A House committee pushes through plans for a reconsideration of the Keystone XL pipeline. (Reuters)

The chairman of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) to leave. (Reuters)

Nissan posts better earnings on strong sales. (Reuters)

An attempt to bolster money market funds may involve setting up a capital buffer and blocking redemptions for 30 days. (Reuters)

A hacker releases source code from security firm Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC). (Reuters)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) may close a transaction to allow the e-commerce company to stream premium video from Viacom properties. (Reuters)

The European Central Bank will change the treatment of its Greek debt to try to salvage a bailout deal. (WSJ)

Some large investors disapprove of a merger deal between Glencore and Xtrata. (WSJ)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) will again try to cut workers at Opel. (WSJ)

UBS (NYSE: UBS) to cut bonuses by 60%. (WSJ)

CalSTRS says it has concerns about the diversity of Facebook’s board. (WSJ)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) asks the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to set rules for patent licensing among mobile device companies. (WSJ)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti believes Europe must move beyond austerity to plans that will help create growth. (WSJ)

U.S. businesses upgrade plants and move jobs back to the U.S. (WSJ)

European sales of U.S. companies rose in the fourth quarter, which may cause a problem this year as the region’s economy slows. (WSJ)

Six Spanish banks to set aside €11.8 billion because of real estate trouble in the country. (WSJ)

India becomes more open to foreign investment as its economy slows. (NYT)

As Greece fails to set a deal on its debt, more workers go on strike. (NYT)

U.S. stocks reach a six-month high. (FT)

Collateralized mortgage obligations, one of the causes of the credit crisis, are again popular investments for banks. (FT)

Prices for Canadian oil drop sharply as supplies surge. (FT)

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to fire 4,000 and move more production to Asia. (Bloomberg)

The Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) board rejects a $5.7 billion offer from Roche. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Yahoo!’s revenue fell 13% to $1.324 billion in the fourth quarter. Net income dropped 5% to $296 million. Even with its new CEO, almost no one who watches the company thinks there is a solution to the ongoing shrinkage of sales.

Yahoo! will somehow add cash, perhaps over $10 billion, to its balance sheet through the sale or spinoff of Yahoo! Japan and its stake in Alibaba. The means by which it will handle those transactions are still an open question because of tax issues and the difficulties of negotiations with the two Asian companies. Neither of them has to make a transaction with Yahoo! now.

MSN and Aol already have huge online audiences. They have to find ways to increase sales from these visitors, but there is no proof that combining with Yahoo! will do that.

Companies that lack the scale that they need to augment their traditional media sales with larger online ones would find Yahoo! an important acquisition. It would allow them to marry their old world TV or print sales with a larger online audience. CBS had 79 million unique visitors in December, according to research firm Comscore. Viacom’s digital properties had about the same number. Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) had 50 million and Gannett (NYSE: GCI) had 44 million. None of these figures comes close to Yahoo!’s 176 million.

The troubles of traditional media are well understood. Public firms like CBS and Gannett face the erosion of television and print ad sales. Right now, their digital sales are insufficient to make up for that attrition. The chance to go to advertisers with packages that combine old media marketing with new may be their only chance to keep revenue advances — and happy shareholders.

Yahoo! has a market cap of $19 billion. Much of that is based on the value of Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan. Yahoo!’s core business may be worth less than $10 billion. That makes it an affordable purchase or merger candidate for most large traditional media companies, which have larger market values than Yahoo!.

The argument against a the ownership of Yahoo! by a traditional media company is that the older company would have no better chance to increase the portal’s revenue than MSN would. That is not true. Large advertisers continue to look for ways to reach huge audiences, some of which consume most media through traditional channels and some of which spend much of their time online. Yahoo!, in combination with a traditional media company, would offer the world’s largest marketers a chance to gain both through one firm.

Douglas A. McIntyre

S&P’s threat of a downgrade of eurozone nations puts huge pressure on the region’s leaders. (Reuters)

An independent panel that reviewed the financial activity of Olympus suggests legal action be taken. (Reuters)

An MIT report says the U.S. power grid is vulnerable to cyber attacks. (Reuters)

BP (NYSE: BP) says high oil prices could hurt global growth. (Reuters)

Samsung announces a new flash memory chip operation in China to cost as much as $4 billion. (Reuters)

John Corzine ignored warnings about his firm’s risky trades, some of which were given to his board by management. (WSJ)

Merkel and Sarkozy will support changes in the euro area treaty that would hold nations more closely to their budgets. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) begins to search for a CEO as Alan Mulally plans to leave within two years. (WSJ)

AMR (NYSE: AMR) likely will make deep expense cuts so it can exit Chapter 11. (WSJ)

Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) announces who will manage the two divisions into which the company will be broken. (WSJ)

Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) will try to raise $300 million. (WSJ)

California Governor Jerry Brown will try to get a tax on high-income residents to cover the costs of education. (WSJ)

Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) will pay fines to cover a mining disaster that happened before it owned the operator of the mine involved — Massey. (WSJ)

BP says Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) destroyed evidence about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. (WSJ)

A leading Greek politician says his country’s recession will last through 2013. (WSJ)

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) expects strong ad growth in the near term. (WSJ)

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) says that two agencies approved its drilling in the Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. (WSJ)

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) changes some of its advisers as it tries to avoid Chapter 11. (WSJ)

Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund pushes to replace board members at some U.S. firms it owns. (WSJ)

Debate over whether Walmart (NYSE: WMT) will hurt local merchants in India has caused deep rifts in a government that may let large retailers own stores in the country. (NYT)

An antitrust hearing will check issues with the Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) and Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS) merger. (NYT)

Edgar M. Bronfman Jr. departs as chairman of Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG). (NYT)

Dubai may refinance $10 billion in state debt. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

We have tracked only the large buyback announcements made this month in the following companies: The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL); American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG); CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS); Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS); Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE); Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI); Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX); Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY); Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO); Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B); and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX).

As far as how share buybacks in general matter for stocks, you can always play the buyback leaders via the PowerShares Buyback Achievers (NYSE: PKW), and it is almost exactly in the middle of its 52-week trading range.  Those buybacks outlined below do not include the many $150 million, $100 million, and lower buybacks.  The tally all said and done here so far in just the first half of November of 2011: over $27 billion!!!

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is trying to tell shareholders they are in good hands because the announcement over the next 18 months is that it would repurchase up to $1 billion in common stock.  The market cap today is just over $13 billion.

How can American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) have a share buyback program?  It announced in early November that it would buy back up to $1 billion in stock.  The $43 billion in market cap is one thing, but the amount of shares still owned by Uncle Sam (or taxpayers) is huge.  Actually, maybe this supports the stock value for us all!

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) added to its prior plan and has authorized the repurchase of up to $1.5 billion in stock.  The current market cap is $16.5 billion, so we’ll leave it up to you to decide if this buyout matters or not.

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS) announced on November 1 that it was approving for up to $500 million in share buybacks over the next two years.  This compares to $7.4 billion in market capitalization.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) recently expanded its buyback program and it is now authorized to repurchase up to $7 billion worth of common stock.  This is a huge amount but it sounds small when you consider a $151 billion market cap.

Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) this week announced a $2.5 billion share buyback plan which is good for the next two and a half years.  This is more than 10% of the company’s stock as the market cap is $23 billion.  Institutions own 46% of Reynolds.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) recently added to its prior buyback plan with up to 20 million shares. This is more than $850 million at current prices, which compares to a market cap of $32.5 billion.

Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) recently boosted its dividend but it also announced that it would repurchase up to 20 million shares of common stock.  This represents about $550 million today and its market cap is just over $16 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO) recently added $750 million to its prior buyback plan and its market capitalization is $18.5 billion.  The company had only $25 million remaining under a prior buyback and the new buyback is over the course of a year because it expires on November 9, 2012.

Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B) must want to try to take itself private.  The market cap is just under $25 billion, but the company recently announced with its positive earnings report that it is expanding its buyback to $10 billion.  While this was an expansion of a prior plan, $10 billion is a massive sum.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX) is a bit odd.  While it announced that it would spend up to $1.5 billion repurchasing securities, this was listed as a buyback of stock and/or debt.  Its market cap is $13.25 billion today.

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JON C. OGG

The State Department will look for a new route for the Keystone pipeline to satisfy opponents. (Reuters)

Private equity firms may take an initial 20% stake in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and buy the balance later. (Reuters)

Bernanke warns on the dire state of Europe. (Reuters)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will release software to address short battery life in the iPhone 4S. (Reuters)

Facebook is close to a privacy settlement with the FTC. (WSJ)

Without an economic recovery, the Federal Housing Administration will run out of money. (WSJ)

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) to sell juice. (WSJ)

Purchases by Walmart (NYSE: WMT) push beef prices higher. (WSJ)

The slowdown in Europe may threaten EU exports. (WSJ)

Libya increases its oil production. (WSJ)

Mario Monti probably will be the next prime minister of Italy. (WSJ)

It may take a long time for the European Financial Stability Facility to raise the trillion dollars plus that it needs. (WSJ)

Shareholders in Olympus want the ousted CEO to return. (WSJ)

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) will buy China-based ERA Mining Machinery. (WSJ)

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) says the advertising market has slowed. (WSJ)

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) will be part of a New York State settlement on mortgage foreclosures. (WSJ)

China makes its largest purchase of U.S. cotton in eight years. (WSJ)

Mortgage rates drop below 4%. (WSJ)

Government regulations in China damaged the real estate market in the past few months. (NYT)

Investors use the sale of Italy’s debt as a sign they do not believe in the euro. (NYT)

Regulators will audit more futures firms because of MF Global. (NYT)

Swings in the value of sovereign debt in the eurozone  hurt the power of the ESFS. (FT)

Universal is close to a deal to buy EMI for $1.9 billion. (FT)

The super committee has made little progress on the U.S. deficit. (FT)

Spain’s National Statistics Institute says GDP was flat in Q3. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

There are plenty of challenges facing the network and cable TV industry these day, not the least of which is the growth in streaming video. The well-known troubles of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) to one side for a moment, the market for streaming is growing, while some cable operators are losing subscribers. Broadcast networks with content to license are better placed to profit, while cable operators with their own spectrum might be in the best position of all, at least in the near term.We’re looking today at 10 companies with broadcast or satellite/cable businesses (or both): CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV), Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA), Liberty Starz Group (NASDAQ: LSTZA), Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA), and Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR).

All data from Yahoo! Finance and current stock prices were gathered about noon today.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) has a median target price of $31.00 from 22 brokers. Shares are trading today at $25.66, for an implied gain of $5.34, or 21%. CBS’s forward P/E is 11.62 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.6%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $15.99-$29.68, and at today’s price that’s about 60% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 14% below the 52-week high. CBS is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings on Thursday. The consensus EPS estimate is $0.46 on revenue of $3.43 billion. A year ago the company posted sales of about $3.3 billion and last quarter revenue totaled nearly $3.6 billion. There’s room for the share price to rise, but neither the 52-week high nor the target price are endangered in the near term.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) has a median target price of $40.00 from 24 brokers. Shares are trading today at $35.34, for an implied gain of $4.66, or 13%. Disney’s forward P/E is 12.28 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.1%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $28.19-$44.34, and at today’s price that’s about 25% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 20% below the 52-week high. Disney is much more than a distribution channel. Its ability to create compelling content and then license it for further distribution is practically equal to a license to print money. Analysts expect EPS of $0.54 on revenue of $10.36 billion when Disney reports third-quarter earnings next week.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has a median target price of $30.00 from 24 brokers. Shares are trading today at $23.60, for an implied gain of $6.40, or 27%. Comcast’s forward P/E is 12.35 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.9%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $19.19-$27.16, and at today’s price that’s about 23% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 13% below the 52-week high. Comcast owns both content and the fat pipes to distribute that content. Because distribution of streaming content is fast becoming a commodity, it’s Comcast’s NBCUniversal media business that will carry Comcast forward. The $30 target price is probably safe for a while, but the company’s 52-week high could be in the sights.

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) has a median target price of $85.00 from 22 brokers. Shares are trading today at $62.91, for an implied gain of $22.09, or 35%. Time Warner’s forward P/E is 11.25 and the company pays a dividend yield of 3.1%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $47.89-$79.21, and at today’s price that’s about 31% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 21% below the 52-week high. In its last quarter, Time Warner lost subscribers and posted lower profits. The company believes it will make its forecast annual profit, but warned that advertising was falling. It’s easy for subscribers to drop cable subscriptions in a tight economy, and as the holidays come round, dropping cable service to have a few more bucks to spend on gifts will occur to a lot of viewers.

Yahoo! revenue fell 5% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year to $1.1 billion after traffic acquisition costs. The company said sales force changes were partially to blame. Industry data show otherwise. Facebook now has over a quarter of the total display inventory in the U.S. Two years ago, that share was close to nothing.

Not far below Yahoo! in size are Turner Digital, Viacom Digital, CBS Interactive, New York Times Digital, Fox Interactive,  Gannett’s online sites, and Time Warner Interactive. Among the properties owned by these companies are CNN.com, MTV.com, USA Today online, ESPN, CNET, The New York Times, and FoxNews.com. The parent firms of all these websites count on them to have enough ad growth to offset the attrition in print and TV sales. Some of the sites carry modest amounts of search advertising, a business that remains healthy judging by Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings. Most, however, rely very heavily on display.

It has already been noted in the press that digital advertising has seen its best days. There is a hope that video and other interactive marketing will replace them, but these ad media are still a small part of overall display inventory.

What is visible in Yahoo!’s results now will become clear in the financial results of other companies with large websites. The tier of online properties just below Yahoo! in size are in trouble.

Douglas A. McIntyre
Tell us what you think of this article   douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) said one of it pipes leaked into a Yellowstone river (Reuters)

The Nikkei hit 10,000 for the first time in two months (Reuters)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) will re-open its PlayStation network in Japan (Reuters)

Prada raised 2.5 billion HK dollars (Reuters)

VW took a majority position in MAN (WSJ)

Japanese scientists made a large rare earth deposit discovery in the Pacific. (WSJ)

The new “Transformers” film for Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA) Paramount brought in a July 4th record $97.4 million. (WSJ)

Car companies are at odds with the Administration over aggressive mileage goals set for 2025 (NYT)

Hsu Fu Chi International, a big China confectioner, may be taken over by Nestle (NYT)

Boeing (NYSE: BA) shipped a 787 Dreamliner to Japan for tests by ANA which was the first company to order the new plane (NYT)

The London Stock Exchange may consider a merger with Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NSQ) (FT)

Tata will increase its investment in product development at Jaguar Land Rover (FT)

Stringer’s job was to break through the insular culture which had existed at Sony for decades. The firm’s board reasoned an outsider might be able to succeed at this difficult challenge. Stringer had spent most of his career in the television business. He did not come from the worlds of either Japan or electronics.

Stringer’s stumbles can be illustrated with recent Sony problems beyond the PlayStation debacle. Sony’s LCD joint venture with Samsung struggles as prices for its products flounder. And, Sony recently launched two Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android powered tablet PCs. Those products enter an already crowded market with Apple in the poll position. Sony has a tiny share of the traditional PC business and its Sony Ericsson venture has only a modest portion of the smartphone market. That leaves the tablets without a point of entry which traditionally helps tablets gain momentum.

Stringer has also elected to hold onto Sony Pictures. It operates in a highly competitive industry which is dominated by large media companies like News Corp (NYSE: NWS), Viacom (NYSE VIA), and Time Warner (NYSE: TWC). The digital age of premium content leaves Sony in a position of being a consumer electronics firm with a film production appendix.

Stinger also bears much of the blame for Sony’s failure to enter the multimedia player and music businesses which are now controlled by Apple’s iPod and iTunes. Sony should have had leverage with its Walkman line which held a position like the iPad during the 1990s. Sony let that opportunity slip away as it did its leadership position in game consoles built on the wildly successful PS2 platform.

Stringer has nothing to recommend him as a successful CEO. Kazuo Hirai,who runs Sony’s game operation, is likely to be promoted to CEO, perhaps as early as this year. Stringer can walk off the center stage having left Sony in an untenable position in most of its businesses.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Americans are telling the Fed that inflation is getting too high. (Reuters)

The IMF said it may want to turn to the capital markets to raise money if it were needed quickly. (Reuters)

The World Bank said violence in Central America could hurt growth. (Reuters)

Facebook will work with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), AMD (NYSE: AMD), and Intel (NYSE: INTC) to create more efficient hardware to run internet applications. (Reuters)

The FCC set up rules to allow cellular subscribers to use other networks when their own are not available. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) made $900 million in Taikang Life Insurance in China. (Reuters)

Federal regulators may make it easier to trade shares in private companies which would make it easier for start-ups to raise money. (WSJ)

The ECB increase in interest rates may signal the end to a period of easy money. (WSJ)

Municipal bond sales have become more aggressive as the market has turned against the paper. (WSJ)

Lawyers continue to fight over the assets of Blockbuster. (WSJ)

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) began to build its theme park in Shanghai (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) defended its restrictions for developers of its Android OS. (WSJ)

The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) will invest in its About.com search business. (WSJ)

Oil rose above $110 for the first time in tw0-and-a-half years. (WSJ)

Portugal may need $129 billion from the EU and IMF. (WSJ)

Google and the government are close to a deal that would allow the search engine to buy ITA Software. (WSJ)

Debt issued by Spain held its own as Portugal’s troubles grew. (WSJ)

Chevron (NYSE: CVX) may begin to drill in Texas again as oil prices rise. (WSJ)

Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) will spin out TripAdvisor in a deal which could value the asset at $4 billion. (WSJ)

Hercules Offshore may be probed for bribery. (WSJ)

ESPN launched a mobile TV app. (WSJ)

The Justice Department wants HSBC to reveal the names of US customers who may have tax issues. (WSJ)

The USDA may cut the number of crop reports that it issues. (WSJ)

The market value of Nokia (NYSE: NOK) dropped below that of Asia handset company HTC. (WSJ)

Big box retailers are pushing more merchandise into current space to satisfy demand. (NYT)

A shutdown of the US government would have a huge impact on businesses. (NYT)

Fights between politicians in Portugal may make a bailout more difficult. (NYT)

UK regulators may split the deposit-taking and trading functions at banks. (NYT)

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) are each in court over the issue of live streaming of programming through apps. (NYT)

The compensation package of Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) rose 51% to $23 million. (FT)

Inflation worries drop silver above $40 (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre