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News Highlights: Top Equities Stories Of The DayLast update: 1/14/2009 2:00:23 PM

TOP STORIES

US STOCKS DROP AS BANK DEVELOPMENTS WEIGH
U.S. stocks tumble as loss warnings and upheaval in the banking sector, and dire trade and retail data hint at an economy at risk of a deflationary spiral. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, already on a five-day losing streak, sheds another 250 points approximately.

US RETAIL SALES SAG 2.7%; IMPORT PRICES DROP
U.S. retail sales tumble for the sixth straight month in December, falling a larger-than-expected 2.7% as consumers slash spending. U.S. import prices decline 4.2% in the month, while business inventories fall 0.7% in November.

CITI SLIDES ON RESTRUCTURING CONCERNS
Shares drop 20% ahead of company's 4Q earnings release, which is moved up to Friday from Jan. 22, as investors brace for an expected operating loss of at least $10 billion. Citi is also expected to announce drastic plan to shed businesses, The Wall Street Journal reports.

LEHMAN'S US UNITS INCREASE CASH TO $6B
Lehman Brothers Holdings and numerous U.S. affiliates have increased their cash balance to about $6 billion since crashing into bankruptcy in September when the companies had $3.3 billion, say Lehman advisers.

US STIMULUS PACKAGE APPROACHES $850B
The price tag of the two-year economic stimulus bill has grown close to $850 billion after negotiations that tilt the package toward investments meant to spur job creation and soften the blow of the downturn on families and local governments.

SATYAM NAMES KPMG, DELOITTE AS NEW AUDITORS
Satyam Computer Services' new board names Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International and KPMG as interim auditors to assess company's financial health in a step to restore confidence after revelations of accounts fraud.

DEUTSCHE BANK WARNS OF 4Q LOSS NEAR $6.4B
Deutsche Bank expects a 4Q after-tax loss of $6.4 billion and a full-year loss of $5.2 billion, due to very tough market conditions in sales and trading. Analyst says a capital increase can't be ruled out. Shares fall 9%.

GOP'S TARP OPPOSITION AN UPHILL BATTLE
Republican opponents of the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, on concede that they face unlikely odds in blocking the program's second $350 billion tranche.

GEITHNER SENATE HEARING DELAYED UNTIL JAN. 21
The Senate for a second time postpones a hearing for the Treasury Secretary-nominee following revelations about his failure to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes while working for the IMF, among other tax infractions.

STERN PREDICTS TWO MORE QUARTERS OF RECESSION
Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern says the U.S. economy is likely to contract into the summer, before mounting a modest recovery. Stern says "there is reason to think that improvement is not too far off."

PLOSSER SEES HOUSING, CREDIT ARE KEY
Philadelphia Fed president Charles Plosser says the recovery of the housing and financial markets is key to the U.S. economic recovery. He doesn't believe U.S. economic recovery is hostage to China's economic policies.

OIL PRICES DOWN AS INVENTORIES GROW
Crude futures fall $1.19, or 3.1%, to about $36.59 on a report showing that oil inventories continue to grow at the contract's delivery point. A larger-than-expected increase in distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, also sends the market lower.

UAW CHIEF: WAITING FOR OBAMA
The United Auto Workers won't address the cost-cutting demands included in the auto-industry bailout until President-elect Barack Obama takes office next week, says union President Ron Gettelfinger.

NORTEL FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION
Telecom-equipment company says it will continue normal day-to-day operations as it works to deal with its cost and debt burden, to restructure after a sudden drop in demand for its lucrative voice-only telecom network.

STIGLITZ: STIMULUS MUST BE BIG
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz sees millions losing their jobs and workers facing a retirement filled with "hardship and uncertainty." The only way to respond, he says, is an economic stimulus package with the "biggest bang for the buck."

TESORO SEES STRONG 4Q ON CHEAPER CRUDE OIL
Tesoro issues preliminary 4Q earnings results above analysts' estimates as the refiner continues to see higher margins from a year earlier, thanks to crumbling crude-oil prices as well as a historically low gasoline supply inventory.

S&P SAYS CITI, MORGAN JV WON'T AFFECT RATINGS
Standard & Poor's says its ratings on Citigroup and Morgan Stanley won't be affected by Morgan Stanley's deal to pay $2.7 billion for a majority stake in a joint venture with Citi's Smith Barney unit.

ECONOMISTS, OFFICIALS URGE REGULATORY CHANGES
The regulatory system for U.S. financial institutions is broken, fraught with inefficiency and outdated standards that have not kept up with increasingly complex companies and products, say federal officials and economists.

EUROPEAN STOCKS CLOSE SHARPLY LOWER ON BANK WARNINGS
European shares fall back to levels last seen in 2008, with a critical brokerage note on HSBC Holdings and a profit warning from Deutsche Bank putting shares on course for a sixth consecutive session of losses. London sheds 5%, while Frankfurt slides 4.6% as shares extend losses in the afternoon after U.S. retail sales fall 2.7% in December and U.S. stocks stage a broad, sizable retreat.

PROSECUTORS TO RENEW ATTEMPT TO JAIL MADOFF
At federal court in New York, prosecutors will seeking a reversal of another judge's ruling that Madoff, 70, should be allowed to remain free under house arrest in his luxury Manhattan apartment.




======= DOW JONES NEWSWIRES ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARIES =======

GETTING PERSONAL
Charitable Giving Benefits To Face The Ax Hit hard by the recession, many companies have trimmed contributions to employees' 401(k) plans, suspended bonuses and cut back on health-care benefits. Now, a growing number are also taking the ax to their charitable matching gifts and volunteer programs, writes Shelly Banjo.


MARK TO MARKET
Bernanke Says 'Bail Out The Big Bad Banks' Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's comments in London that it is the clear duty of the Fed to rescue ailing U.S. banks was startling, Jim Murphy writes, not just for its candor but for its wrong-headedness.

============ U.S. MARKETS ACTION ===========
DJIA down 254.47 points to 8194.09
NASDAQ down 49.04 points to 1497.42
S&P 500 down 29.51 points to 842.28
10-year T-note 113 21/32 at 2.198 yield up .294
NYMEX Crude down $1.38 at $ 36.40/bbl
Euro/Dollar down 0.0021 at 1.3161

(END) Dow Jones NewswiresJanuary 14, 2009 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT)