Morning Market Roundup: Greece Finally Reaches a Deal, Groupon and PepsiCo Announce Earnings

Here’s what’s important in the financial world this morning:

EU: After weeks of talk, Greek political leaders finally reached a deal on Thursday to support a package of severe austerity measures demanded by Greece’s creditors in return for the country’s latest bailout, the New York Times reports.

“The deal is expected to unlock the 130 billion euros, or $172 billion, in new loans and save Greece from potentially disastrous default,” the Times reports. "Talks between Prime Minister Lucas D. Papademos and the three leaders backing his coalition had stalled overnight over proposed cuts to pensions, but on Thursday leaders said they had found a way of plugging the 300 million euro shortfall by cutting defense spending and other expenditures."

“We have a deal,” a government official said Thursday afternoon.

China: China reported consumer prices increased 4.5 percent in January from the previous year. This is higher than the 4 percent expectation due to increased spending from a weeklong holiday. The unexpected inflation acceleration will pressure officials to keep from making instant cuts in the banks’ reserve requirements, according to Bloomberg.

Groupon: The deal-of-the-day website reported a $9.8 million fourth quarter loss ($0.02 per share). This is down from its $185 million loss for the same quarter in the previous year. Disappointed investors reacted by driving down the company’s stock 13 percent in after-hours trading. But there was good news for Groupon: its fourth quarter revenue rose 194 percent to $506.5 million from the same quarter a year ago, beating analysts’ estimates.

PepsiCo, Inc.: Pepsi reported its fourth quarter profit increased 4 percent to $1.42 billion ($0.89 cents per share), up from $1.37 billion ($0.85 per share) from 2010′s final three months. The company announced plans to cut three percent of its global workforce (8,700 employees) to produce $1.5 billion in savings by 2014, according to MarketWatch. The company will also increase its annual dividend by 4 percent to $2.15 per share, buy back at least $3 billion in stock and increase marketing spending near $600 million in 2012.

[Editor’s note: portions of the above originally appeared on Wall St. Cheat Sheet.]