Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Wal-Mart Stores said profit this quarter will be at the low end of it previous estimates of 56 cents to 58 cents a share.
- Computer Associates said it will acquire Concond Communications for $330 million.
- US motorists will spend an inflation-unadjusted record $2.28 a gallon on gas this summer because of surging crude oil costs and rising demand.
- Iraq’s new president Jalal Talabani and his deputies Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar swore oaths of allegiance as they took up their posts in the country’s first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.
- Pfizer agreed to suspend sales of its Bextra painkiller because of heart risks.
- US auto regulators today set new tire safety standards requiring that cars and light trucks be equipped with devices that warn motorists when tires are more than 25% under-inflated.
- Merck’s Vioxx painkiller probably won’t be sold in the US again.
- Crude oil is falling for a fourth day on speculation that US gas inventories will rise as refineries increase operating rates.

The Wall Street Journal:
- Saudi Arabia, worried that the recent rise in oil prices may depress global economic growth, is telling petroleum buyers that it will pump crude to the limit of its capacity.
- General Motors is encouraging employees to adopt healthier lifestyles to reduce spiraling medical insurance costs.
- The US Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $200 million in aid for Gaza and the West Bank without most of the restrictions set by the House.
- The US Secret Service found an increase in large criminal groups that steal financial data from individuals and trade or sell it on underground Web sites.
- Patent applications filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization by Chinese firms have increased by 38% to 1,782 in 2004.
- The FASB may tighten rules governing the way companies account for their transactions with insurance companies.

NY Times:
- As much as 93% of silicone breast implants ruptured within 10 years, citing health regulators.
- The FBI has detained two immigrant girls from NYC since March 24 on suspicion that the teenagers were planning to be suicide bombers.

Washington Post:
- Howard Dean’s failed US presidential campaign left a cadre of liberal political activists who want the Democratic Party to move left as it rebounds from Senator John F. Kerry’s defeat in 2004.

Tex Report:
- Japan’s iron ore imports from BHP Billiton have halved since March as steelmakers have refused to pay a levy on top of the 71.5% increase won by the world’s biggest mining company on iron ore price.

Ma’ ariv:
- Impax Labs, a US generic drugmaker, may be bought for as much as $1.5 billion to bidders that may include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs.