NYSE: PEP) raised to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley; Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) cut to ‘market perform’ at Wells Fargo; Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) raised to ‘outperform’ with a price target of $55 at Credit Suisse; and Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (AMEX: ANV) is down about -10% at $25.59 after posting a new 52-week low of $25.37 earlier today; American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR) is up 3.6% at $37.09; Breitburn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) is down -2.4% at $17.54; Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE) is down -4.1% at $18.99 after posting a new 52-week low of $18.71; Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) is down -0.93% at $31.02; Louisiana Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX) is up 5.9% at $9.49; Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) is up 3.4% at $18.65; and HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) is down -2.4% at $28.82 (more coverage here).

On Tuesday we are scheduled to get earnings from Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR), Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD), Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL), OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX), Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC), The Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN), and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) is up about 55% at $58.05. The company’s cystic fibrosis drug study showed significant positive results. More coverage here.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) is down more than -XX% at $XX. The IT-outsourcing firm showed good results, but guidance was weak. More coverage here.

BroadSoft Inc. (NASDAQ: BSFT) is down -17.6% at $33.68. The communications software maker posted good earnings, but followed that with soft guidance for the second quarter.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:30 a.m. – NFIB Small Business optimism index
11:30 a.m. – 4-week bill auction
1:00 p.m. – 3-year note auction

Paul Ausick

Filed under: General Tagged: ANV, AWR, BBEP, BSFT, CCL, CDE, CHTR, CTSH, DIS, DISH, DMD, FSLR, HFC, HL, ILMN, LPX, OMX, PEP, PG, THC, TSN, VRTX, WEN

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BNNY, CAB, CCL, CTRN, DPS, FSLR, ILMN, LEAP, NWL, PEP, PG, TWX, WDC)

Administrator — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:32:52 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls this Monday.

Annie’s, Inc. (NYSE: BNNY) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Started as Outperform at William Blair.

Cabela’s, Inc. (NYSE: CAB) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) Raised to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Cut to Hold at Argus.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) Raised to Outperform and $55 target at Credit Suisse.

Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) Raised to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.

Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE: NWL) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Pepsico (NYSE: PEP) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Reiterated Buy with $46 target at Argus.

Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) named Value stock of the day at Zacks.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox. We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BNNY, CAB, CCL, CTRN, DPS, FSLR, ILMN, LEAP, NWL, PEP, PG, TWX, WDC

Coke Ready to Swallow a Monster? (KO, MNST, PEP, DPS)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:53:45 +0000

When the largest soft-drink company in the US can’t make a competitive product in a growing market, it looks around for a company it can buy. It appears that the Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), with its dismally performing Full Throttle brand of energy drinks, is now taking a hard look at Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST).

In a market dominated by privately held Red Bull, Monster is #2, with privately held Rockstar at #3. And if Coke wants to play, it should want to play no lower than #2. Competitors Pepsico Inc. (NYSE: PEP) and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) are nowhere in the fast growing energy market either, and that has added even more fuel to the rumors of a Coke-Monster tie-up. Both Coke and Pepsi passed on making an offer for Monster last year, when it might have been cheaper.

Coke’s reasons not to buy Monster may be at least as good as its reasons to take the plunge. Monster’s shares have more than doubled in the past 12 months and the company’s forward P/E ratio is nearly 33. And the company’s share price at Friday’s close put its market cap at about $11.4 billion. That’s a pretty rich deal and would be Coke’s largest ever acquisition. The company acquired Vitaminwater maker Glaceau in 2007 for $4.2 billion.

Shares of Monster are up more than 15% in the late afternoon at $74.96 after pulling back from a new 52-week high of $83.96 set earlier today. At $75/share, Monster’s market cap is slightly more than $13 billion.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Food, Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors Tagged: DPS, KO, MNST, PEP

Media Digest (4/30/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:34:17 +0000

Philp Falcone receives extensions from creditors owed money by his high-speed wireless company LightSquared. (Reuters)

Social gifting is a growing part of e-commerce. (Reuters)

Barron’s says Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) could join the DJIA. (Reuters)

Spain’s gross domestic product drops 0.3% from the last quarter of 2011 to the first of 2012, meaning the economy is in recession. (WSJ)

Slow earnings may hurt the U.S. rally. (WSJ)

The Wall Street Journal highlights ten women who may soon become CEOs of major companies, including Charlene Begley of General Electric (NYSE: GE), Rosalind Brewer of Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Juliana Chugg of General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Virginia “Gina” Drosos of Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Jan Fields of McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and Michelle Gass of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX). (WSJ)

Philip Falcone agrees to step down as the most visible person at LightSquared. (WSJ)

China’s new economy starts to help outside consumer companies and hurt manufacturers. (WSJ)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will begin to pay sales taxes in Texas and will keep workers there as a result. (WSJ)

Boeing (NYSE: BA) completes the first stage at its South Carolina plant after a period of labor disputes. (WSJ)

The EU battle over bank capital levels continues. (WSJ)

China’s huge purchases of cotton have kept its price high. (WSJ)

Scandals at News Corp. (NYSE: NWSA) may hurt its expansion over the years. (NYT)

Walmart’s U.S. expansion will be hurt by the Mexico bribery probe. (NYT)

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) to announce an exclusive deal to supply all nonalcoholic beverages in IHOP and Applebee’s. (NYT)

Spain may set up a series of “bad banks” in an attempt to cordon off the industry’s problems. (FT)

Soy prices begin a new round of food inflation. (FT)

More financial firms face shareholder votes on executive pay. (FT)

Efforts among EU officials to move from austerity to stimulus hets up. (Bloomberg)

A number of analysts expect the S&P 500 to reach a record this year. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AMZN, BA, GE, GIS, GOOG, MCD, NWSA, PEP, PG, SBUX, WMT