Media Digest 2/4/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Reuters:  Toyota (NYSE:TM) said it would have charges of $2 billion for recalls, but posted a profit last quarter and improved its forecasts.

Reuters:   Shell’s (RDS.A) profits fell sharply.

Reuters:   Sony (NYSE:SNE) posted its first profit in five quarters.

Reuters:   Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and the NSA may team on cyberattack measures.

Reuters:   Healthcare spending will be a larger part of the economy.

Reuters:   Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) easily beat estimates.

WSJ:   Government programs will account for half of all healthcare spending next year.

WSJ:   Tech spending is bouncing back

WSJ:   Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) plans to cut R&D.

WSJ:   Monster (NYSE:MWW) bought HotJobs from Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO).

WSJ:   Zale is trying to get cash from suppliers.

WSJ:   AOL (NYSE:AOL) said the ad slump is not over.

WSJ:   Rising productivity could hurt jobs growth.

WSJ:   MetLife (NYSE:MET) financials may be hurt by a purchase of an AIG (NYSE:AIG) unit.

WSJ:   Toyota (NYSE:TM) admitted its Prius brakes have a design problem.

NYT:   Rivals are waiting to see what Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) will pay Blankfein.

NYT:   Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) may buy a touchscreen start-up.

NYT:   A currency dispute is likely to cause more US-China friction.

NYT:   The government may offer a plan to help small banks increase lending.

FT:   Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) warned the US about its debt concerns.

FT:   China has cut back on the ability of companies to raise capital.

Bloomberg:   The US economy may lose 824,000 jobs on revisions of employment numbers.

Douglas A. McIntyre