costs

The Conference Board's confidence index fell to 63.4 from an upwardly revised 72 in February; lower than the reading of 65 that economists had expected.

Consumers' sentiment could remain suppressed, as fuel and food costs increase, and core inflation begins to creep up as well.

U.S. consumer confidence plummeted in March, as concerns about fuel costs, unrest in the Middle East, and the natural disaster in Japan weighed on sentiments.

Financial shares are mixed as regulators eye several big sector names for possible manipulation of the LIBOR, which is used to set adjustable interest rates on a wide variety of loans. In mid-day news, the Securities and Exchange

Good Morning. It's Wednesday, March 2, 2011. At this hour, U.S. equity futures are higher. Overseas, the Asian markets were mixed, while the European markets are lower. Bombardier Aerospace announced an order from Berkshire Hathaw

The bank lowered its 2011 EPS from $0.83 to $0.57, vs. consensus estimates of $0.60 per share, and its 2012 EPS from $0.96 to $0.74, vs. consensus estimates of $0.80 per share.

The changes were made to account for greater than expected input inflation, increased 2011 interest and compensation costs, and the increased probability for a break-up of the company.

Dean Foods is currently above its 50-day moving average (MA) of $9.66 and above its 200-day of $9.94.

UBS increased its price target for Dean Foods Company (NYSE:DF) to $10.60 from $9.00 and maintained its neutral rating.

The stock opened down $3.14 at $174.10 before adding back $1.22 to trade at $174.93. Still down 1.30%.

Analyst Brian Pitz dropped the stock to "neutral" from "buy," and lowered his price target to $180 from $195. He noted: "It now looks likely AMZN will need to invest in acquiring content, distribution deals, and technology.

Amazon.com (AMZN) is down Monday, but moving off its earlier low. The online retailer was downgraded by UBS this morning over concerns that increasing costs will put new pressure on margins.

Lawmakers pass a one-year reduction in worker contributions to Social Security last year, helping to add more money in each weekly paycheck.

Inflation rose to 0.3% in January, in line with December, and is up 1.2% over the past 12 months.

The Commerce Department reported that the income of American workers jumped a seasonally adjusted 1% in January largely with the help of a temporary payroll tax cut, ahead of consensus estimates for an increase of 0.9%, while cons

Morten Arntzen, President and CEO, said, "2010 was clearly a disappointing year financially as a result of very depressed rates in all tanker segments in the last two quarters of the year. Nevertheless, we made substantial progres

Overseas Shipholding Group (NYSE:OSG) reported a Q4 loss of $1.96 per share, ex-items, narrower than consensus estimates for a loss of $1.98 per share. Revenues for the quarter fell 4.4% year-over-year to $232.0 million, ahead of

Bob O'Brien, President and CEO, said, "Demand for our products has consistently improved throughout 2010 as customers, particularly in the commercial aerospace supply chain, right sized their inventory levels and prepared for incr

Titanium Metals (NYSE:TIE) reported Q4 EPS of $0.13, missing consensus estimates of $0.14 per share. Revenues for the quarter rose 18% year-over-year to $217.3 million, missing consensus estimates of $220.7 million.

Rising costs were around $1.7 billion, due to infrastructure spending and the cost of recruiting customer-facing staff.

HSBC Holdings has a potential upside of 3.5% based on a current price of $57.27 and an average consensus analyst price target of $59.26.

HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE:HBC) reported that its 2010 net profit more than doubled to $13.16 billion, up from $5.83 billion in 2009, missing consensus estimates of $14.02 billion.

General Mills now trades at a discount to the rest of the sector, and possesses a rich $1.12 per share annual dividend.

A Barron's feature report on big American food makers touted General Mills (NYSE:GIS) as the company best positioned in the sector to benefit from the recent spike in agricultural commodities by passing on the increased costs to c