Market Updates: Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU), Viacom (NYSE:VIA), PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) effort to offer Internet access at speeds 100 times faster than those available today raises the bar for U.S. cable and phone companies as the government readies a national broadband plan. “They’ve just defined the new minimum,” said Reed Hundt, who was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997 and now runs an advisory firm in Washington. “They have just effectively written the first page in the report.” Google’s proposal, announced yesterday in a blog posting, is to build fiber-optic networks for as many as 500,000 people with connections of 1 gigabit per second. That’s 20 times the speed of the fastest residential connections from AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., and more than 1,000 times faster than the cheapest connections. -Bloomberg

PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) said Thursday its fourth-quarter net income nearly doubled to $1.4 billion, or 90 cents a share as net revenue rose 4.5% to $13.3 billion. Results were inline with estimates. In other news, Viacom (NYSE:VIA) posted a big jump in fourth-quarter profit, helped by cost cutting at its Paramount film studio and the absence of charges. Adjusted earnings were $1.09 per share, beating Wall Street estimates of 88 cents a share. Revenue slipped 3% to $4.1 billion, just below analysts’ estimates of $4.2 billion. Shares advanced 1.6% ahead of the bell. Also, Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) said late Wednesday that it swung to a quarterly profit, but its operating earnings of $495 million, or $1.07 a share, missed analyst estimates of $1.11 a share. Shares dropped 2.5% in premarket trading. –AOL Money & Finance

First-time filings for state unemployment benefits dropped by their largest amount since July, adding to evidence that the labor market may have begun to heal although it remains in critical condition. For the week ended Feb. 6, initial claims fell 43,000 to 444,000. This puts claims at their lowest level since Jan. 2. -MarketWatch

Euro-zone countries will provide “determined and coordinated action if needed” to preserve stability in the currency union, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said at a summit of European Union leaders Thursday, but he gave few details of how that would be provided and no indication that direct aid to Greece, the zone’s sickest member, was imminent. –The Wall Street Journal

-Update provided by Jutia Group