Canada Staving off Recession; H&R Block Rebounds; Kellogg Buys Chinese Cookie Kingpin; Occidental Petroleum: New $1.1 Billion Hydrocarbon Plant; This Bud’s Not For You; Eurzone Inflation Hits 4%; Dubai Ties Into Russia’s Energy Sector; Tyson Takes a Bite Out of Indian Food Poultry Processor Canada posted 0.4% economic growth for the month of April, after falling in the red for the first three months of the year - its first negative quarter in five years. Economists warned this rebound isn’t forward looking, as U.S. demand is still low amid the subprime credit fallout and high gasoline costs, Bloomberg reported. Tax preparing leader H&R Block Inc. (HRB) said yesterday (Monday) that it posted 11% revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, a dramatic shift from its previous quarterly loss. The company benefited from the sale of its Option One ...

Report: Toyota Plunking $1 Billion on Brazil Plant; India Housing Boom Ending; GDP Revised Up; Home Sales Rise, Values Fall; Anheuser Busch to Reject InBev Bid; Bank of America Sheds Jobs; Gold Shares Glow; Oshkosh Plunges on Lowered Outlook Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) plans to drop more than $1 billion on a new factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Valor Economico reported without citing a source. The new factory would be a bid to capture a share of the economic growth and rising incomes in South America. A pair of mortgage executives in India said the country’s five-year property boom is coming to an end as the number of available homes increases along with interest rates. "Due to the state of the equity markets, many investors who would have bought a second or a third house ...

Kodak Announces $1 Billion Buyback; Kroger Lowers Prices, Posts Profit; BP Breaks Ground on Wind Farm; Reliance and Dreamworks in Talks; Lukoil Joins Up With Italy’s ERG; Wachovia Brings in Goldman Sachs; Dow Hikes Prices; Yahoo and Microsoft Back in Talks Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) rose the most in 20 years as it boldly announced it will buyback $1 billion of its stock using a tax refund. The refund comes from an audit of the company’s taxes from 1993 to 1998, Bloomberg reported. The company posted a first-quarter loss in April. Kroger Co. (KR), the largest chain of U.S. grocery stores, beat analysts’ first-quarter earnings by lowering prices on the shelves and offering gasoline discounts, Reuters reported. The Cincinnati-based company Kroger posted a profit of $386 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a profit ...

A Virginia employee benefits firm with a major presence in Central Ohio on Monday announced a buyout deal with global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd. (WSH).

Richmond, Va.-based Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co. (HRH) said it will be acquired by London-based Willis Group in a deal valued at $2.1 billion. Willis will buy all outstanding Hilb Rogal stock for $46 a share, representing a 49-percent premium over the firm’s Friday close of $30.89.

Hilb Rogal entered the Central Ohio market in 2001 with the purchase of Berwanger Overmyer Associates. The company, ranked last year as Central Ohio’s largest independent insurance agency, in 2007 recorded about $304 million in area-written premiums.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending Hilb Rogal shareholder and regulatory approval. Willis said the deal will more than double its North American revenue in its employee benefits sector, an area it has targeted

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Macquarie Bank runs a "wrap" product by which Australian retail investors can invest in a range of funds and have all their tax compliance done for them. The website describing this product is here. Customers naturally enough carry some cash. The cash has traditionally been managed in a AAA rated fund holding mostly government and quasi-government and other short-dated high rated securities. The Macquarie cash fund behaved quite well - unlike say Macquarie Fortress. But Macquarie has pulled a bait-and-switch. The attached newspaper article tells the story: http://business.smh.com.au/macquarie-finds-1b-under-nose-20080609-2o13.html I have repeated the first part of the article here for your edification: MACQUARIE GROUP just found a cool $1 billion under its bed to address the high price of debt - or actually, under the beds of pensioners and superannuation investors. With little fuss, Macquarie has converted the cash accounts of investors in its super manager and pension manager "wrap" investment ...

On this week's earnings preview I wrote this in regards to Deere (DE):Major ag equipment player Deere (DE) - I don't own the equipment stocks anymore; at some point the rising cost of steel, petrol products and the like will be hurting the bottom line unless they can pass all the costs along to farmers - over the next year if inflation does not abate this is the type of company who could see profit margins squeezed simply from the constant increase in input costs.Here are the results - looks like a good call with the stock down 8%. Sometimes a rising tide (agriculture boom) does lift all boats. But sometimes you need to think farther ahead than that - as Wayne Gretzky says - don't be where the puck is, be where it's going to be. ("I ...

Gafisa (GFA) is trading back down almost text book post earnings; could not ask for a better trade than what we just enjoyed here. We doubled (0.9% stake to 1.8% stake) the position last Monday near $38 We took out a smaller portion at $43 Wednesday We took out (down to 0.6% stake) a big position Friday AM at $49.60 We added (back up to 0.9% stake) a small bit yesterday below $45 We added a much larger piece back at $42 this AM Downside remains first to upper $39s (near $40) - first support - and then at $38 (stronger support) but my largest sell was at $49.60 (Friday) and largest buyback was $42 (today) so we cleared 15% on that transaction in a 2 session period. I'll take that all day, every day. I'll buy more on a pullback to $38, but for now Gafisa is back to a 2.4% ...