The article, citing people familiar, says the Hershey Trust’s board is pressuring CEO David West to come up with an operating plan for a combined Hershey Cadbury, and that the Trust is contemplating spending $10 billion of cash, issuing $2 billion in new Hershey shares, and obtaining as much as $5 billion from outside investors to outbid Kraft’s $16.7 billion offer, which was rejected by Cadbury’s board as being too low.

The trend is still for the dollar to decline, to a range of $1.46 to $1.50 to the Euro, Hyerczyk says, even though traders have been taking profits on short dollar positions.

“Short-term oversold technical indicators may have caught many of these traders by surprise, writes Hyerczyk. “The absence of major economic reports in the U.S. and Europe this week may have created overconfidence in traders who were caught off guard by comments from the Fed’s Bernanke and the European Central Bank’s Trichet.”

Bove believes his dream of having outgoing BAC CEO Ken Lewis could actually be possible. After talking with investors, Bove concludes, “owners of this company (and this is not the government) want Mr. Lewis back.”

Bove argues the controversy surrounding Lewis and the bank’s purchase of Merrill Lynch last fall is seeming more and more like the witchhunt that it was, and that even Merrill sales force is happy with B of A in its current form, which he finds surprising and supportive of Lewis.

As for Morgan Stanley, Lewis says two concerns weighing on the stock are “sound and fury signifying nothing.”

Investors are worried that because MS moved from a November-ending to a December-ending financial year, the seasonally weak December will weigh on Q4 results. Big deal: it doesn’t affect the actual operations of MS, writes Bove.

The other concern is the bank’s announcement today it will sell British commercial real estate developer Crescent Properties to Barclay’s in return for forgiveness of a $2 billion loan. Again, Bove thinks this is short-sited. MS has already written down $1 billion of Crescent and so the ultimate loss on the asset may not be as much as some people are supposing. Besides, if Morgan is getting more aggressive about shedding losing assets, that’s a good thing.

Morgan Stanley shares are down 8 cents, a quarter of a percent, at $32.23 while BAC is up 3 cents at $16.11.

“Part of the increase in oil prices is ‘money chasing commodities’,” Bloomberg quotes Roubini. “There is a risk that oil can rise to $80, $90 or $100 because of speculative demand” that doesn’t reflect economic fundamentals.

Bloomberg refers to similar “speculation” language by Pimco’s Bill Gross yesterday and by China banking executive Liu Mingkang earlier this week.

Oil futures on Light Sweet Crude for delivery in January is down 72 cents today to $77.33, according to Nymex.

This is “an incremental positive” for DISCA, write Imran Khan and the other JP Morgan execs. It will increase distribution revenue for DISCA and help the company’s negotiation of fees with the cable companies, they write. Discovery shares are down 42 cents, or 1.4%, at $30.70.

CBS (CBS) is weathering the departure of Oprah, it shares down only 6 cents at $13.25. The network this morning confirmed rumors swirling yesterday that Oprah Winfrey told her staff she’ll end her program in 2011 to go to cable.

J.M. Smucker (SJM) is a little sweeter this morning, its shares up $2.27, or 4.2%, at $55.75, after the company’s fiscal Q2 earnings easily trumped estimates of $1.04 with $1.18. Sales were slightly ahead, too. The company raised its forecast for the year to as much as $4.05, well ahead of estimates of $3.83.

Procter & Gamble (PG), which is trying to buy out Sara Lee (SLE), nevertheless has enough cash to start buying back its shares, CFO Jon Moeller said at the Morgan Stanley (MS) retail conference this morning. The firm said it will pursue “meaningful” share repurchase and doesn’t see acquisitions as a “core” part of its strategy. PG shares are off 4 cents at $62.11 this morning.

Vivendi thinks its stake should be worth about $6.3 billion, GE says low valuation multiples for media stocks in public markets these days mean Vivendi’s stake is only worth four or five billion.

GE’s understood to be anxious to wrap up something before thanksgiving, but Vivendi’s terms with GE could actually force a public offering of NBC-U if Vivendi feels its getting an unfair price. GE shares are down 13 cents, or .8%, at $15.63.

Q3 sales fell 35% to $1.01 billion, missing the average $1.11 billion estimate, while the company’s net loss of 73 cents per share was more than double the 30-cent loss estimate. Revenue actually rose from Q2, but the so did the company’s losses.

Other homebuilders fell in sympathy, with Toll Brothers (TOL) off 40 cents, or 2%, at $20.11 and Pulte Homes (PHM) off 45 cents, or 5%, at $9.37.

Sales fell 7%, the company said, to $1.21 billion, beating the average $1.19 billion estimate, but profit per share of 10 cents, excluding some costs, missed estimates by 3 cents.

Foot Locker shares fell 79 cents, or 7.5%, in late trading to $9.80 after falling almost 5% during the regular session.

The U.S. Treasury this afternoon announced it will hold a modified Dutch auction to dispose of the warrants for preferred stock it obtained from banks in return for TARP money given to the banks.

Treasury plans to auctions warrents for prefferds from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), Capital One Financial Corp. (COF), and TCF Financial Corp. (TCB).

The auction will happen through a series of public offerings, Treasury said, that will establish “a market price by allowing investors to submit bids at specified increments above a minimum price specified for each auction, the Department said.

The auctions, which will take place over the next month, will employ Deutsche Bank (DB) as bookie. Those who don’t have an account with Deutsche may bid through a series of brokers Treasury will select, the Department said.

Sales rose slightly year over year to $3.59 billion, a tad ahead of the $3.58 billlion analysts were expecting, while profit per share of 44 cents was well ahead of expectations and way above the prior year’s 35 cents. Same-store sales were flat year over year, an improvement from last year’s 12% decline. The company expects a rise of $100 million in selling, general and administrative costs this quarter. Gap stock was down 46 cents, or 2%, at $21.75, in late trading after falling about 2% during the regular session.