any better. conditions in the midwest are the worse they have been in half a century. agriculture department extension food costs will rise. and a number of companies are reporting today. before the bell we ll hear from exxon, 3m, your nighted technologies, boston scientific, colgate palmolive, kimberly-clark, mcgraw-hill a few of the names. sounds like a busy morning. in other news to watch a couple key economic release, weekly jobless claims tn at 10:00 the national association of realtors reports on pending home sales. treasury secretary tim geithner returns to capitol hill. it s official united technology selling three industrial products businesses to private equity firms. the price tag, $3.46 billion. they will use the proceeds to repay southeast short term debt needed to propose it s $16.5 billion acquisition of goodrich. a number of reports this morning suggests manchester united may delay its ipo due to a weak market. let s talk about some corporate buzz this mor