Market Wrap: F-O-M-C!; Liz Sells Lotz; Pepsi Pops; Where's RIM?; Slovakia Cedes

Market wrap-up for October 12th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 102.5 to 11,518.85; Nasdaq up 21.7 to 2,604.73; S&P 500 up 11.7 to 1,207.25

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• Fed officials are still glum: Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes today showed two of 10 voting officials favored bolder action. According to the minutes, "A number of participants saw large-scale asset purchases as potentially a more potent tool that should be retained as an option in the event that further policy action to support a stronger economic recovery was warranted."
  
  Overall, most of the members agree the economic outlook is bleak, and more action is warranted. Click here for the riveting transcript.
  
  
• Iz a Liz without a Liz still a Liz?: Liz Claiborne, Inc. (NYSE: LIZ) said it entered into definitive agreements to sell its Liz Claiborne, Monet and Kensie brands to J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), and has completed the sale of its Dana Buchman brand to Kohl's (NYSE: KSS), for total cash proceeds of approximately $328 million, of which $308 million represents sale proceeds. Liz Claiborne has also agreed with Donna Karan International to an early termination of its DKNY Jeans and DKNY Active license.
  
  
• Pepsi Pops, Soda Lags: PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) reported third quarter earnings today. Pepsi had EPS of $1.31, ex-items, with revenue of $17.58 billion. The Street was looking for revenue of $17.25 billion and earnings of $1.30.
  
  
• Day 3 of Operation 'No RIM': Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) service outage moved into its third day, and some say its affecting carriers in the U.S. now. No word from RIM about what is happening exactly, though they originally said it was a faulty switch.
  
  
• Bratislava is lovely this time of year: Slovakia finally voted to pass the EFSF expansion, bringing the fund to €440 billion, which many deemed essential to beating the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. Slovakia initially rejected the measure yesterday, though expectations had its parliament passing the measure upon a second vote.

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