Reports » US

US stock market daily report (January 29, 2013, Tuesday)

Contributed by Millennium Traders

The iconic Twinkies brand which includes Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Suzy Qs, Snow Balls and Wonder Bread from Hostess Brands, in bankruptcy court since November when the Irving, Texas-based company announced it would shut down and sell off its assets, has potential buyers, lining up. Bid on the table sits at $400 million although others are possible. Firms Apollo Global Management (APO) - who also owns Pabst Brewing Co. and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., are moving forward as potential winners of current negotiations to buy Twinkies out of the Hostess bankruptcy. The deal for Twinkies would include several factories as well. Other bidders include Con Agra and Mexican company El Grupo Bimbo which is headed by Mexican billionaire Daniel Servitje Montull, is the largest bread-baking company in the world. Other Hostess Brands up for grabs include Drake's brand which includes Ring Dings, Yodels, Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles and its coffee cake as well as some of its equipment sitting with lead bidder McKee Foods Corp. who agreed to pay $27.5 million. In two separate transactions earlier this month, Flowers Foods (FLO) agreed to buy six of Hostess' bread brands including Wonder, Nature's Pride and Beefsteak for a total of $390 million. Top brands of Flowers Foods include Nature's Own and Tastykake. The federal bankruptcy court that is overseeing the liquidation of Hostess' assets would have to approve any agreement, prior to completion of a sell.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced on Tuesday, the staff dismissed Barclays PLC's (BCS, BARC.LN) defense against the agency's charges of electricity-market manipulation and recommended that the commission levy fines of nearly $470 million against Barclays, the largest proposed penalty in history for the FERC. Setting up a face-off before a judge over a case that has been continuing since 2008, The FERC staff also recommended the commission send the matter to federal court. The five member governing board for the FERC will now decide whether to move forward with the charges. The charges were made public by the FERC in the fall of 2012 but the bank has since said they believe its trading was legitimate. A lengthy response to the allegations was filed by Barclays as they said the FERC had not made a sufficient case. On Tuesday, the FERC staff said the Barclays response failed to explain why the trades in question, made between 2006 and 2008, didn't violate rules against market manipulation. Mark Lane spokesman for Barclays on Tuesday said that FERC "should reject the [staff] recommendations, decline to assess any penalties, and terminate this matter without any further proceedings." "If the FERC proceeds, we intend to vigorously defend this matter in federal court," Mr. Lane said in an e-mail.

A settlement that calls for BP PLC (BP) to plead guilty to manslaughter and pay $4 billion in penalties for its part in a 2010 oil spill that wreaked havoc in the Gulf of Mexico was approved by a Federal judge on Tuesday. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a result of a massive leak, that killed 11 workers. BP agreed to plead guilty to charges related to the worker deaths and misleading Congress about the scope of the spill, in November. Tuesday's agreement does not cover the U.S. government's civil claims against BP for environmental damage caused by the spill in which BP has already agreed to pay nearly $7.8 billion to settle claims brought by Gulf Coast residents and businesses.

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index posted a non-seasonally adjusted 0.1% decrease in November following a 0.2% decline in October, as reported on Tuesday. “Winter is usually a weak period for housing, which explains why we now see about half the cities with falling month-to-month prices compared to 20 out of 20 seeing rising prices last summer,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. The 20-city home-price index rose 0.6% in November after seasonal adjustments. U.S. home prices were 5.5% higher than during the same period in the prior year, for the strongest year-over-year growth since August 2006, despite the recent decline. “Housing is clearly recovering,” Blitzer said, noting positive trends for new-home sales as well as existing-home sales. According to Case-Shiller data, home prices remain 30% below a bubble peak in 2006. There were year-over-year price gains in 19 of 20 cities during November with New York being the only city with a lower year-over-year result.

The Conference Board reported on Tuesday that its consumer-confidence index dropped to 58.6 in January to the lowest level seen since November 2011 on lower expectations and gloomier views of the present situation. "Consumers are more pessimistic about the economic outlook and, in particular, their financial situation," said Lynn Franco, economic indicators director at the Conference Board. "The increase in the payroll tax has undoubtedly dampened consumers' spirits and it may take a while for confidence to rebound and consumers to recover from their initial paycheck shock." The Conference Board's barometer of consumers' expectations fell to 59.5 in January from 68.1 in December. Expectations gauge dropped 30% over the last few months, with protracted fiscal negotiations among U.S. lawmakers taking a toll, among other factors. The Conference Board's gauge of views on the present situation dropped to 57.3 in January from 64.6 December.