Ford Motor, Green Mountain, Microsoft, General Electric Top Volume Stocks March 9th

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F): Ford Motor will offer future salaried retirees in the U.S. lump-sum payouts as an option, as part of the company’s effort to decrease the risk presented by its pension obligation in its broader goal of achieving an investment-grade credit rating, reported Reuters.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR): Green Mountain (NASDAQ:GMCR) CEO Lawrence Blanford said, “We believe Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) to be a very satisfied participant in the Keurig K-Cup system. The two companies continue to collaborate with each other in the low-pressure Keurig Single Cup Brewing system in North America…We agree that there also is opportunity for complementary high-pressure espresso-based systems, as evident by our joint development work with Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. on a high-pressure capsule-based espresso system targeting North American consumers.”

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT): Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in February with 66.4% market share (up 0.2 percentage points), followed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Sites with 15.3% (up 0.1 percentage points) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) Sites with 13.8%. Ask Network (NASDAQ:IACI) accounted for 3% of explicit core searches, followed by AOL (NYSE:AOL) with 1.5%.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE): Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric (NYSE:GE), says that the company’s profit margin will rise in 2012, while its GE Capital unit will start paying a dividend to its parent again, reports the Wall Street Journal. In his annual letter to shareholders, Immelt says a top priority for excess cash will be increased dividends.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com