One reason Walmart suddenly has taken the action is First Lady Michelle Obama, the poster child for the new initiative. Walmart went so far as to get a quote from her for its press release about Great for You. She said:

 Today’s announcement by Walmart is yet another step toward ensuring that our kids are given the chance to grow up healthy. Just over a year ago, Walmart committed to save shoppers a billion dollars in their cost of fruits and vegetables and the fact that Walmart exceeded this number is a real accomplishment and a milestone in our efforts to support families eating better. In addition, the healthy seal will be another tool for parents to identify the best products for their kids. Giving parents the information they need to make healthy choices is a key piece of solving childhood obesity.

The quality of Walmart food products probably was never an issue for her and her family. Mrs. Obama did not mention it, but she likely was never a regular patron of Walmart. She almost certainly is not now, either.

The Walmart decision matches ones made by other huge American companies that sell food, either fast food or food that people take home to cook. McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) is the best example. Last summer, the largest fast-food chain said it would offer low-calorie options for children’s meals. McDonald’s also said it would reduce sodium content in some of its food by 15% by 2015.

Stores and fast-food companies have tried to create the illusion that they have only recently gotten the FDA list of food content by product and studies about which food ingredients undermine healthy eating habits. What actually happened is that pressure from the government and public to cut back on the fatty foods that people love most became overwhelming. Some of the blame for unhealthy foods does fall with the customers. But to turn what should have been done some time ago into a press event masks a lack of actions — ones not taken by these companies for years.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Greek leaders face a deal for settling sovereign debt matters as workers strike. (Reuters)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) posts good third-quarter profits and says the U.S. will be a difficult market. (Reuters)

Boeing (NYSE: BA) may have trouble with its 787 deliveries after flaws were found in the body of the aircraft. (Reuters)

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Redbox set a deal to compete with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). (Reuters)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) may open a physical store in Seattle. (Reuters)

House Republicans move to reopen debate on the Keystone XL pipeline. (Reuters)

Problems with regulators have made the Medco (NYSE: MHS) merger with Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) less likely. (Reuters)

The U.S. will create programs to help the troubled money market industry. (WSJ)

Barclays (NYSE: BCS), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) will bid as the New York Fed auctions risky bonds it got as part of its AIG (NYSE: AIG) bailout. (WSJ)

Greece will cut 15,000 public sector jobs. (WSJ)

Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) wants a 2.25% royalty on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone sales based on IP claims. (WSJ)

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Univision are in talks to create a 24-hour news channel. (WSJ)

India cuts its growth forecast to 6.9%. (WSJ)

Eugene Isenberg of Nabor Industries (NYSE: NBR) gives up a $100 million retirement payout. (WSJ)

The Obama budget will have $3 trillion in cuts over 10 years and $1.5 trillion in new taxes — mostly on the rich. (WSJ)

Japan wants to enter a large Asia-Pacific trade agreement, but the U.S. may object. (WSJ)

Satellite makers say that U.S. regulations make it difficult for them to compete overseas. (WSJ)

Republic Airways (NASDAQ: RJET) is about to sell Frontier. (WSJ)

New LeadershipIQ research breaks companies into four groups based on management style and systems to create results. (WSJ)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) promotes a manager to be the new CEO of its China operations. (WSJ)

Some large European banks will not take European Central Bank loans because they fear it will make them appear weak. (WSJ)

BP (NYSE: BP) raises its dividend. (FT)

An escrow fund may be set to help Greece instead of all aid money going to the nation directly. (FT)

Farmers to plant the largest corn crop since 1984. (Bloomberg)

Walmart will lower fat, sodium and sugar in some foods. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Hulu is a relatively small premium content site that is owned by Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Providence Equity Partners, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and the NBCUniversal unit of Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA). Hulu says it will press into the paid content business as well. Hulu’s CEO, Jason Kilar, said at a recent AllThingsD conference that, “It is important that we deliver great content and stories that aren’t being told right now. And that serves two purposes. One, consumers are asking for it. And second, it does build up healthy differentiation versus other services.” What stories and what differentiation?

The major internet content and traditional VOD services have most of what consumers want. Otherwise, they would have no chance at success in the industry. It is important to have Saving Private Ryan in inventory. It is not important to have a French period piece from the 1930s — particularly if it does not have English subtitles. Kilar knows that. His chances of success are tiny.

No one will entirely elbow aside the cable box on the top of most TVs, whether that box is from a cable company, satellite company or telecom operator. Netflix forced its way into the home through its initial DVD business. No other competitor had that early advantage, least of all Hulu.

Hulu also has to compete with several extremely well-financed businesses that nonetheless are likely to fail because they are late to market. First among these is the largest video site in the world — Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube. Despite its size and the size of Google’s balance sheet, Hollywood studios have been wary of YouTube’s hundreds of millions of amateur clips and its reputation as a site on which premium content is sometimes found without the permission of the owner.

Hulu is among of the last premium video companies to try to bring content to the living room. Even if it was not too late, it is too small and has no competitive advantages.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Cornell is 52 years of age, so this is not retirement.  He is being replaced by Rosalind G. Brewer, who is 49 years old, as president and CEO of Sam’s Club.  She will report directly to Mike Duke and her effective date will be February 1.  She was most recently president of the Walmart U.S. east business unit.

• The company also noted that Rollin Ford, who is 49 years old, is being promoted to chief administrative officer (CAO) for the company, effective February 1.  ‪
• Another change is that Gisel Ruiz is being promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer for Walmart U.S. with an effective date of February 1.  She is 41 years of age.
• Karenann Terrell is being promoted to chief information officer for the company with an effective date of February 1. She is 50 years of age.

Today may not seem like much of an event-driven stock moving event.  It may be more symbolic than anything.  Still, it stood out.  Wal-Mart stock is also at a crossroads right now as it is looking as though it wants to break out of a very long-term trading range.  Wal-Mart shares are up 0.4% today at $60.87 and the 52-week trading range is $48.31 to $61.06.

JON C. OGG

Neil Ashe was the president of CBS (NYSE: CBS) Interactive before he moved to the job as president and CEO of Walmart’s Global eCommerce business. Walmart obviously has web operations outside America, but without a strong performance of the e-commerce business in its home country, its web division cannot succeed.

The choice of Ashe is a bit odd. He oversaw CBS Sports and News online, along with the tech site company CNET. He also ran the media firm’s overseas sites. The belief that stepping from content to e-commerce is likely to work is hard to explain.

The problem that Walmart has online is not directly related to who runs the e-commerce operations. Walmart’s U.S. store sales have not grown in the past year, and its U.S. revenue has barely increased. This is despite the fact that, after Amazon.com, Walmart’s sites are the second most visited e-commerce sites in America.

Walmart’s U.S. problems have been described as troubled in two ways. The first is that top merchandising executives at the company have done a poor job as they decide what inventory to put into their stores. The other is that Walmart’s price advantages are no longer substantial enough to keep customers from the decision to go to other retailers, like Target (NYSE: TGT). What Walmart cannot do with its bricks-and-mortar stores, it cannot accomplish online. An overall lack of demand cannot be made up by websites. Retailers like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) have already proven this.

Walmart’s new online CEO will have his hands tied no matter how skillful and experienced he is. Well over 95% of Walmart’s sales are made in its stores, and in the U.S., the traffic to those stores has slowed. An adroit e-commerce operation, hampered by the same prices and inventories, will not do better than Walmart’s primary business.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) appoints a former CBS (NYSE: CBS) digital executive as head of its digital operations. (Reuters)

Disapproval of Congress hits an all-time high, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll. (Reuters)

S&P downgrades the large eurozone bailout fund. (Reuters)

Auditors of Olympus are cleared of blame in the company’s financial scandal. (Reuters)

Samsung will make a $41 billion capital investment in the company this year. (Reuters)

Hackers compromise 24 million accounts at the Zappos division of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). (Reuters)

Federal officials become more active in examining the role S&P played in the mortgage credit crisis. (WSJ)

EU banks create new ways to help bolster their balance sheets, but these may not improve their cash positions. (WSJ)

Bonuses fall at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). (WSJ)

BMW and Volkswagen recall more than 500,000 vehicles. (WSJ)

More companies split the roles of chairman from CEO. (WSJ)

California hopes large IPOs will help its finances. (WSJ)

Nigerian unions halt strikes as the government agrees to again underwrite fuel prices. (WSJ)

Moody’s (NYSE: MDO) says it will review the status of its ratings of eurozone finances. (WSJ)

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says the region’s problems are “very grave.” (WSJ)

Airbus will book double Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) orders this year, but the difference in revenue will be smaller. (WSJ)

U.S. companies continue to invest much more in machinery than labor. (WSJ)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) likely will produce new textbook systems optimized for the iPad. (WSJ)

CBS Sports website will open its operations so that app developers can offer fantasy sports software. (WSJ)

Executive perks tend to rise as CEOs get closer to retirement. (WSJ)

Private equity firms could get more scrutiny of leverage and tax approaches. (WSJ)

Iron ore prices fall along with demand. (WSJ)

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) card payment programs increase sales. (WSJ)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) continues to have trouble adding features to its PlayBook tablet PC. (NYT)

Italy’s prime minister asks Germany to do more to lower loan costs because he worries about a voter revolt. (FT)

Saudi Arabia says its price target for oil rose to $100 to offset spending in the country. (FT)

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association says the region’s car sales fell 5.8% in December, with much of the brunt of the drop taken by Fiat, Peugeot Citroen and Renault. (Bloomberg)

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.

The news was not as good as it may sound. CMS research showed that:

As such in 2010, the health spending share of the overall economy was unchanged at 17.9 percent. In the past, this share has increased, rising over time from 5.2 percent in 1960.

But, based on the past, the trend is good news.

The primary causes of past increases in health care expenditures were sharp increases in drug costs, the cost of hospital stays and doctor compensation. The government already has shown that, by regulating rises in Medicare reimbursements, private insurance companies use the trend as an excuse to lower their reimbursements. Doctors receive less, and usually then charge less for services. Physicians have argued that this has caused them to struggle financially and that patient care has suffered. But the reduction in compensation may encourage a new wave of physicians who are trained to treat more people for less remuneration.

Hospital costs are driven to a some extent by the number of days people spend in these facilities. Patients with incomes hurt by the recession probably cut the time they stayed in hospitals. There is no sign that this trend has hurt results. That is an indication that regulated length of days in hospitals may work to bring down costs.

The government also has approached the cost of drugs as a major target for price reductions. This is married with private sector activity. Availability of generics have brought down costs. Large retailers like Walmart (NYSE: WMT) have dropped the price they charge for prescription drugs.

CMS did not indicate that its leaders were concerned that health care results were hurt by the low 3.9% growth in health care expenditures. If that is so, there is a strong argument that any effort to maintain this slowing pace is a reasonable goal.

Douglas A. McIntyre

It turns out that many stocks with high dividend yields are now more attractive than sovereign debt in the U.S. and abroad. Part of the allure, besides income or reinvestment, is that dividend stocks often hold up better than other investments during jittery markets. It is hard to imagine, but the high-yield utility sector was one of the top performers of the S&P in 2011. In some cases, half of an investor’s total return through time may come from dividends. Warren Buffett generally picks dividend-paying companies for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) after following some of the principles of Benjamin Graham.

The 24/7 Wall St. 2012 Model Dividend Portfolio includes the following stocks: American Electric Power Co., Inc. (NYSE: AEP); American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK); AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T); General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV); Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB); Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH); and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

While exchange-traded products have been avoided in the past, recent trends merit a look at the open-end or closed-end mutual funds and ETF products as follows: SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond (NYSE: JNK); JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (NYSE: AMJ); ALPS Alerian MLP ETF (NYSE: AMLP); and PowerShares Financial Preferred (NYSE: PGF).

Lastly, there have been some exits due to upside price performance: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO); Digital Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: DLR); Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE: EPD); and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP).

We have described the features and outlook for each component of our Model Dividend Portfolio.

Why would a buyer look now?  It is currently priced in its stock at only 3.6-times free cash flow and that is the cheapest valuation out of retail stocks valued at more than $1 billion.  Its current expected P/E ratio is also under 8 and if it makes the consensus target for the year ahead it trades at barely 6-times expected earnings.

There are many problems here, some of which are the same that have faced GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME).  While GameStop is a video game play, it too has been bantered around as a potential private equity takeover name in the past with equally cheap valuations.

The real thorn in Best Buy’s side is that many buyers now go to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and the young crowd goes through Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and a myriad of other online retailers.  While Best Buy now offers online sales from it and other merchants, Amazon and others just got too big of a jump.
Bloomberg went on to note, “Best Buy can still enrich leveraged buyout firms after generating $2.44 billion in free cash in the past year, Telsey Advisory Group and Morningstar Inc. said. The $8.14 billion company could get at least $37 a share in a takeover, according to Thornburg Investment Management, 59 percent more than its price yesterday.”

Before you rush to call this one a private equity buyout target hopeful that will definitely come to fruition, Best Buy may have to face even more pain before the company would agree to a buyout.  After closing at $23.23 on Wednesday its shares are not even indicated higher.   Today’s reporting from elsewhere may be more posturing than real speculation. We would not even formally classify this as a rumor at this point.

JON C. OGG