Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- GM, after selling an average of about $13.5 billion of unsecured bonds annually for the past decade, may stay out of the market this year as investors demand yields typically paid by companies with credit ratings five levels lower.
- Obesity is growing fastest among people in households that earn more than $60,000 a year, reversing a trend of higher rates of obesity among the poor, according to a study for the American Heart Assoc.
- Crude oil fell to a two-month low this morning amid speculation that slower economic growth in the US, Europe and Japan and increased output will bolster stockpiles.

Wall Street Journal:
- Oracle isn’t in talks now to buy Siebel Systems.
- The US newspaper industry may face the steepest decline in readership in more than 10 years when circulation figures are released today.
- News Corp.’s Fox News, ABC, CBS and NBC face a challenge for young viewers from Univision Communications, the largest US Spanish-language television and radio broadcaster.
- Texans are giving up their longstanding fondness for SUVs, as the cost of filling them up reaches almost $100.
- Slower growth in Europe, Japan and Canada is expected to push US exports below 2004 levels, citing economists.
- Brazil refused $40 million in US grants to fight AIDS because of a clause requiring recipients to discourage prostitution.

NY Times:
- Dominion Resources and Exelon Corp. are among power companies planning to build nuclear reactors as rising natural gas prices make other energy sources more expensive.
- McDonald’s, Kraft Foods and PepsiCo are among companies that have hired more than two dozen nutrition experts and scientists for their advisory boards, as food companies have been threatened with lawsuits over diet-related illnesses.
- Penalties against US companies that repeatedly commit workplace safety violations may rise as government agencies coordinate to apply laws often used to prosecute white-collar criminals.
- Verizon may raise its $7.6 billion offer for MCI Inc. if MCI agrees to state publicly that some of its customers are against Qwest’s competing offer.
- GM’s Saturn and Hummer brands and Ford’s Volvo division are among the growing number of automaker units led by women.
- Novell said that it purchased a set of electronic commerce patents in a bankruptcy auction on Dec. 6.

NY Post:
- AOL Music has signed a sponsorship agreement with GM’s Chevrolet, the online service’s largest advertising deal.

Boston Globe:
- Executives of medical device companies in Massachusetts said they plan to hire as many as 5,000 people within three years.

Financial Times:
- High oil prices have reduced the incentive for divestments in the North Sea oil business and companies are now developing assets rather than selling them.

Le Parisien:
- France’s Industry Minister Devedjian said EU countries should sell some of their oil reserves when speculators boost prices.

eHomeday.com:
- New home prices in Shanghai, China’s biggest commercial city, fell last month after the government raised interest rates and tightened rules for mortgages.