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Stock Futures Point To Modest Recovery
U.S. stock futures are indicating a modest rise at the open Thursday, as investors try to recover lost ground after two days of heavy losses, but oil prices marched higher.
NRG Makes Unsolicited Offer for Calpine
Power generator Calpine Corp. (NYSE: CPN) confirmed that it received an unsolicited merger offer from NRG Energy Inc., (NYSE: NRG) which proposed a stock-for-stock transaction that would value the combined firm at $22 billion and create the largest independent power company in the U.S.
Fed’s Forecast Grows Gloomier
Federal Reserve officials acknowledge they are fighting a difficult, two-front war against slow economic growth and high inflation fed by soaring commodity prices.
Hormel Posts Rise in Profit Despite Turkey Weakness
Hormel Foods Corp.’s (NYSE: HRL) fiscal second-quarter net income rose 14% as lower pork prices helped the company overcome continued weakness at its turkey business, which will see capacity cuts.
UBS Rights Issue Priced at Discount
ZURICH — UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) Thursday set the terms for its 15.97 billion Swiss francs ($15.50 billion) capital increase at a steep discount to the current share price, reflecting that the Zurich-based bank remains a tough sell to investors because of its subprime-debt holdings.
Report Links Pfizer Drug To Accidents, Heart Trouble
A nonprofit drug safety group is raising concerns about serious side effects newly linked to Pfizer Inc.’s (NYSE: PFE) popular smoking-cessation medicine, Chantix, casting a pall over a drug already dogged by psychiatric issues and focusing the spotlight anew on the Food and Drug Administration’s monitoring capability.
BCE Plunges as Buyout in Jeopardy After Court Ruling
May 22 (Bloomberg) — BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE) plunged 14 percent in early trading in the U.S. as investors bet the Canadian phone company’s record C$52 billion ($52.9 billion) leveraged buyout may collapse or be renegotiated at a lower price.
ResCap Says Bondholders Tender $8.6 Billion of Notes
May 22 (Bloomberg) — Residential Capital LLC, the distressed mortgage-finance company, said bondholders tendered $8.6 billion of notes as part of its offer to exchange or buy back $14 billion of debt and help stave off bankruptcy.
Moody’s Faces Scrutiny of Error, Possible `Cover-Up’
May 22 (Bloomberg) — Moody’s Corp., (NYSE: MCO) owner of the second- largest credit-rating company, faces increased government scrutiny after starting an internal probe into whether a computer error
gave top rankings to securities that didn’t deserve them.
Icahn to Biogen: Papers, Now!
Activist investor Carl Icahn — who’s lately been busy shaking things up at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) hasn’t forgotten about his biotech interests. His investment outfit has sued Biogen Idec(NASDAQ: BIIB) to get its hands on internal company documents related to its for-sale process last fall.
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