By Pady Power

Some state attorney generals may sue big mortgage lenders. Taking their cue from the June Supreme Court decision allowing states to exercise supervision over national banks, a number of state attorney generals are looking into consumer fraud suits against major mortgage lenders. (NY Times)

US ICSC Chain Stores (Nov 3) Y/Y 1.9% vs. Prev. 2.4% (RTRS)

US commercial bankruptcy filings rose 7% in October compared to the previous month, with signs that there are more to come, citing data from a private company. (WSJ)

The US Treasury Department said on Monday it expected to borrow a net USD 276bln through sales of marketable debt during the October-December quarter, much less than it previously anticipated. The fourth-quarter borrowing total was USD 209bln less than forecast in July. (RTRS)

 US ICSC Chain Stores (Nov 3) W/W 0.1% vs. Prev. 0.1% (RTRS)

Today the Nikkei was closed due to a market holiday and at 1338 GMT (0738 CST) European Indices were trading at: FTSE 100 -1.76%, DAX -1.41%, CAC 40 -1.75%. (BBG)

Wall Street

Johnson & Johnson – Co. announces global restructuring initiatives designed to strengthen the co’s position as the world’s leading global health care company. The company’s plans are expected to increase its operational efficiency and generate annualized, pre-tax cost savings of USD 1.4-1.7bln when fully implemented in 2011, with USD 800-900mln expected to be achieved in 2010. The company estimates that position eliminations will be in a range of 6-7% of its global workforce, subject to any consultation procedures on these plans in countries where required. Also reaffirms FY09 EPS guidance of USD 4.54-4.59 vs. Exp. USD 4.58. (BBG/RTRS)

S&P 500

Earnings

Anadarko Petroleum – Q3 adjusted loss per share USD 0.11 vs. Exp. Loss per share USD 0.31. Boosts forecast for YR sales volumes. (BBG)

Chesapeake Energy – Q3 adjusted EPS USD 0.70 vs. Exp. USD 0.65. Q3 revenue USD 1.8bln vs. Exp. USD 1.7bln. (BBG)

Mastercard – Q3 ex-items EPS USD 3.48 vs. Exp. USD 2.93. Q3 revenue USD1.4bln vs. Exp. USD 1.35bln. Co. began to see signs of stabilisation in parts of the business. (BBG)

Marathon Oil – Q3 adjusted EPS USD 0.61 vs. Exp. USD 0.58, Q3 revenue USD 14.48bln vs. Exp. USD 12.683bln. Boosts forecast for production. (BBG)

Emerson Electric – Q4 USD 0.67 vs. Exp. USD 0.60, Q4 revenue USD 5.3bln vs. Exp. USD 5.31bln, boosts dividend to USD 0.335 from USD 0.33. Sees Q1 underlying sales down 17%-20% and sees year underlying sales down 5%-7%. (BBG/RTRS)
 
Medco Health Solutions – Q3 ex-items EPS USD 0.75 vs. Exp. USD 0.72, Q3 revenue USD 14.8bln vs. Exp. USD 14.71bln. Co. boosts forecast and sees FY 2010 ex-items EPS USD 2.80 – USD 2.82 vs. Exp. USD 2.81, sees FY 2010 ex-items EPS USD 3.28 – USD 3.38 vs. Exp. USD 3.28. (BBG/RTRS)

Archer-Daniels – Q1 EPS USD 0.77 vs. Exp. USD 0.56. Q1 revenue USD 14.9bln vs. Exp. USD 17.23bln, sees demand in key markets improving. (BBG/RTRS)

Viacom – Q3 adjusted EPS USD 0.69 vs. Prev. USD 0.57. Q3 revenue USD 3.32bln, says quarterly media networks revenues were essentially flat at USD 2.12bln. (BBG)

Other News

Burlington Northern – Co. to be bought by Berkshire Hathaway for USD 100 per share, purchase of co. values it at USD 44bln, including USD 10bln in outstanding debt. (BBG)

Black & Decker – Stanley Works, maker of the world-famous handyman’s knife, has cut one of the biggest DIY deals of the time by taking control of co. in a USD 4.5bln deal. (The Times) Stanley Works sees USD 350mln in cost synergies and sees EPS accretion of about USD 1.00 per share by year 3. (BBG) Stanley Works CEO confident Black & Decker deal won’t face regulatory roadblocks. (WSJ)

US Banks – According to sources, 20 banks spoke with NY Fed during planned meeting for about half-hour. NY Fed instructed banks to incorporate proposed rules in year-end compensation decisions and Morgan Stanley CEO Mack stressed during Fed meeting need for global coordination among regulators on pay. (RTRS)

Goldman Sachs – Co. is said to be seizing homes that sub-prime mortgages previously bought in order to contain bondholder losses. Co. spent years buying hundreds of thousands of the mortgages, many from some “unsavory lenders” in the business. Units of the company have been to courts across the country seeking approval to foreclose on the homes of Americans who couldn’t keep up with their loans’ spiking monthly payments. (The State)

Morgan Stanley – Co. wants first-round bids for CICC stake Nov 3, according to sources. (WSJ)

Schering-Plough – Co. reported that interim results from an ongoing Phase IIa study of narlaprevir, its investigational, once-daily protease inhibitor, demonstrated potent antiviral activity in treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1. (theflyonthewall.com)

Forest Labs – Co. and Ironwood announced positive top-line results from two Phase 3 clinical trials assessing the safety and efficacy of once-daily dosing of the investigational drug linaclotide in patients with chronic constipation. (theflyonthewall.com)

Lockheed Martin – Co. awarded USD 292mln contract from US army. (theflyotnhewall.com)

Best Buy – Co. is setting up its digital delivery service in partnership with CinemaNow, which has deals with the major movie studios. The software making it possible to shop CinemaNow’s video library will be included on all the Web-connected devices sold in co.’s more than 1,000 U.S. stores. (theflyonthewall.com)

Walgreens – Co.’s October same store sales up 4.9%. (BBG)

Ford Motor Company – Co. announced additional steps to improve its balance sheet and enhance automotive liquidity. Actions being announced include a proposal to lenders under co.’s revolving credit facility to extend the maturity of the facility from 2011 to 2013 in exchange for reducing lenders’ commitments and increasing interest margins and fees. In addition, co. is seeking to raise additional capital with a convertible debt offering and an equity distribution plan. Co. is also mentioned positively by Barron’s who claim co appears to have turned the corner. Also, WSJ’s “Heard on the Street” reports an unexpectedly high third quarter profit was the value of used cars sold at auction. (WSJ)

Companies going ex-dividend: KB Home (USD 0.06250)

NASDAQ

Earnings

Teva – Q3 EPS USD 0.72 vs. Exp. USD 0.88, Q3 net sales USD 3.55bln vs. Exp. USD 3.64bln, Q3 non-gaap net USD 806mln vs. Exp. USD 790.6mln. (BBG)

Cognizant Tech-A – Q3 non-gaap EPS USD 0.49 vs. Exp. USD 0.44, raises guidance for FY 2009. Q3 revenue USD 853.5mln vs. Exp. USD 808.47mln, sees Q4 non-gaap EPS USD 0.49 vs. Exp. USD 0.46. (BBG/RTRS)

Other News

Apple – China Ontrade claims it has a diagram of what it calls co. iPhone 4 generation midboard which may come out next summer , like all the previous iPhones. That seems like an awfully long time for any factory to produce parts for a new product. Does this mean that a new iPhone 4 may appear in a month too? That seems crazy, and very unlikely. After all, we know that Phil Schiller said that the Apple holiday lineup was set. Some people argue that this means that the holiday lineup is set, but it hasn’t been fully announced yet. (Gizmodo)

Microsoft – In a bid to keep Google from making inroads in the market, co. will cut the price it charges customers to store and run their e-mail systems. (BBG)

Yahoo – Co. says it has beat out Google, forming an agreement to become the search provider for O2 Germany’s mobile portal. (PC World)

Dell – Co. completes tender offer for Perot Systems. Says sees deal adding to GAAP earnings in FY2012. In other news, co says its finance division won’t be hurt by the bankruptcy of lender CIT Group, which co. uses to administer a material percentage of loans to its customers. (BBG/Sources)

Cisco – Co. calls Tandberg offer good price, could give up on deal if it does not get enough votes. (San Jose Mercury News)

Starbucks – Co. faces competition in the US from Italy’s IllyCaffe SpA, which is signing exclusive agreements with independent coffee shops. (WSJ)

Intuit – Co. has completed its acquisition of Mint.com, a fast-growing provider of online personal finance services based in Mountain View, CA, in a transaction valued at about $170M. (theflyonthewall.com)