DealBook: Wall Street Braces for New Layoffs as Profits Wane

The brain behind Capital IQ, the financial database service that was sold to McGraw Hill in 2004 for over $200 million, has a new product for Wall Street, Deal Book reports.

OTTAWA — Canada’s military was put on notice Friday that no stone will go unturned as the Harper government slashes hundreds of millions of dollars in defence spending. National Defence is facing budget cuts in the order of between $1.1-billion and $2.5-billion over the next three years as the Harper government rewrites its vision for the military. This has resulted in a behind-the-scenes struggle between different parts of the military over what should be cut and what is absolutely necessary for Canada’s men and women in uniform to continue doing their jobs.

Investors are about to find out just how bad last year was for the country’s biggest financial institutions, which were hit by the European debt crisis and new regulations.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government hurtled on Friday toward deep spending cuts that threaten to hinder the nation’s economic recovery, as President Barack Obama met Republican and Democratic leaders at the White House in search of an alternative fiscal plan. The inflexible plan, locked in during a bout of deficit-reduction fever in 2011, initiates time-released, across-the-board cuts that can only be halted by agreement between Congress and the White House. That deal has proved elusive so far.

In the wake of S&P debt downgrades, Merkel vows faster eurozone reforms. European leaders promised on Saturday to speed up plans to strengthen spending rules and get a permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, a day after U.S. agency S&P cut the ratings of several euro zone countries' creditworthiness.

Morgan Stanley reported earnings today that beat expectations. Analysts expected profits of $0.27 a share and the bank reported profits of $0.45 a share excluding accounting charges (see an explanation of that below).