“LONDON (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate is claiming up to $1 billion from reinsurer Swiss Re in a dispute over a life insurance deal they agreed in 2010.

Berkshire Hathaway is “alleging damages of between $0.5 and $1 billion”, Swiss Re said on page 73 of the third-quarter earnings statement it issued on November 8, adding the claim was without merit.

Swiss Re and Berkshire Hathaway were not available to comment.

Berkshire’s claim against Swiss Re was first reported by the Insurance Insider newspaper on Monday.

Swiss Re shares were up 0.8 percent at 6:25 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, in line with a European insurance sector index <.sxip>.

Analysts at JP Morgan said Swiss Re would be able to meet dividend forecasts even if it had to pay Berkshire Hathaway.”

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“Sharp Corp. (6753), the Japanese TV maker that warned last month about its ability to survive, agreed to sell a stake in itself to Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and team up with the U.S. company to make displays, two people familiar with the plan said.

Sharp plans to make an announcement today on the agreement, which includes selling 5 billion yen ($61 million) of new shares to the San Diego-based chipmaker this year, one of the people said, asking not to be named because the plan hasn’t been made public. That would give Qualcomm a 2.6 percent stake in Sharp, based on its 191 billion yen market value yesterday.”

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“NEW YORK (Reuters) – Many executives say they’re anxious about the U.S. fiscal cliff negotiations, but Dow Chemical Co’s chief executive says he’s more bothered by the messy Chinese leadership transition, which he believes is wreaking greater harm on global markets.

“Markets have, in a holistic sense, really been suffering more from China’s slowdown than any slowdown here in the United States,” Andrew Liveris said during the company’s investor day in New York on Monday.

China, Dow Chemical’s second-largest market by sales, unveiled its new leaders in November after months of speculation about who would assume top roles, as well as controversy about widespread corruption among government officials and the cooling growth of the country’s economy.

The leadership transition has been “very uncomfortable” for the Chinese and has “created a disruption to their supply chains and created a pause” in economic growth rates, Liveris said.

“We’d been used to double-digit growth rates in plastics now in China now for the better part of a decade, and now that’s slowed to stopped in this last six months.” “

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$ORCL is paying next year’s dividend this month…

Full article 

“Google Inc. (GOOG), which bought Motorola Mobility to gain leverage in the global legal battle over smartphone and tablet computer inventions, can’t use some of its patents to block sales of Microsoft Corp. products, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle said in a Nov. 30 opinion that, because Motorola Mobility pledged to license some patents on fair and reasonable terms, it can’t seek a court order to halt sales of products that use those inventions. The ruling applies to a group of Motorola Mobility patents that are deemed essential to industry standards for video decoding and Wi-Fi technologies.”

Full article 

Story developing….

Gapping up

SCMP +15.3%, SVU +4.2%, GEO +2.8%, RIG +1.7%, SAP +1.7%, NTLS +1.5%, TOT +1.2%,

ERIC +1.2%,  DECK +8.4%,  DELL +5.4%, GMCR +1.2%, IGT +3%,

Gapping down 

RIMM -3%, YHOO -2.8%, ETN -1.9%, CF -0.5%, QLGC -1.9%, RATE -1.7%, GFI -2.3%,

MYGN -5.1%, HMA -5.4%,

“U.S. made luxury cars have become all but extinct, as buyers have deserted the iconic U.S. brands for foreign models from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus and others. We noted earlier today that the General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) Cadillac is unlikely to succeed with its turnaround effort. How much more unlikely, then, is the effort that Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) plans to announce today for its luxury Lincoln model.”

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“Chrysler Group said Monday its U.S. sales rose 14 percent last month — its best November since 2007.

The company’s results suggested that Americans continue to buy new cars and trucks at a brisk pace. Chrysler predicts an annual sales rate of 15.3 million for the industry in November, making it the strongest month of the year. Auto sales ran at an annual rate of about 14.3 million through October.”

Full article

None of the stocks appear to be trading higher on their news…..

Remember to always do the crime if you can pay the meager fine.

Full article

“Japanese companies increased capital spending more than economists predicted in the three months to September, indicating a contraction in the world’s third-largest economy may be short-lived.

Capital spending excluding software rose 2.4 percent in the period from a year earlier, after rising 6.6 percent in the previous quarter, the Ministry of Finance said in Tokyo today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 1 percent gain.”

Full article

“Record-low rates are driving a gusher of new corporate debt this year, but investors should be careful because the quality of those bonds has peaked, experts say.

The amount of investment grade and high-yield corporate bonds issued so far this year is already at a record $1.2 trillion, according to Thomson Reuters IFR. And corporate treasurers are rushing to issue more debt before the end of the year, when tax laws are likely to change.

This week alone, there has been about $35 billion in investment grade deals, including Disney [DIS  49.405    -0.315  (-0.63%)  ], Shell [RDS.A  67.00    0.11  (+0.16%)   ], and Costco [COST  104.10    2.22 (+2.18%)   ]. That puts the November total at about $125 billion, the second highest monthly amount ever, according to IFR.”

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$LMT got an order from the Pentagon for 32 F-35 Jet Fighters….

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” NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft yesterday.

• Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, Windows PC sales shrank 21% between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
• Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were “almost nonexsistent” – just 1% of all Windows 8 sales”

Full article

“PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

H.J. Heinz Company (HNZ) announced today that its Board of Directors declared quarterly dividends on both common and preferred stock.

DIVIDEND DECLARATION

The Heinz Board declared the following dividends:

Common Stock

51.5 cents per share on the Company’s 25 cent par value Common Stock payable December 26, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 11, 2012. This quarterly dividend payment accelerates the Company’s regular quarterly dividend, which is normally paid in early January.

Preferred Stock

42.5 cents per share on the Company’s Third Cumulative Preferred Stock, $1.70 First Series payable January 1, 2013 to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 11, 2012.”

Full article 

“GE is a large company that creates and builds a wide range of products, but the industrial giant is now looking for a little outside help. The company is looking for some Silicon Valley-style innovation, launching two developer crowdsourced “Quests” that challenge scientists to create new ways to solve longstanding air travel and healthcare problems.”

Full article

“AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Whole Foods has declared a special dividend of $2 per share, a step that many companies are taking ahead of impending tax increases and government spending cuts at the start of 2013.

The White House and Republican congressional leaders are trying to strike a deal to avoid falling off the fiscal cliff, as the combination of simultaneous tax hikes and spending cuts has been dubbed.

Whole Foods Market Inc. is one of the latest companies to issue a special end-of-year payment to protect investors from potentially having to pay higher taxes on dividend income starting in January.

The natural grocery store chain said that the special dividend will be paid on Dec. 21 to shareholders of record on Dec. 10.

With almost 186 million shares outstanding, the special dividend would cost Whole Foods about $372 million.”

Full report

Gapping up 

TLAB +39%, ENZN +21.2%, CBK +19.9%, MHH +12.7%, FIVE +9%, ULTA +5.2%,

ELRC +4.6%, SVU +4.4%, RGC +3.9%, SIGA +3.1%, HBI +3%, FIZZ +2.4%,

STJ +2.4%, SPLK +2.1%, HLF +2%, STX +1.3%,  ACTV +8.9%,  DUK +0.3%,  THRX +0.7%,

BUD +0.8%, KITD +13%, MHH +12.7%,  PWR +2.4%, EBR +10.4%, ELP +5.1%, CIG +2.4%, CPL +1.3%,

IOC +1.6%, BCRX +3.1%, WWAV +2.6%

Gapping down 

RIC -31.9%, ZNGA -11.1%, ZUMZ -8.4%, YUM -6.7%, YOKU -4.4%, GRPN -4.2%,

AVGO -3.7%, VRSN -3.4%, NXST -3.4%, EXEL -2.5%, PSUN -2.1%, BKS -1.1,

SWK -0.4%, NTLS -13.4%,

“NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Tellabs Inc.TLAB -1.01% shares jumped 17% in premarket trades on Friday after the company set plans to pay a special dividend of $1 a share. The dividend is payable on Dec. 21 to stockholders of record as Dec. 14.”

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