24/7 Wall St.

Deutsche Borse and the New York Stock Exchange are near a merger arrangement, but political issues are still a problem (Reuters)

Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) and Green Mountain are close to a strategic partnership (Reuters)

A court in Ecuador ordered Chevron (NYSE: CVX) to pay $8.6 billion in environmental damage. (Reuters)

China’s inflation slowed recently (Reuters)

The Bank of Japan held rates steady but signaled the economy was improving (Reuters)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) will offer its Playbook with 4G capacity (Reuters)

Investors are nervous about Dell’s (NASDAQ: DELL) margins ahead of its earnings (Reuters)

Sanofit-Aventis and Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) are still battling over a takeover price (Reuters)

Public pension funds largely ignored what banks charged for currency trades (WSJ)

Fewer private equity firms use hostile bids when trying to takeover public companies (WSJ)

Wall St firms did not make large profits on commodities because they missed signs that prices would rise (WSJ)

Marriott will rid itself of its time-share business (WSJ)

Fedex (NYSE: FDX) cut its earnings forecasts due to poor weather and rising fuel prices (WSJ)

GE (NYSE: GM) released its plans for employee profit-sharing (WSJ)

Growth of the German economy remained strong (WSJ)

GM (NYSE: GM) will release a new line-up of cars in China (WSJ)

The use of web-video rose in large part due to the increase in demand for Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) streaming video (WSJ)

LG said its handset sales would rise as global smartphone sales expand (WSJ)

Cities are raising taxes to offset lower budget contributions from states (WSJ)

The Obama budget would keep deficit spending at high levels for many years (WSJ)

The IMF said Asia would need to fight inflation with currency adjustments that would allow more flexibility in price (WSJ)

The EU will probably increase the size of its bailout fund (WSJ)

The rise of Facebook is damaging its relationship with companies like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (WSJ)

Huawei will need to sell assets of an American firm it bought recently a government panel said (WSJ)

The Archives of Internal Medicine said that many medical devices which have been recalled did not get initial proper screening (WSJ)

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) has tried to take advantage of Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) disputes with states over income taxes by soliciting Amazon’s partners to move to the book firm’s website (WSJ)

There is a shortage of vegetables in the US because of cold weather in Mexico (WSJ)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is strengthening its relationship with Facebook as its own social media plans falter (WSJ)

Silicon Valley Network and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation found that the pay has not improved in the region (WSJ)

Investors Bruce R. Berkowitz and Charles M. Fernandez resigned from the board of St. Joe less than two months after joining (WSJ)

Large companies have begun to raise prices as commodities prices rise (NYT)

More airlines cancel flights well ahead of bad weather (NYT)

The Obama budget aims to reform corporate taxes and reduce loop holes (FT)

GE (NYSE: GE) will try to sell its container leasing program (FT)

The SEC wants states and municipalities to disclose more about potential trouble  (FT)

PIMCO has cut its holdings of US paper (FT)

China inflation rose sharply when food prices were eliminated (Bloomberg)

Lending in China rose which increased concerns about inflation (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre