Currently Sarkozy and Merkel are trying to twist the arm of Papndreou over caviar and  champagne

The company earned $0.80 per share vs consensus of $0.78

Revenues grew 11.5% and net income is up 12%

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Whispers from the G20 meeting is that Greece will be allowed to go bankrupt if there is a no vote from referendum.

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Underwriters will stop taking indications of interest one day earlier than expected.

Prepare for an opening day surge.

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Federal Reserve officials sharply downgraded their forecasts for economic growth and jobs on Wednesday, expecting a sluggish recovery and high unemployment for years to come.

In releasing their projections for how the economy will perform in the years ahead, the 17 top officials of the central bank project that the jobless rate, 9.1 percent in September, will fall only to 8.5 to 8.7 percent by the final months of 2012. In June, the last time they released projections, they thought the unemployment rate would descend to around 8 percent.

They envision a very slow decline in unemployment beyond that, with the jobless rate falling to the 6.8 to 7.7 percent range by the end of 2014. That is still well above the 5.2 to 6 percent range that they view as the longer run jobless rate.

The Fed officials predict a lackluster 2.5 to 2.9 percent pace growth in gross domestic product next year. That is not much higher than what they view as the economy’s longer run potential growth rate, and is not enough to repair the economy quickly. In June, they thought 2012 GDP growth would be in the 3.3 to 3.7 percent range.

The forecast was released a couple of hours after the central bank announced that it would not take new action to pump money into the economy, assessing that economic growth had “strengthened somewhat” in recent months.

Some Fed officials had argued for the central bank to take further action to pump up growth, such as beginning new purchases of mortgage-related securities to try to lower interest rates and support the housing market. But after two meetings at which the central bank took steps to ease monetary policy, Fed officials elected to stand pat.

One official, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans, opposed the decision, arguing that the Fed should have taken more action to help the economy. While dissents in the opposite direction–arguing for less aggressive policy–have been common in recent years, it was the first time in four years that an official has dissented in favor of doing more.

Later in the day, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke began a news conference by recapping the forecast and then took questions from reporters. The first noted the criticism that Republican political leaders have lobbed at the Fed over its monetary policy decisions. “It’s very important” he responded, that the Fed — as an independent body — be free of political influence. In addressing the concerns that Republicans have raised about an increase in inflation, Bernanke noted that “inflation has averaged 2 percent,” the Fed’s target rate. “Where we are falling short,” he said, “is on the unemployment side.”

The leaders of the central bank likely also spent much of the two-day meeting discussing how they communicate their expectations and goals for the economy. There was no immediate announcement Wednesday of changes to those strategies.

The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee saw the economic situation as being slightly better than they had at their September meeting, however, saying that “economic growth strengthened somewhat in the third quarter, reflecting in part a reversal of the temporary factors that had weighed on growth earlier in the year.”

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the July through September quarter, the Commerce Department said last week.

But the Fed’s policy statement was hardly ebullient in its description of the economy. “Recent indicators point to continuing weakness in overall labor market conditions, and the unemployment rate remains elevated,” the statement said, and “the housing sector remains depressed.”

Evans has argued for a variety of more aggressive steps to try to strengthen the economy and reduce unemployment, but had not previously dissented from a Fed action. The last time an official voted against policy in the “dovish” direction, favoring easier monetary policy, was Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren in December 2007.

At the last two Fed meetings, three policymakers dissented in the opposite direction, worried the Fed’s monetary policy was doing too much to boost growth and risked inflation. None did so at this meeting.

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Groupon Inc could price shares in its initial public offering $1 or $2 above the current range of $16 to $18 per share, according to two investors who said they spoke with the lead underwriters on Wednesday.

Groupon is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 30 million shares in the IPO, equivalent to a 4.7 percent stake. Books are expected to close later on Wednesday afternoon, with trading on the Nasdaq to begin on Friday.

If the IPO prices at $19 per share, that would value Groupon at $12.02 billion. If it prices at $20 per share, that would value the company at $12.7 billion.

No further information was immediately available. A spokesman for Groupon declined comment, as did a spokesman for lead underwriter Morgan Stanley. The other leads, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, were not immediately available for comment.

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from REUTERS

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•  Severity of Financial Crisis and Housing Slump Forced Downward Revision in Economic Outlook
• Job of Federal Reserve to Stay Out Of Political Debates
• Fed Has Been Aggressive

The night before MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) posted its biggest quarterly loss, triggering a 48 percent stock plunge, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine appeared at a steak dinner at New York’s Helmsley Park Lane Hotel for a speech to a group of bankers and traders.

“There was no sense at all that there was impending doom,” Kenneth Polcari, a managing director of ICAP Corporates, said of Corzine’s Oct. 24 address to the National Organization of Investment Professionals. “He gave a spectacular speech” about his decades at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), life as a U.S. senator and New Jersey governor and his return to the private sector. “He’s had a full life, up until now.”

Corzine, 64, excused himself before the main course was served, saying he had to prepare for an earnings call the next day, said David Shields, vice chairman of New York-based brokerage Wellington Shields & Co. and a former chairman of the organization. The group seeks to foster “a favorable regulatory environment,” according to its website.

Timothy Mahoney, CEO of New York-based Bids Trading LP, said Corzine’s speech was “delightful.”

The next day, MF Global reported a $191.6 million net loss tied to its $6.3 billion wager on European sovereign debt. On Oct. 27, after the company’s bonds dropped to 63.75 cents on the dollar, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings cut the firm to below investment grade, or junk. Unable to find a buyer, the company filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 31, the first major U.S. casualty of the European debt crisis.

‘Serve the Public’

At least two dozen U.S. lawmakers and regulators, including Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, and former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt have addressed the group, according to its website.

“There are many people in the group that do lobby and talk to regulators,” Shields said. “You talk to regulators, you talk to lawmakers and you try to get the points forward, things that will help the marketplace, that will serve the public.”

The group’s board includes head traders at firms such as Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., whose futures trade triggered the flash crash of May 6, 2010, according to a study by the SEC and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Its members’ firms “trade approximately 70 percent of the institutional volume transacted daily in the New York and Nasdaq markets,” according to the website.

‘Difficult’ Day

The group’s current chairman, Dan Hannafin of Boston-based investment manager Wellington Management Co., declined to comment on the dinner. Corzine and Diana DeSocio, an MF Global spokeswoman, didn’t reply to an e-mailed request for comment.

Mahoney said he appreciated Corzine’s ability “to compartmentalize” and speak engagingly last week. Mahoney’s firm, Bids, runs a private trading venue known as a dark pool, and is a joint venture of banks including Goldman Sachs.

Before the speech, Moody’s cut MF Global’s credit ratings to the lowest investment grade. Polcari said there was one reference to Corzine’s “difficult” day.

While he was “cordial” and “positive,” the MF Global chief lacked his typical “sharp bounce,” Shields said. Corzine is “a member of the community,” and could be invited back after the bankruptcy, he said. “People go through bad times.”

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Cheap stock

The fed the economy is actually improving and they will continue to drive down long term rates.

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Press Release

Some say no way while Goldman feels they should…

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