MORNING COFFEE

Burkle Request To Buy More Barnes & Noble. In a letter disclosed yesterday in an SEC filing, activist investor Ron Burkle asked the board of Barnes & Noble (BKS) to let him acquire up to 37% of the company's shares without triggering "poison pill" provisions that kick in at 20%. Burkle, currently holds a 19% stake, blasted the company for having two sets of anti-takeover rules: one for insiders and one for outsiders. News of the filing sent Barnes & Noble shares up 18% in after-hours trading.

Moody’s Warns About Debt Risk. In Moody's annual report on risks, warned nearly 1,000 companies with a junk rating will face significant refinancing needs over the next several years.  There is around $700 billion of debt coming due between 2012 and 2014. "Longer-term maturities are vulnerable if the economic recovery doesn't continue to take hold," said Kevin Cassidy, a senior credit officer at Moody's. If economic conditions worsen, "things could get tough pretty quick for some companies."

Google Store Plan Online Store.  Google (GOOG) will announce soon that it will launch a store that will sell online business software designed by outside developers and meant to integrate and add capabilities to Google Apps.

President Obama’s Budget Revealed. President Obama unveiled his $3.8Trillion budget proposal for the coming fiscal year.  The proposal contained no meaningful deficit-reduction measures and seeks to borrow another $1.3 trillion in 2011. The plan includes a $970 billion tax increase over the next decade on high-income earners, and a $400 billion tax increase on large businesses.  US business already have one of the largest tax burdens in the world. Other groups hurt by the proposal include hedge-fund and private equity employees, and fossil-fuel companies. The budget proposal assumes the U.S. economy will experience six years of above-average growth with no complications from high inflation or interest rates.

Earnings:

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM): FQ2 EPS of $0.88 beating estimates by +0.16 on revenue of $15.9 billion.

BP (BP): Q4 EPS of $1.37 missed estimates by -0.14.  Shares  are down -4.7% in the premarket.

Dow Chemical (DOW): Q4 EPS of $0.18 beat estimates by +0.07 on revenue of $12.4billion.

Coverage Initiated

MasterCard (MA): Bernstein initiated coverage with an Outperform and a target price of $329.00

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·         Europe at midday, London +0.4%. Paris +0.7%. Frankfurt +0.8%.