International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) received antitrust clearance to buy Cognos Inc. (COGN) for about $5 billion in cash, or $58 a share.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that it granted early termination on Monday of the waiting period required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust law.

Cognos is an Ottawa, Ont., provider of business intelligence services.

Bernanke hinted the interest rates would be lowered (duh!) so the market is reacting with extreme higher upward pressure.  The funny thing is that everyone knows the Fed will be lowering interest rates, so why the massive reaction several people don’t get it, including me.

Freddie Mac, the second-biggest source of money for U.S. home loans, plans to sell $6 billion in preferred stock and cut its dividend in half to shore up capital depleted by record mortgage defaults and foreclosures.

The two-part sale will include non-convertible, non- cumulative preferred stock and a “substantially smaller” portion of convertible preferred shares, Freddie Mac said in a statement today. The company will save about $650 million a year by reducing the dividend to 25 cents, Sharon McHale, a spokeswoman, said.