Breakfast Bites; Stocks are beating a hasty retreat this morning on a mix of economic unrest in Europe over budget cuts in combination with a mixed bag of earnings.
- Netherlands government failed to agree on budget cuts making elections almost unavoidable and casting doubt on its support for future euro zone measures.
- Germany's manufacturing sector unexpectedly shrank at the fastest pace in nearly three years in April
- China's factories posted their best performance this year though overall activity still contracted for a sixth successive month
- Nestle has won the race to acquire Pfizer's baby food unit after agreeing to pay $11.85B in cash for the operations
- Beam is set to buy Pinnacle vodka and rum brand Calico Jack from White Rock Distilleries for around $600 million in cash
- Kellogg warned that its full-year performance would be lower due to disappointing first-quarter performance. The company said full-year profit would fall 2 percent to 4 percent and earnings would be $3.18 to $3.40 a share against estimates of $3.48.
