The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is prepping two new models of its wildly popular smart phone for release this summer, and one could be ready for use on Verizon Wireless’s CDMA network. That would end three years of AT&T (NYSE:T) iPhone exclusivity. In other news, the U.S. Treasury Department plans to sell its 27% stake in Citigroup (NYSE:C) this year, a move that could result in the biggest profit to taxpayers in the bank-bailout program. Treasury, Citigroup’s largest shareholder, will dispose of its 7.7 billion common shares throughout 2010, the agency said Monday. –Daily Finance
Frontier Communications (NYSE:FTR) sold $3.2 billion of U.S. dollar-denominated notes in a four-part offering, the largest high-yield corporate debt sale of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Corporate bonds outperformed Treasuries in 2009, with high-yield, high-risk debt providing a total return of 57.51 percent and investment-grade securities up 19.76 percent as governments fell 3.72 percent, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch data show. The year before, Treasuries rose 14 percent as investment-grade debt fell 26.39 percent and high-yield, high-risk bonds dropped 6.82 percent. The extra yield investors demand to hold junk debt, rated less than Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and BBB- by Standard & Poor’s, instead of Treasuries rose 2 basis points from its lowest level since December 2007 to 580 basis points on March 26, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data. –Bloomberg
The Irish government has repeatedly taken extraordinary steps to fix its financial problems. Today’s opening of a so-called national “bad bank,” which will take over bad property loans from troubled banks, is likely to be no exception. Today, the government’s previously announced National Asset Management Agency will take a first batch of dud loans from Ireland’s banks at a deep discount that analysts put at between 35% and 40% of face value –- a little higher than the 30% average that Irish officials floated months ago. In exchange, Ireland’s banks get government bonds they can swap with the European Central Bank for cash. The government is also expected to announce plans for more bank recapitalizations once the market closes. Their goal is to cleanse Ireland’s banking system of bad debts and kick-start fresh lending –- something Ireland’s economy, which remains in recession, sorely needs. The problem: The low price the government will pay for these loans will have the knock-on effect of forcing the country’s two remaining major publicly listed banks, Allied Irish Banks PLC and Bank of Ireland PLC, to raise more capital and possibly suffer expanded state ownership. –The Wall Street Journal
Shares of Global Partners LP Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP) are higher today after Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) -Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock Neutral to Buy with a $26.50 price target. Shares of GLP closed yesterday at $22.43, up $1.10. Global Partners LP, through its subsidiaries, engages in the wholesale and commercial distribution of refined petroleum products petroleum products and natural gas, and provides ancillary services in the United States and internationally. –Street Insider
Filed under: 