Wall Street Breakfast: Australia Keeps Monetary Policy Steady

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Economy
Australian shares fell back from seven-year highs today after the Reserve Bank of Australia surprised markets by holding interest rates at 2.25% instead of lowering rates for a second consecutive month. "Further easing of policy may be appropriate over the period ahead. The Board will further assess the case for such action at forthcoming meetings," said RBA Governor Glenn Stevens. China cut its rates over the weekend and the ECB begins a trillion-euro quantitative easing plan this month.

German retail sales and record index advances in the U.S. fueled European stocks earlier in the session, pushing the DAX up a staggering 16.4% YTD. Retail sales rose by 2.9% M/M and 5.3% Y/Y in January, heavily beating economists' forecast for a 0.3% M/M decline. U.S. stocks also began the new month with a bang, as the Nasdaq closed above the 5,000 level for the first time since March 2000, yesterday, and the Dow and S&P 500 set new records.

Hoping to secure a fresh bailout from the IMF, Ukraine lawmakers passed a raft of austerity measures, including pension cuts and tax increases, during a lengthy parliament session yesterday that lasted late into the evening. The $17.5B bailout package, aimed at averting the country from financial collapse, will be considered by the IMF’s executive board on March 11.

Stocks
Google has confirmed its plans to offer wireless phone service "in the coming months", promising the service will be small-scale and not intended to compete with the four big U.S. national carriers. Earlier media reports suggested that Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) service would sift through cellular connections from Sprint (NYSE:S), T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS) and Wi-Fi "hot spots" to pick the best signal for routing calls, texts and data.

Alibaba will provide documents required by the Taiwan government, said Jack Ma, after the island fined the Chinese company and ordered it to withdraw from the country within six months. "We legitimately set up our business in Taiwan and complied with Taiwanese law," Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) declared yesterday, although Taiwan claims the online retailer set up shop in the country via its Singapore unit when in fact it’s a mainland-Chinese company.

Less than three months after the U.S. and Cuba agreed to restore diplomatic relations, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) appears to be laying the groundwork to ship to the country. A "ship to Cuba" button was seen on Amazon's website yesterday by Reuters correspondents in Havana. While the option did not work, logistics experts say the appearance of the selection suggested the company was working on it.

State-controlled Petrobras says it plans to sell $13.7B worth of assets in 2015 and 2016, far above the $5B-$11B outlined in its five-year $221B capital spending plan previously announced in February 2014. The move comes as the company looks to reduce debt and protect cash in the wake of the vast corruption scandal in Brazil. PBR +1.1% premarket.

Despite a 12% uptick in pre-tax profit, Barclays (NYSE:BCS) this morning reported a net loss of £174M for 2014, compared to net profit of £540M a year earlier. Over the past year, the bank has been hit with probes ranging from forex manipulation to accusations that it misled customers in its dark pool. Barclays, which remains in talks with regulators, put aside an additional £750M in Q4 to deal with the allegations.

Ocwen Financial +8.3% premarket after announcing that it would sell residential mortgage servicing rights on $45B of Fannie Mae (OTCQB:FNMA) loans to an undisclosed buyer. The announcement comes a week after Ocwen (NYSE:OCN) said it would sell servicing rights on $9.8B of loans backed by Freddie Mac (OTCQB:FMCC) to Nationstar Mortgage Holdings (NYSE:NSM), as part of a strategy to transfer some types of non-strategic servicing.

Bill Gross says he has up to four years to re-establish his mark at Janus Capital (NYSE:JNS), and will keep trading to prove he can still beat the market. The Total Return Fund, which he managed until he left Pimco, ballooned to $293B in April 2013, before performance faltered and clients started to pull money amid concern that interest rates would rise. Outflows from the fund accelerated when Gross left the firm in September.

Glencore posted full-year adjusted net income of $4.29B in 2014 vs. $4.58B a year earlier, beating analyst estimates, as strong performance in the company's marketing division helped it weather a sharp downturn in the commodities market. "While there remains the potential for future economic setbacks...physical demand for our raw materials remains healthy," announced Glencore (OTCPK:GLNCY) CEO Ivan Glasenberg. The mining giant's income was heavily dented two years ago, after it took $11.4B in charges related to its merger with Xstrata.

Caesars Entertainment's 6.3% rise in fourth quarter was not enough to lift the casino operator out of the red this year, as the company reported a 2014 net loss of $1.01B, compared with a year-earlier loss of $1.76B. Last month, Caesars (NASDAQ:CZR) announced that chief executive Gary Loveman would step down later this year, but would remain chairman of Caesars Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, the company’s largest unit. CZR -7.9% premarket.

Warren Buffett took aim yesterday at activist investor Harry Wilson, who is pushing for a seat on GM's (NYSE:GM) board with the goal of getting the automaker to return a greater percentage of cash to investors. "I totally disagree with the idea of putting somebody on the board who has an option on some other people's stock which is only good for two years," Buffett told CNBC's "Squawk Box". Buffett also added praise for CEO Mary Barra, saying she was doing a good job leading the automaker.

Today's Markets:
In Asia, Japan -0.1% to 18815. Hong Kong -0.7% to 24703. China -2.1% to 3265. India +0.5% to 29594.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.1%. Paris flat. Frankfurt flat.
Futures at 6:20: Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.1%. Nasdaq -0.1%. Crude +1.4% to $50.30. Gold -0.1% to $1207.60.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +8 bps to 2.08%

Today's economic calendar:
Auto sales
8:30 Gallup US ECI
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
8:15 PM Janet Yellen speech

Notable earnings before today's open: ACW, AZO, BBEP, BBY, BNS, DKS,INSY, JD, KATE, NAV, PRIM, RIGL, SSI, TEDU, TPH

Notable earnings after today's close: ABM, AMBA, AMRN, ASNA, AVAV,BOBE, BV, CDXS, CECO, EGL, GERN, LRE, REGI, SWHC, TIVO, TNET, VEEV,ZLTQ

Source:http://seekingalpha.com/article/2967746-wall-street-breakfast-australia-keeps-monetary-policy-steady