Beazer Homes USA, Inc. is selling $200 million worth of senior notes in a private offering. Proceeds from the notes, which are due in 2019, will replenish cash that was already used to fund prior redemptions and repurchases of its outstanding senior notes, according to a company statement.

Beazer Homes is a single-family homebuilder based in Atlanta, Ga. In late-August, a former executive was indicted on accounting fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Beazer reported a net loss of $59.5 million in the fourth quarter and a net loss of $39 million for the fiscal year. Comparatively, the firm reported a net gain of $33.87 million in 4Q09 and a net loss of $189.4 million for the fiscal year 2009.

Shares Radian Group Inc. tumbled Monday after the mortgage insurer announced a public offering of convertible notes and disclosed it received a government subpoena.

Radian said it's publicly offering up to $350 million in convertible senior notes due 2017. The underwriters have the option to buy an additional $52.5 million of notes. The company said it plans to enter in a "capped call" to prevent the dilution of its shares once the debt is converted to stock.

But that did little to ease investor concerns. The stock of the Philadelphia company dropped $1.16, or 12 percent, to $8.79 in early afternoon trading.

The company also said Monday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asking for information on the company's captive reinsurance.

Under certain so-called "captive reinsurance" programs, insurers and lenders share premium revenue but also split exposure to any losses when borrowers default. Insurers take the primary loss, and lenders bear secondary exposure up to certain limits, after which insurers are saddled with the additional losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13 points in morning trading, again putting it in range to close at its highest level in more than two years. Broader indexes were mixed.

By the end of the trading day, investors will likely know exactly how much the Fed plans to spend to stimulate the economy. The central bank has hinted for two months it plans to buy Treasurys to drive interest rates lower in an attempt to spark lending and spending. However, there was still plenty of debate about the size and length of the program, particularly in the past few days.

The Fed is expected to announce details of its plan when it wraps up its meeting Wednesday afternoon. Treasury prices rose slightly, sending interest rates lower ahead of the announcement.

The Dow rose 12.75, or 0.1 percent, to 11,201.32 in morning trading.

The has been flirting with its highest closing level of the year, which was 11,205.03 on April 26. If it can close above that level, it would be the Dow's best finish since September 2008, just before the financial crisis peaked.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.75, or 0.1 percent, to 1,194.32, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.36, or less than 0.1 percent, at 2,533.16.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.56 percent from 2.59 percent late Tuesday.

Key economic reports that would have normally affected trading are being overshadowed by the Fed's meeting.

There's little argument that this week's election and Fed meeting are hugely important for the direction of the market. But what happens next?

As the lyric went in the 1970s song, "There's got to be a morning after." And for the markets and the economy, the mid-term elections and monetary easing decision from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will come and go, leading to a morning after and decisions to be made.

Some market pros already have their eyes on a fresh set of challenges that will arise once the Republicans stage their likely landslide and the Fed starts printing money again.

"Unlike what happened in the soft-patches of the mid-1980s and again in the mid-1990s, the economy today is just a shock away-even negative fiscal shocks-from slipping back into contraction mode," warned David Rosenberg, economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto, in his daily note.

Here is a fast list of five factors that will influence the market ahead:

1. A Trade War

In addition to aiming at getting more money flowing in the economy, the Fed's aggressive quantitative easing (QE) policies have hammered at the dollar and riled up some US trading partners.

Another round of QE isn't likely to sit well with those tiring of ballooning US debt and the nation's attempts to keep its exports cheap by weakening its currency.

"The risk that the markets are not fully appreciating is what happens if the Fed becomes very aggressive and heavy asset purchases cause further weakness in the U.S. dollar, which then touches off a currency war ...followed by a trade war?" Rosenberg asked. "The case for gold as a hedge against this more-than-remote possibility is pretty strong."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/After-the-Fed-and-Election-cnbc-2355052570.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

The board of directors of Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. has approved a new $3 billion share repurchase program.

Lockheed said that the shares may be purchased in the open market, or through privately negotiated transactions, and that the dollar amount of shares purchased and the timing of purchases would be at the discretion of management.

Based on Friday’s closing price for Lockheed Martin stock of $71.78, the repurchase program could buy back approximately 41.8 million shares. Lockheed currently has approximately 360 million shares of common stock outstanding.

The defense contractor, which has seen its stock price decline 40 percent in the last two years, said that the buyback demonstrated the company’s commitment to enhancing stockholder value through cash deployment.