Media Digest 2/17/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

Reuters:   Obama pushed his nuclear initiative and backed a new plant.

Reuters:   Oil moved toward $78 on hope of an improved economy.

Reuters:   Toyota (NYSE:TM) will cut auto output.

Reuters:   Fidelity says the retirement savings rate held steady.

Reuters:   Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) may give creditors $2.4 billion in hotel properties.

Reuters:   The Administration says the stimulus package stopped a free fall in the economy.

Reuters:   Simon Properties offered $10 billion for General Growth.

Reuters:   Credit cards delinquency rates leveled off.

Reuters:   The CEO of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) worked to improve relationships with the mobile industry.

WSJ:   Toyota (NYSE:TM) said all future cars will have a brake override system. The company also said it would recall some Lexus models.

WSJ:   Japan now holds more US treasury notes than China does.

WSJ:   The Harvard Endowment may sell some of its $5 billion real estate portfolio.

WSJ:   The U.S. Climate Action Partnership lost Conoco Philips (NYSE:COP), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and BP (NYSE:BP) as members.

WSJ:   The EU will give Greece a deadline to improve its budget.

WSJ:   Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) added to its oil reserves.

WSJ:   Icahn will try to lift his ownership in Lions Gate.

WSJ:   Verizon Wireless will allow subscribers to use Skype.

WSJ:   The US will ratchet up its probe of Toyota.

WSJ:   Redbox signed a DVD deal with Warner.

WSJ:   Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI) profits soared.

WSJ:   Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) profits fell.

WSJ:   Investors will carefully watch the results from Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE:HPQ) large printer division.

NYT:   Many Wall St. statesmen including George Soros and John Reed favor the Volcker rule.

NYT:   Partisan politics make it difficult to make progress on the deficit.

NYT:   A new case may link HSBC (NYSE:HBC) to a tax evasion investigation.

NYT:   Incompatible software may hurt the growth of the broadband internet.

FT:   Class action suits against Toyota hit $3.6 billion in the US.

FT:   Banks are using “short sales” to get real estate off their books.

FT:   The demand for US debt dropped sharply in December.

FT:   Seventy percent of the funds from the stimulus package will be spent by October.

Blomberg:   Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Greece did not disclose a debt swap deal.

Bloomberg:   Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) may hurt margins in its $19 billion Office business as its competes with Google.

Douglas A. McIntyre