Market Minute: Amazon Inks $600 Million Deal with CIA for Cloud Computing

Produced by Drew Trachtenberg

The Dow added three points yesterday, but the S&P 500 lost three and the Nasdaq fell eight.

Amazon (AMZN) has reportedly won a $600 million dollar, 10-year contract to supply cloud computing services to the CIA. The technology news site FCW says Amazon will help the agency build a private cloud infrastructure to keep up with emerging technologies.

Another sign that the national housing recovery is going strong: Homebuilder Lennar (LEN) reports quarterly earnings nearly quadrupled, blowing past expectations.

But FedEx (FDX) failed to deliver on its earnings promise. Its net missed Street expectations because of sluggish international deliveries.

Yahoo (YHOO) is reportedly in talks to buy a controlling interest in DailyMotion – a European-based online video site similar to YouTube. It's owned by France Telecom. The Wall Street Journal reports it would be the first major acquisition by Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer since taking over last year.

General Electric's (GE) chairman says the company is not looking to spin off or sell its huge financial unit, GE Capital. But he indicated that GE could consider such a move at a later time, as the company continues to re-focus its effort on industrial operations.

Shares of Photoshop maker Adobe Systems (ADBE) are set to pop, even though quarterly earnings fell 65 percent from a year ago, but that was still better than the company had forecast. Adobe also said its technology chief is leaving for a position at Apple (AAPL).

Retailer Williams-Sonoma (WSM) posted a better-than-expected 9 percent earnings increase. It also boosted its dividend and announced a stock buyback.

And the Federal Reserve wraps up its two-day policy meeting today. An announcement is due at 2 pm, followed by comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

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