Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- French consumers pared spending in the second quarter by the most in more than eight years as high unemployment and rising gas prices further damped economic growth in Europe’s third-largest economy.
- Airbus SAS has struggled for 20 months to design an intercontinental plane to compete with Boeing’s fuel-saving 787.
- US Treasuries are falling on speculation yields at about the lowest since July offered little value after reports this week showed bigger-than-expected gains in manufacturing and wholesale prices.
- Crude oil is rising more than $1/bbl. in New York as production disruptions in Ecuador and a failed rocket attack on two US Navy vessels in Jordan heightened supply concerns.
- The US dollar is headed for its biggest weekly gain against the euro in more than two months as signs that the gap between US growth and European growth is widening.

Wall Street Journal:
- Baidu.com has protected itself from a takeover with a dual-class share structure that gives original shareholders 10 times the voting rights of those who bought shares in the US IPO.
- Talented US high school students are using the Internet to take more advanced college classes at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Missouri and other schools.
- Hollywood marketing executives are realizing that network-tv advertising isn’t the powerful tool it once was as the summer movie season draws to a close.
- Investors, keen to take advantage of growth in Chinese stocks, should avoid putting too much money into the nation’s $400 billion stock market.
- US ranchers are turning to lawsuits and seeking damages to fight environmentalists for what they say are unwarranted accusations of ecological damage caused by cattle.
- Danskin, a maker of women’s activewear, dancewear and hosiery, and other apparel distributors including AnnTaylor Stores are turning yogawear into streetwear to follow the latest fashion trend.

NY Times:
- US home prices since 1980 have risen more slowly than the stock market. Home in San Francisco, two of the hottest markets, have risen 7% a year, compared with a 10% annual rise in the S&P 500.
- GM doesn’t face the immediate threat of bankruptcy, though that outlook isn’t as certain beyond two or three years.

Interfax:
- Russia’s Federal Security Service has information that terrorists are trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction, citing the service’s chief Nikolai Patrushev.