The Hong Kong division of Alibaba may go private as part of a refinancing and a buyback of Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares. (Reuters)

Financial backers of Greece say they are concerned about whether a deal to lend the company more money will hold. (Reuters)

Economists concerned about the U.S. economy a few months ago change their opinions. (Reuters)

A fall off in investment bank activity hurts Barclays (NYSE: BCS) earnings. (Reuters)

China’s imports fall, raising demand concerns. (Reuters)

The new CEO of Sony (NYSE: SNE) will try to marry hardware and software for many of the firm’s products, just as he did with the PS3. (Reuters)

The head of Xstrata is under pressure to get a better deal for a Glencore merger. (Reuters)

A new settlement between banks and the government could help one million homeowners. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to launch a home entertainment system as it moves into the hardware space as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has. (WSJ)

An insider trading bill is broadly supported by Congress members. (WSJ)

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) expands its use of web-based software products. (WSJ)

The FDA will speed the approval of biosimilar drug treatments. (WSJ)

An Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reorganization could cost 1,800 jobs. (WSJ)

Weekly unemployment benefits numbers improve steadily. (WSJ)

Greek unemployment rises to 20.9%. (WSJ)

The head of the European Central Bank pushes banks to take inexpensive loans to stabilize eurozone financials. (WSJ)

Canada will allow uranium exports to China. (WSJ)

A Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) and Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) partnership to marry physical games with online ones. (WSJ)

Southern Co.’s (NYSE: SO) plan to build a reactor in Georgia receives NRC approval. (WSJ)

Apple’s market cap passes that of Google and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) combined. (WSJ)

New research suggests the education gap between rich and poor has widened. (NYT)

German officials are worried that the ECB has cut lending standards too much. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Groupon’s shares dropped 15% after its announcement that it lost money in the fourth quarter of last year. It said its “active customers” rose 275% from the same period a year ago to 33 million. Revenue jumped 194% to $506.5 million. And Groupon said sales in the first quarter would be as little as $510 million, up “only”73% from last year. Then Groupon claimed it would continue to have outsized investments for marketing. Many investors are worried that the use of online coupons is a model that consumers adopted only briefly, as well as that rivals like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) have similar services. Beyond that, the lingering issue is whether people clip coupons more than they watch videos, communicate by text or hang out on Facebook. There are only so many hours in an internet day.

People clearly spend a lot of time on Facebook, but there is a debate over what they do. A set of research from Citi released last fall said that people are on Facebook for 16% of their time online, on average. The number eclipsed time spent on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). But how long does it take to do a successful search on Google before the user moves to a site the search uncovered? Google remains a utility as much as anything else, with search results mixed with ads on similar subjects. It is a nearly perfect match of content and marketing messages, as Google’s numbers have shown. Facebook’s 850 million users interact with friends and acquaintances, for hours it seems, but wandering people are hard to target, even with data on behavior and demographics. Facebook had less than $4 billion in revenue last year. So Wall St. wonders whether the people on the social network care at all about the ads that they see.

There is a cottage industry of research about why people visit online sites, whether they watch video on PCs or TV, and why some websites are better for advertisers than others. None of the research is conclusive enough, at least from the standpoint of many people who review it, to convince experts that time spent on Facebook or Groupon can ever yield the kind of revenue garnered by Amazon.com and Google. At least Amazon and Google can demonstrate a long history of interaction that yields a steady and growing stream of revenue. Each has a future likely to be as good as its past as far as revenue and profits are concerned. Facebook and Groupon have not yet cleared that hurdle.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Greeks in Brussels

The Greeks have departed for Brussels, where they will plead with the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank for the money needed to cover the nation’s financial needs next month. The parties have until February 15 to reach a settlement. The Greeks say they have given in to all austerity requests but have no deal to cut some government-controlled pensions. So, after all of the negotiations, that single issue may drive Greece into default.

Luxury Car Sales

At least some rich people around the world do not think their wealth will be entirely stripped away by taxes. Daimler said it had a 39% increase in fourth-quarter profits. It said the primary driver was an upswing in sales of high-end Mercedes, particularly the car company’s M-Class SUV. Daimler is not alone. BMW posted similarly impressive earnings, as did Volkwagen’s Audi division.

Yahoo! and Alibaba

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may finally get some tangible value from its 39% holding in large China e-commerce company Alibaba. Rumors suggest that Alibaba is close to securing bank loans of as much as $3 billion. Wall St. thinks the Alibaba stake is worth closer to $5 billion, so the firm may have to use some of its own money. Now, investors will have to wait to see what Yahoo! does with the cash. There is almost no optimism that Yahoo! has the management and prospects to use the billions to rebuild its troubled businesses. Yet, with a new CEO and newly constituted board, a turnaround is at least a long shot.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Yahoo! Shakeup

Four Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) directors will leave the battered internet portal company. Those departing include chairman Roy Bostock, who has been blamed for Yahoo!’s inability to get a good CEO and to set a strategy for the firm to recover from a weak internet advertising market. Yahoo! added two independent directors, Alfred Amoroso and Maynard Webb. Amoroso served as president and CEO of Rovi Corp. (NASDAQ: ROVI) until December 2011. Webb, the chairman of LiveOps, served as that company’s CEO until July 2011. Neither has particularly impressive credentials. But, even if either did, Yahoo! set no policy to solve its most immediate problems. It still has not disposed of its ownership positions in Yahoo! Japan or China e-commerce firm Alibaba. Neither stake does anything to help Yahoo!’s business operations. The disposal of the shares would add substantially to the firm’s balance sheet.

No Greek Fix

All of the participants in the resolution of the Greek sovereign debt crisis continue to refuse to act in a way that would bring the problem to a head. The European Central Bank apparently is willing to exchange some of its debt for new paper, the result of which would be to cut that southern European country’s debt load. Private investors have mostly agreed to terms to cut the value of their debts. Most Greek leaders have buckled to pressure to cut more government costs. Some of Greece’s unions continue to march in the streets to protest wage cuts. And, day after day, nothing is resolved.

Airbus and Boeing Woes

Two of the world’s newest commercial aircraft continue to have mechanical problems. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a Qantas Airbus 380 super-jumbo has wing cracks. It is not the first of the planes to have the problem. Airbus has suggested an inspection of the model. In the meantime, some remain grounded. Some of Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) new Dreamliner 787 will not make it to airlines on schedule. Support structures in the aft fuselage of the plane have developed gaps. That could cause a series of inspections and a probable slowdown in factory production.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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

The analysis of display advertising market share rarely mentions the tier of sites below the largest ones by audience. Those most likely to be hurt badly, if they have not already been, are the online sites of old-line media companies. The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) has had trouble with its very modest online ad growth. Among sites measure by Comscore, it had 76.4 million unique visitors in December to Facebook’s 152.5 million. And Facebook’s audience continues to grow quickly. The New York Times’ does not. Gannett (NYSE: GCI), which announced earnings yesterday, has confronted the same challenge. Its increase in internet ad revenue last quarter was depressing and hardly enough to offset drops in traditional print advertising. It had 44.1 million unique visitors in December, despite the fact that it owns the giant national newspaper USA Today. Scripps Networks (NYSE: SNI) and the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) are in a position that is just as difficult.

Facebook has not only started to squeeze out the major portals. It takes an ongoing piece of a market that has thousands of websites in it. This display advertising market, which appeared so promising just a few years ago, is hardly promising at all.

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

A Royal Loss

Royal Philips Electronics, one of the largest companies in Europe, lost $1.7 billion last year. Some of the loss was due to expenses linked to factory retooling. But the economy also was partially to blame. Philips is a reasonable proxy for parts of global demand because its divisions make a wide array of products from light bulbs to expensive medical equipment. The firm’s CEO, Frans van Houten, said he is worried about the first half of the year. In that, he has joined the chiefs of other large multinationals.

Facebook IPO

Facebook may publicly release the data it needs to begin the process of its IPO. Experts believe the company may be valued as high as $100 billion, as it tries to raise $10 billion. Skeptics believe that the company’s future is not better than other Web 2.0 firms that went public last year. That includes Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) and LinkedIn (NASDAQ: LNKD). The difference is that Facebook is not a new phenomenon. It has continued to build a member base that will soon pass one billion. And it continues to take display advertising market share from other large display based companies like Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Bank of America

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) continues to rearrange its top management in the hope that some new mix will be the silver bullet that helps the financial firm out of its deep problems. Unfortunately, ongoing changes among executives will not make its mortgage problems and balance sheet issues disappear. Bank of America named Christian Meissner as the top manager of its investment bank. This action can be added to appointment of new chief operating officers and the planned layoffs of 30,000 employees.

Douglas A. McIntyre

EU leaders probably will create a 20 billion euro fund to help improve unemployment among the young. (Reuters)

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) reports that small business hiring slowed in January and wages dropped. (Reuters)

The head of Philips warns of challenges in the first half of this year. (Reuters)

Republicans will link a highway spending bill to the Keystone XL pipeline. (Reuters)

Much of the missing $1.2 billion from MF Global may never be found. (WSJ)

Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) Richard Parsons may retire as chairman. (WSJ)

Germany warns Greece it may not get bailout funds because of inadequate austerity measures. (WSJ)

The head of the Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) will turn down his bonus because of an uproar about its size. (WSJ)

The IMF will review whether the yuan is still undervalued. (WSJ)

AMR’s nonunion retirees want more say in its Chapter 11. (WSJ)

The Association of Fundraising Professionals says many nonprofits had record years in 2011. (WSJ)

Sarkozy announces plans to improve France’s competitiveness. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Aol (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) set an alliance to prevent phishing emails. (WSJ)

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) will sell some of its Japanese operations. (WSJ)

A new Fed study warns of deflation. (WSJ)

Investors are voicing more concern over Japan’s debt. (WSJ)

Troubles at newspapers caused 71 dailies to be sold last year. (NYT)

Many U.S. banks use CDs to bet for or against Europe’s problems. (NYT)

Research In Motion (NYSE: RIMM), which has done well in Europe, faces more challenges there. (NYT)

Ratings agencies will be questioned about their role in MF Global. (FT)

Exports from industrial companies in the West to China fall. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 83 points to 12,758.85 (0.66%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 32 points (1.14%) to 2,818.31, and the S&P 500 rose 0.87% or more than 11 points to 1,326.06.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan; Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) raised to ‘outperform’ at Oppenheimer; Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) cut to ‘neutral’ at Macquarie; and Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) raised to ‘outperform’ at RBC Capital and cut to ‘neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch. Znyga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) gets starting calls from four brokers: ‘overweight’ at Barclays and JPMorgan; ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; and ‘neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Earnings reports since markets closed on last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Apple is up 6.4% at $447.17, after posting a new 52-week high this morning of $454.45; Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up nearly 3% at $6.72; Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) is up 1% at $40.54; Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is down -0.6% at $15.60; ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is down -0.9% at $70.01; Praxair Inc. (NYSE: PX) is down -2.8% at $106.05; Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) is down -4.9% at $66.01; US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up more than 18% at $7.59; and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is down nearly -10% at $7.81.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is up more than 46% at $55.16. The genetic testing instrument maker is the target of a $5.7 billion hostile takeover offer from Roche Holdings AG.

Rubicon Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) is down nearly -12% at $10.66. The LED lighting maker was downgraded from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ at Needham yesterday on low demand.

Indiana Community Bancorp (NASDAQ: INCB) is up about 44% at $20.90 after posting a new 52-week high of $21.34 earlier. The bank holding company has agreed to be acquired by Old National Bancorp (NYSE: ONB) in an all-stock transaction.

Complete Genomics Inc. (NASDAQ: GNOM) is up 19% to $2.98. The DNA-sequencing company is getting a boost from the hostile takeover bid for Illumina.

NuVasive Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA) is up about 19% at $16.31. The medical device maker had its shares stopped today following a report that it would not receive an injunction against selling a disputed product.

Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
• 8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
• 10:00 a.m. – New home sales
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
• 4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply reports

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Paul Ausick