Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- FedEx CEO Smith told CNBC that record-high crude oil prices will slow the “economy down to some degree.”
- AMD, the second-largest maker of chips for personal computers, said it sued larger competitor Intel, claiming it forced away dozens of potential clients.
- Citigroup hired more than 30 people including former Enron executive Vincent Kaminski at its Houston energy-trading unit to rebuild a business once offered for sale.
- PetroChina became Asia’s largest company by market value, overtaking Toyota Motor, as the Chinese oil producers’ shares rose 3.5% to a record on higher oil prices.
- Chinese automaker Chery Automobile may join Asian and European companies with US plants to compete with GM and Ford on their home turf, an entrepreneur planning to bring Chery cars to the US said.
- The Chicago Board of Trade, the second-biggest US futures market, has received “expressions of interest” in a business combination from one or more companies, as it prepares an IPO.
- US Treasury notes fell the most in more than two weeks after the Conference Board’s measure of June consumer confidence rose more than forecast.
- The US dollar is rallying against the euro as reports showed US consumer confidence at a three-year high while optimism dwindles in Germany and Italy.
- The US Senate approved legislation to revamp the nation’s energy policy by fostering more efficient use of energy and the development of renewable fuels such as ethanol.
- Crude oil is falling more than $1/bbl. on the Senate’s approval and speculation US refiners lifted output of transportation fuels, easing concern that supplies could be strained during the summer travel season.

Wall Street Journal:
- Japan’s new assertiveness has intensified the Asian nation’s rivalry with China as a younger generation of politicians calls for a stronger response to China’s nationalistic initiatives.
- US federal prosecutors have obtained the cooperation of a former stockbroker in their investigation of the way law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman allegedly recruited plaintiffs for class-action law suits.
- China has banned distribution of the Far Eastern Economic Review’s June issue because of an essay about a historical account of the brutality of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong.
- The US underestimates the state of its economy because of a lack of understanding about its strengths and weaknesses, David Malpass, chief economist at Bear Stearns wrote.

Washington Post:
- President Bush’s administration has taken the side of public schools in a dispute over special-education student rights and school funding priorities that the US Supreme Court will review in its next term.

Maariv:
- Direct foreign investment in Israel will probably more than triple this year to $6 billion.

Handelsblatt:
- Ninety-seven percent of German executives expect Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to lose a planned early election this year, citing a poll by Psephos GmbH.

Les Echos:
- Goldman Sachs’ co-head of European investment banking, Yoel Zaoui, forecast that 2005 may be the best year for mergers and acquisitions in Europe since 2000.

Xinhua News Agency:
- China has more than 100 million Internet users, second only to the US.