Daily Highlights: 3.9.2010

• Bank of England sees 'grounds for optimism' on Britain's recovery as risks diminish.
• China's interest-rate gap driving pressure for Yuan gains, regulator says.
• German industrial output rises 0.6% in Jan , despite 14.3% fall in construction activity.
• Gold is "unlikely" to be China's primary investment to diversify its reserve hldgs: regulator.
• Taiwan's February exports rose 32.6%, suggesting strong economic growth.
• Yen strengthens as exporters bring home profits; most Asian stocks slide.
• Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate.
• UK retail sales rise 2.2% in February, reversing fall in January.
• Audi 2009 net income fell 39 percent to euro1.35 billion.
• Casey's General Stores' Q3 net surged 23% to $17.2M as revs grew 31% to $1.11B.
• Daimler to raise as much as $428M through selling its stake in India's Tata Motors.
• General Growth Properties says its biggest debt, equity holders to jointly invest $3.93B in it.
• Harrah's lenders amend terms, incl having an option of extending the due date to 2015.
• HP sued several Taiwanese, HK manufacturers for infringing on its printer cartridge patents.
• McDonald's Feb same-store sales rises 4.8%, led by strong overseas gains.
• Northrop Grumman drops out of a controversial $40B USAF refuelling tankers project.
• OSI's price tag is likely to rise as Astellas Pharma covets cancer revenue.
• PartnerRe estimated claims of $220-320M pretax from last month's earthquake in Chile.
• RBS has the largest pension deficit relative to its market value out of U.K. finance firms in the FTSE 350 index - report
• Res-Care reports in-line, reports Q4 EPS of $0.25. Revs fell 2.0% to $387.2M.
• Sony Corp aims to sell at least 25M TVs next fiscal year, 10% of them 3-D.
• Sony aims to sell at least 25 million televisions in the 12 months ending March
• Texas Instruments raises lower end of Q1 EPS to $0.48-0.52 - prev $0.44-0.52 (cons $0.49).
• Thor Industries misses by $0.06, posts Q2 EPS of $0.22. Revs rose 89.7% to $430M.
• TiVo Inc.'s Q4 loss widened to $10.2M on higher costs, beats est. Revs up 16% to $68.5M.
• Class-action lawsuits could cost Toyota $3B-plus.
• Verizon CFO sees 2010 capex of $16.8B-17.2B.

Earnings Calendar: ALOG, BNS, BRNC, CALP, DKS, FLOW, JCG, KFY, KR, RCNI, SSI, VICR.

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