Monsanto's (MON) Corn Ban by France Illegal Says EU

Even though Monsanto (NYSE:MON) was cleared by the EU to plant maize in the country in 1998, the French banned the GMO corn in 2008, citing "serious risks for the environment."

Six other EU countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg, also banned the seed from being used.

The European Court of Justice's attorney general concluded the ban by France on the seed was illegal.

This is only an opinion and not a legal ruling, although usually the views of the attorney general are what the court will ultimately decide.

He said that France "could not suspend the planting of Monsanto's MON810 genetically modified corn ... without having asked prior permission from the European Commission."

Monsanto is in the midst of having its 10-year license reviewed to decide on whether or not to have it renewed in the EU. The decision is expected to be reached in 2011.

Monsanto closed Tuesday at $68.95, down $0.03, or 0.04 percent.

Kraft (NYSE:KFT) to Raise Prices as Margins Squeezed

All things considered, Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT) performed well in the last quarter, managing to meet expectations in a challenging scenario.

The company was able to generate earnings of $540 million, or 31 cents a share. While down 24 percent from last year in the same quarter, that was largely from the costs related to integrating Cadbury.

Minus costs, Kraft earned 46 cents a share, a penny off the 47 cents a share generated last year. That was the exact number analysts had been looking for.

Revenue jumped to $13.77 billion, a gain of 30 percent. Analysts had expected revenue to come in at $13.48 billion.

While Kraft cut boosted prices in the fourth quarter, they won't be enough to sustain profitability, said the food company, and they said more price hikes will be added throughout 2011.

All of that comes from commodity prices rising for corn, wheat, cocoa and sugar, among others.

Consequently, Kraft had to lower its EPS estimate for the year to 11 percent to 13 percent. In November they had estimated growth would be in the mid-teens.

Increases in prices won't help the company in the short-term, as it'll be several months before they start making a difference, so the latter part of 2011 will have margins return to wider levels.

Competitors Kellog Company (NYSE:K) and Sara Lee (NYSE:SLE) also recently announced they're going to be raising prices as well.

Potash (NYSE:POT) PT Boosted to $240, Street High

The high-flying Potash (NYSE:POT) received a big price increase from an analyst at Boenning & Scattergood, who increased his price target on the fertilizer company from $190 to $240. That's a new Street high PT on the stock.

Reasoning behing the huge uptick was the "supply/demand relationship emerging. World-wide, declared POT this morning, demand this year will climb to 55 – 60 million tons from 52 million tons in 2010, YET CURRENT GLOBAL PRODUCTION CAPACITY IS ONLY 61 MILLION TONS. In simple terms, supply is growing tighter and tighter..."

Farmers have more capital to spend this year also, after a bumper harvest last year from high soybean and corn prices.

Boenning & Scattergood reiterate an "Outperform" rating on Potash, which closed Thursday at $174.14, gaining $5.52, or 3.27 percent.

JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) Helps Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) Land Bucyrus (Nasdaq:BUCY)

JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM), which was the sole financial advisor for Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) in its pursuit of Bucyrus (Nasdaq:BUCY), helped the giant equipment-maker land the company for $8.6 billion. The deal includes the $7.6 billion debt held by Bucyrus.

Caterpillar will acquire Bucyrus by taking over its debt, balance sheet cash, and close to $2 billion in equity.

The deal is about a 32 percent premium over the share price of Bucyrus.

Bucyrus adds its large mining equipment business to Caterpillar, which is more concentrated in construction equipment. Mining equipment should be more in demand in the years ahead, although, depending on the sustainability of commodity prices like oil, gold, iron ore and silver, that could be strong as well.

Either way, Caterpillar will have a strong position because of the cyclical nature of both commodity sectors, allowing them to have solid performance when one or the other is down.

Caterpillar was trading up at $82.58, gaining $1.54, or 1.90 percent 2:47 PM EST. Bucyrus exploded by $20.19 a share, soaring to $89.85, gaining $20.23, or 29.06 percent as of 2:47 PM EST.