FRIDAY

FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules, Setting Stage For Legal Battle ; Broadband Investors Should Wake Up to Net Neutrality

• FCC Ruling Gives Shareholders Reason to Worry • Telecom, cable industries expected to challenge commission’s 3-2 vote • The Federal Communications Commission set aside two decades of laissez-faire policy to assert

broad authority over the Internet, voting to regulate broadband providers as public utilities and overruling laws in two states that made it harder for cities to offer their own Web service.

How Hugo Chavez Helped Inspire Spain’s Far-Left Podemos Movement

• Youth-Led political party challenges mainstream in Madrid • Late in his presidency, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez told a Spanish professor he was “very much

heartened” by a youth-led movement that briefly occupied central Madrid to protest corruption and government-mandated austerity. What recession-racked Spain needed, he said, was “a true democracy” to replace its “capitalist” system.

Shoppers Return to Chain Stores

• J.C. Penney, Kohl’s See More Visits, Higher Spending; Old Navy Gets a Lift • Penney Chief Executive Myron : “Mike” Ullman III. • Falling unemployment and improving wages were enough to prompt budget conscious shoppers

to open their wallets. • Not all retailers are seeing a lift. Sears Holdings Corp. drop in revenue and is moving ahead with

plans to split off as many as 300 stores. Women’s fashion chain Chico’s FAS Inc. unveiled plans to accelerate store closures.

Sears Extends Dismantling (splitting off) of Company

• Sears plans to split off some stores amid more losses, declining sales • Sears Holdings Corp. would split off as many as 300 of its best stores into a separate company

advancing the dismantling of the struggling retailer by hedge-fund manager Eddie Lampert . • The move comes after Sears posted a loss of $159 million over the holidays as revenue plunged

24% to $8.1 billion. Mr. Lampert, Sears’s chief executive, is trying to create a new retailer built around customer loyalty regardless of how they shop.

RBS’s Global Retreat Stings U.S.

• Royal Bank of Scotland Group (CEO Ross McEwan) will dismantle its global investment bank, including cutting more than 1,000 investment-banking jobs in the U.S.

• The bank will retain only London, Stamford and Singapore for full-service. • The move is a blow to Stamford, Conn., which aspired to be a trading center 50 miles north of

Wall Street. • This is a plan for a smaller, more focused, but ultimately more valuable bank with the vast

majority of its assets

IBM Pumps $4 Billion Into Cloud and Mobile Initiatives

• Tech company shifts spending plans to target faster-growing segments • IBM will shift $4 billion in 2015 spending to cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security

technologies. • IBM Chief Executive Virginia Rometty

Bayer Reiterates Plans to Divest Plastics Business

• German drug maker streamlining and refocusing on its core health care and crop science businesses to Focus on Life Sciences

• German pharmaceutical group Bayer AG reiterated plans to divest itself of its high-tech plastics business.

• "Our intention is to create two top global corporations: Bayer as a world-class innovation company in the life-science businesses, and Material Science as a leading player in polymers," Chief Executive Marijn Dekkers said.

Penn Virginia Exploring Sale of Company

• Energy producer, prodded by billionaire George Soros, working with BofA to find buyer • Penn Virginia Corp. is exploring a sale as its stock price has declined, its reserves have lost value

and billionaire George Soros has urged the company to find a buyer. • The company, which drills for oil and gas in Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, has been

working with Bank of America Corp. to look for potential buyers.

Barnes & Noble to Keep Nook Business

• Barnes & Noble Inc to spin off its college bookstore business into a separate publicly traded company.

• Under the new plan, the Nook business (e-books, devices and accessories) will stay with the core retail stores group.

Amazon’s Twitch Site Bets on Poker

• The videogame-streaming service now draws 100 million users each month; adding poker expects to bring in more young, male users, a demographic coveted by advertisers.

Shutterfly Faces Proxy Fight (An activism fight is developing at Shutterfly)

• Shareholder Marathon Partners Equity Management LLC, company’s acquisition merger strategy and compensation.

• Shutterfly buys GrooveBook.

Falling Chinese Coal Consumption and Output Undermine Global Market

• China’s first such decline in 14 years, frustrating mining companies • Declining demand in China is pushing down global coal prices. • The decline is an early sign of China’s success in joining countries in trying to diminish air

pollution and capitalize on falling oil and gas prices.

Coca-Cola Sells $9.5 Billion in Euro-Denominated Bonds

• Sale Is Largest Ever in Euros by a U.S. Company • Sell bonds because it allows them to better match liabilities with revenues in the same currency.

Companies can also lower their borrowing costs by selling to a new set of buyers.

J.P. Morgan Emerges as CEO Breeding Ground, Standard Chartered

• Bill Winters to helm a large financial firm, British bank Standard Chartered PLC. • Standard Chartered named Bill Winters its next CEO, making him the latest former deputy to J.P.

Morgan CEO, James Dimon to land the top job at a major financial firm.

Standard Chartered CEO, Peter Sands to Resign After Unrest at Bank

• Bill Winters appointed as replacement; Chairman John Peace to step down next year • Peter Sands resign following a protracted campaign by shareholders and some executives who

had grown frustrated with the bank’s leadership.

RBS’s Global Retreat Stings U.S.

• Royal Bank of Scotland Group (CEO Ross McEwan) will dismantle its global investment bank, including cutting more than 1,000 investment-banking jobs in the U.S.

• The bank will retain only London, Stamford and Singapore for full-service. • The move is a blow to Stamford, Conn., which aspired to be a trading center 50 miles north of

Wall Street. • This is a plan for a smaller, more focused, but ultimately more valuable bank with the vast

majority of its assets

NXP Semiconductors NV and Freescale

Semiconductor Ltd.

Ajit Jain & Charles Munger

Institutions Pour Cash Into Bond ETFs

Move to exchange-traded funds comes as big investors deal with bond-trading challenges

Scott Powell

McDonald’s New Chief Plots Counter Attack

• Easterbrook is set to discuss his plans in a meeting with U.S. restaurant operators, franchise owners and supplier

• New CEO, Steve Easterbrook replacing Don Thompson , who retired. • Plans to create a “modern, progressive burger company.

Economic Forecasting With the Chicago Bears

• Chicago Business Barometer’s Weak Reading Holds Troubling Implications • Fell sharply and unexpectedly- Reading of 45.8

Fed Faces Foreign-Policy Dilemma on Rates

• Factors Outside U.S. Complicate Central Bank’s Decision on Raising Rates • For the Fed, the cooling effect of low overseas inflation poses two problems: The first is that it is

hard to measure confidently how much of what is going on with prices comes from overseas and how much is home brewed. The second is that just because prices might be higher if it wasn’t for influences from overseas, that might not make a compelling argument for taking a tighter stance on monetary policy

Keryx’s Value in Profits- valued at about $1.2 billion (biotech company)

• Keryx Biopharmaceuticals , which makes a phosphate binder used in treating chronic kidney disease. Its drug, Auryxia, generated great excitement.

China Takes the Easy Way Out-The People’s Bank of China cut benchmark lending and deposit rates (QE)