market round-up

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) has set a dividend on the condition that its merger with Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) is successful. Read more about this company here. Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) plans to spend $1 billion in upgrades in the forthcoming years. The upgrade will include...

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has reportedly closed its Global Equity Opportunities quant fund after its assets shrank to $200 million from $7.5 billion. The bank and big investors had injected $3 billion into the fund in August 2007, a month in which it lost 23%. Read more about this company here....

Hershey (NYSE: HSY) yesterday decided at a board meeting that it will not fight for the takeover of Cadbury (NYSE: CBY) after the British confectioner accepted the bid from Kraft (NYSE: KFT). Read more about this company here. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) has split its Class B shares 50-to-1....

Losses are widespread today, with more than 90% of the S&P 500 declining. Volume is heavy in Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and the financial stocks are performing the "least badly," with advancers and decliners nearly split. At midday, the Dow had slipped 1.8% to 10,532,...

General Motors (NYSE: GM) has provided €650 million (or $935 million) in fresh funding to Opel, effectively more than doubling its investment in the division. GM has also finished a management shuffle in which it has named GM Europe chief, Nick Reilly, as the managing director of Opel. Interactive...

The CEOs of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) faced a barrage of questions when they testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission yesterday. Although they agreed that they were at fault, they tried to defend...

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are working on smart-sign technology. This technology will enable signs, equipped with cameras and special software, to gauge the age and gender of people standing in front of them and show targeted advertising. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) may be looking...

US electronics chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) reported an 8.2% rise in December same-store sales, while maintaining its outlook for 2010. BBY attributed the gains to robust demand for devices such as notebook computers and mobile phones. The US dollar continued to decline against all major currencies...

Time to lock in mortgage rates: Government-sponsored mortgage lender Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) says it’s time to lock in mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rates are likely to exceed 6% by the end of 2010 after the Fed stops buying mortgage-backed securities. In the absence of the Fed, private buyers...