By Pady Power

CIT Group – Co. a century-old commercial lender, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, as the global credit crisis left it unable to fund itself and the recession left it with too many bad loans. Co.’s creditors have already approved its reorganization plan. Analysts have said that getting through bankruptcy is crucial for co. if it wishes to keep its customers. (RTRS)

9 US banks close on Friday which brings the total in 2009 to a 115, FDIC to take a USD 2.5bln hit. (BBG)

An economic recovery seems to have begun, and Federal Reserve officials are thinking mostly these days about how to unwind the unprecedented stimulus they’ve pumped into the economy. Eventually that will mean raising interest rates. (WSJ)

US Senate to introduce draft financial bill. (FT) US Senate is close to producing draft legislation on financial regulation, but in a form that complicates the Obama administration’s own plan for dealing with future crises and that may end the chances of a bipartisan law passing this year. One senator and several aides said a bill would be introduced “within days” that redrew the regulatory map in a different way to draft laws put forward by the Treasury and the House financial services committee.

Today the Nikkei closed -2.31% and at 1337 GMT (0737 CST) European Indices were trading at: FTSE 100 +0.59%, DAX +0.10%, CAC 40 +0.60%. (BBG)

Wall Street

Wal-Mart – Co announced 100 additional toy Rollbacks in its intent to help families save more this holiday season. This week in all stores and online at Walmart.com, the prices of more than 100 toys will be rolled back, many at an additional 20% and 30% savings, and will last through the Christmas shopping period. (Briefing.com)

Boeing – RyanAir says co. “bust up” would lead to Airbus opportunity. (BBG)

Kraft – Co. is putting the finishing touches to a GBP 10.5bln hostile bid for Cadbury that will be tabled in the next 10 days. Analysts believe that Kraft will offer a modest premium to the GBP 7.45/shr it has already proposed with a lack of another bidder prompting little reason to offer a knockout price. Cadbury is expected to reject the offer as executives look for GBP 8.50/shr and shareholders see GBP 8.20/shr nearer the mark. (Sunday Times/Telegraph)

Disney – A press conference will be held soon to address the subject of co.’s Shanghai joint venture project to construct a regional Disney Theme Park. (WSJ Asia)

Companies paying dividend: AT&T (USD 0.41000), Verizon Communications (USD 0.47500)

S&P 500

Ford Motor – Q3 ex-items EPS USD 0.26 vs. Exp. loss per share USD 0.20, Q3 revenue USD 30.9bln vs. Exp. USD 28.51bln. Q3 pretax oper. profit USD 1.1bln vs. Prev. loss USD 3.0bln and Q3 Net USD 997mln vs. Prev. loss USD 161mln. Co. says it will be solidly profitable in 2011 and cut auto structural costs by USD 1bln in Q3. Co. says it is on track to achieve or exceed all 2009 financial targets. Co. CEO Mulally says to give guidance in January. (BBG/CNBC/RTRS)

Loews Corp – Q3 cont. ops EPS USD 1.08 vs. Exp. USD 0.77, Q3 revenue USD 3.74bln vs. Exp. USD 3.35bln. (BBG)

Sysco – Q1 ex-items EPS USD 0.46 vs. Exp. USD 0.45, Q1 revenue USD 9.1bln vs. Exp. USD 9.16bln. Co. sees FY 2010 capex USD 600 – 650mln. (BBG)

Other News

Goldman Sachs – The Charlotte Observer is reporting that co. peddled more than USD 40bln in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk. (Charlotte Observer)

US Banks – Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to meet with bank executives on Monday to discuss executive pay at large financial companies, a Fed spokesperson said. They would discuss “the process for the reviews of incentive compensation arrangements at the large, complex banking organizations,” the spokesperson said. (RTRS)

Bank of New York Mellon – Co. chief executive Robert Kelly recently was approached about becoming the next CEO of Bank of America, said people familiar with the situation. But Mr. Kelly has shown no interest in the job, said person familiar with his thinking. (WSJ)

AIG – Co. has dropped plans to sell two Japanese subsidiaries, according to a published report, deciding the company will get more value from holding on to them. (AP)

Schering-Plough – Co. announced that its investigational sublingual Grass, or Phleum Pratense, Allergy Immunotherapy Tablet, or AIT, has met the primary endpoint in a Phase III study of adult subjects in the U.S. with a history of grass pollen induced rhinoconjunctivitis with or without asthma. (BBG/RTRS)

Eli Lilly – Co. says Byetta approved for expanded use. (BBG)

Pfizer – Co. interested in buying Israel’s Protalix. (TheMarker) In other news, GlaxoSmithKline is ringing in a new era in the fight against AIDS and HIV with this week’s launch of a new company with co. The tie-up will involve 11 products with global sales of GBP1.6B and will be headed by Dominique Limet, head of personalized medicine strategy at Glaxo. The new company, under which Glaxo will hold 85% and co. 15%, will take 19% of global market share, behind market leader Gilead. (Telegraph)

Bristol-Myers – Co. announced 48-week data from an ongoing study-ETV-048-of chronic hepatitis B patients with decompensated cirrhosis, in which BARACLUDE demonstrated greater viral suppression compared to adefovir. “This study represents an important first step in addressing an unmet medical need, as this is one of the first comparative studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of antiviral therapy in this difficult-to-treat patient population,” said Professor Hugo Cheinquer. (theflyonthewall.com)

General Dynamics – Co. will this week bid for the first stage of a GBP 4bln contract to build armoured reconnaissance vehicles going head to head with BAE Systems. The bid for the first phase of the programme is worth about GBP 2bln, and the two companies must submit their proposals by November 5th. (Sunday
Telegraph)

Exelon – Co. sees FY2010 EPS USD 3.60-4.00 vs. Exp. USD 3.99. (Sources)

Ford – US October auto sales probably rose from Sept., analysts say. Auto-sales rate to be 10.3mln, based on survey of analysts. (BBG) In other news, Co. workers have overwhelmingly rejected contract changes that would have allowed the automaker to cut labour costs, leaving co. at a disadvantage to its Detroit rivals as it continues its struggle to return to profitability. (AP)

Denbury Resources – Co. said on Sunday it will pay USD 2.64bln in cash and stock to purchase Encore Acquisition Co., in a move to become one of the largest independent oil exploration and production companies in North America. (Yahoo Finance)

Companies paying dividend: BB&T Corp (USD 0.15000), JC Penney (USD 0.20000), Bristol Myers (USD 0.31000), Deere (USD 0.28000), General Mills (USD 0.47000)

Companies going ex-dividend: Xilinx (USD 0.16000)

NASDAQ

Apple – WSJ reports the co’s iPhone got a lukewarm welcome in its official Chinese debut, with a boisterous crowd turning out for a launch party in the capital but no sign of the sort of sell-out reception that greeted the smart phone at its introduction in other countries. (WSJ)

Microsoft – Co. CEO Ballmer said corporate spending on information technology will not recover to levels seen in recent years before the global economic slowdown. (AP)

Amgen – Co. announces Treat results fail to meet primary efficacy endpoints. (theflyonthewall.com)

Gilead Sciences – Co., in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, announces plans for Phase IV clinical trial evaluating first-line combination therapy versus Monotherapy in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. (BBG)

Semiconductor stocks – SIA says worldwide sales of semiconductors in Q3 were USD 61.9bln, up 19.7% from prior quarter. SIA says September 2009 sales were USD 20.1bln, an increase of 8.2% from August. It adds that it is optimistic that total sales for 2009 will be better than its mid-year forecast. (RTRS)