Wall Street Breakfast: Greek Bailout Extension Clears German Hurdle

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Economy
Germany's parliament approved an extension of Greece's bailout today after Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble spoke in favor of the deal, telling parliament: "We Germans should do everything possible to keep Europe together as much as we can." The Bundestag vote was the only major parliamentary hurdle for the four-month extension to the bailout program, as other EU countries are expected to vote in favor of the deal, approved by eurozone finance ministers earlier this week.

India’s Finance Ministry has projected the country's economic growth to accelerate to a four-year high of between 8.1%-8.5% in the fiscal year starting April, making the South Asian nation one of the fastest-growing economies. The latest projection is much higher than the 7.4% growth the ministry forecast for this fiscal year, as falling oil prices and the government’s commitment to implementing economic reforms have improved the country's outlook.

Upbeat Japanese industrial output data led the Nikkei to hit fresh 15-year highs today, while retail sales slid and inflation slowed, underscoring strength in export industries and weak domestic demand. Production jumped 4% in January from the previous month, exceeding forecasts with the biggest gain since June 2011, while retail sales fell 1.3% and household spending dropped, highlighting the uneven nature of the country's economic recovery.

Crude oil futures rebounded this morning, with Brent heading for its biggest monthly gain since May 2009, as a reduction in rig counts and healthy growth in Chinese demand this year supported prices. China's implied oil demand is set to grow 3% in 2015, announced China National Petroleum (NYSE:PTR) today, surpassing the International Energy Agency's forecast of 2.5%. Brent prices have risen by around 15% so far this month from January's close of $52.99.

The FCC has approved net neutrality restrictions on the Internet, reclassifying broadband services under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, on a party-line vote of 3-2. Chairman Tom Wheeler said the action was an "irrefutable reflection of the principle that no one, whether government or corporate, should control free and open access to the Internet." The commission also voted along the same party lines to pre-empt laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that put restrictions on municipal broadband initiatives.

Stocks
Just two days after winning $532.9M from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) for patent infringement, Smartflash is again suing the tech giant, this time over using its technology without permission in devices not included in the previous case, such as the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) seems to have taken a cue from the victorious patent firm, announcing that it is suing Apple for infringing on its patents that are essential to 2G and 4G/LTE standards.

The Nikkei and Chinese media report that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is planning to cut 9,000 jobs at two Chinese phone manufacturing plants that originally belonged to Nokia (NYSE:NOK), and will move some of the production to Vietnam. The layoffs come as Microsoft continues to deal with a Chinese antitrust probe, and a far-reaching effort by China to lower its dependence on foreign tech suppliers. The company laid off its Chinese Xbox R&D team last fall.

GameStop will likely increase the number of its Spring Mobile stores after the company bid for the right to take 163 leases over from bankrupt electronics retailer RadioShack (NYSE:RSH). RadioShack will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon today to approve the agreement with GameStop (NYSE:GME), which had 311 Spring Mobile stores on record as of November.

Despite problems with its A400M military transport program, Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) today reported a 59% rise in profit last year, while proposing a record dividend of €1.20 a share. Net income came in at €2.3B vs. €1.5B a year earlier when earnings were weighed down by costs linked to the A350 long-range jet that entered service in January. Airbus also said it would hike A320 output to 50 jets a month starting in 2017, rivaling Boeing (NYSE:BA), which announced plans last year to raise 737 production from 42 to 52 per month in 2018.

Confirming earlier reports, Lloyds (NYSE:LYG) has announced that it will pay a dividend of 0.75 pence per share for the 2014 financial year, after reporting a rise in underlying profit of 26% to £7.8B ($12B) in 2014. The dividend is a significant milestone in the bank's recovery; Lloyds hasn't paid a dividend since its bailout in 2008. "While we recognize we have more to do, we enter the next phase of our strategy from a position of strength," said Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.

The NY Department of Financial Services' probe of Barclays' (NYSE:BCS) forex business is holding up a £1B settlement of currency rate-rigging allegations that other U.S. and U.K. authorities are close to resolving, FTreports. In November, six banks were fined more than $4B over allegations of price fixing and manipulating benchmarks in the forex market, although Barclays pulled out last minute because the DFS was not involved.

J.C. Penney -12.8% premarket after reporting a lower-than-expected quarterly adjusted profit as it discounted more during the holiday season and invested in store expansions. Earnings broke even on a per share basis, compared with average analyst estimates of a profit of $0.11 per share. J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) also said that same store sales rose 4.4% in Q4, and expected the metric to grow 3-5% in the current quarter ended May vs. market estimates of 3% growth.

Herbalife surprised Wall Street after the bell yesterday, reporting earnings that beat both consensus estimates and the company’s own projections, but overall guidance for 2015 was revised down. "2014 was a record year in terms of net sales, volume and sales leader retention," said CEO Michael Johnson, but "it was also a year of transition." Shares of Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) bounced around in after-hours trading, and are now down 1.5% premarket.

Today's Markets:
In Asia, Japan +0.1% to 18798. Hong Kong -0.3% to 24823. China +0.4% to 3310. India +1.7% to 29220.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.2%. Paris +0.1%. Frankfurt -0.1%.
Futures at 6:20: Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.1%. Crude +2.1% to $49.18. Gold -0.3% to $1206.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +4 bps to 2.01%

Today's economic calendar:
Fed's Williams at Monetary Policy forum
Fed's Loretta at Monetary Policy forum
Stanley Fischer at Monetary Policy forum
8:30 GDP Q4
9:45 Chicago PMI
9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
10:00 Pending Home Sales
3:00 PM Farm Prices

Notable earnings before today's open: AAON, CAS, CNCE, CST, CVT,DCIX, DFRG, GDP, GLOG, GVA, HMSY, HPT, HTH, HZNP, ISIS, KERX, LBY,NRF, NRG, NWN, NYLD, PNM, POM, PTCT, RDC, SJI, TTI, WMC, XLS

Notable earnings after today's close: CNL, TCAP

See full real-time earnings coverage »

Source :http://seekingalpha.com/article/2957976-wall-street-breakfast-greek-bailout-extension-clears-german-hurdle