Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) cut the prices on most iPod digital media players ahead of a company event in San Francisco. Apple lowered the price of its 16-gigabyte iPod touch to $249 from $299 and cut the price of the 8GB version to $189 from $229. Apple also took down the prices of its iPod nano players to $149 from $189 for a 16GB model, and lowered the 8GB version to $129 from $149. Additionally, Apple cut the price of it 120GB iPod classic device to $229 from $249. The moves were seen as more evidence that Apple will unveil a new model of the iPod at the company’s event. –Marketwatch

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) the world’s second-largest foodmaker, is in talks to arrange about $8 billion of financing for its bid to buy candy maker Cadbury Plc, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Deutsche Bank AG are working on setting up debt financing to cover about half of the 9.77 billion-pound ($16 billion) offer to buy Cadbury, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks aren’t public. The financing would consist of a bridge loan to be repaid with the proceeds of an investment-grade bond offering, one of the people said. Officials from the two banks declined to comment. –Bloomberg

The chairman and founder of XTO Energy (NYSE: XTO) has a profitable history of corporate-insider stock trading, and lately Bob Simpson has been buying units of Hugoton Royalty Trust, a royalty-paying trust that derives its income from XTO Energy gas properties. –The Wall Street Journal

NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) is trying to prove the $260 million it used to buy the American Stock Exchange last year was money well spent. The company said today that it will sell stakes in NYSE Amex, once the second-largest U.S. options exchange, to seven brokerages including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. By giving equity to spur its owners to trade, it’s following a model pioneered by rivals Direct Edge Holdings LLC and Bats Global Markets. NYSE Amex has lost business for eight straight years, even as the $1.9 trillion U.S. options market grew. Its market share sank to 5.8 percent in 2008 from 28.6 percent in 2000, according to data compiled by Options Clearing Corp. The number of equity derivatives changing hands doubled between 2005 and 2008. –Bloomberg

Just months after introducing its Pre smartphone, struggling handset maker Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) is offering a new, smaller phone called the Pixi that appears to aimed at the youth market. The phone is loaded with social network applications, including Facebook and LinkedIn and will be exclusively marketed by Sprint. –AOL Money & Finance

-Jutia Group