Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- American Express, Goldman Sachs and Allianz AG will sign a nonbinding agreement to buy a $3 billion stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China.
- High school students achieved the highest average math score ever recorded on the SAT examination, the most widely used college-entrance test, as they reaped the rewards of more-challenging coursework.
- GM said it doesn’t expect sales of large SUVs to regain peak levels of the past amid rising fuel prices and changes in consumer tastes.
- US Treasuries are rising, pushing yields on 10-year notes to the lowest since mid-July, on speculation record energy costs will temper economic growth.
- Crude oil is rising to another record for a second day after Hurricane Katrina shut about 92% of production in the Gulf of Mexico.
- The US dollar is rising the most in a month against the yen after Japanese government reports showed household spending unexpectedly declined and the jobless rate rose from a seven-year-low.

Wall Street Journal:
- Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast yesterday and is now moving steadily north-northeast, will cause delays and cancellations in US air travel for much of this week.
- Hurricane Katrina left a potential public health disaster in its wake.
- Sprint Nextel is nearing an agreement to buy two of its wireless affiliates for a combined price of about $700 million.
- Supervalu, the owner of Save-A-Lot, has built one of the most successful grocery chains in the US by expanding in low-income neighborhoods.
- Nextel Communications, Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless are among mobile-phone companies that have cut their international calling rates as they bid for a share of the growing overseas phone-call market.
- EchoStar Communications plans to offer multiple image, or “mosaic,” screens to its “Dish Home” channel.

NY Times:
- Apple Computer and Motorola plan to introduce next week a cellular phone that will play music using Apple’s iTunes software.
- Chinese police raided the offices of a human rights group in Beijing yesterday.
- Seven oil rigs are adrift in the Gulf of Mexico following the passage of Hurricane Katrina.
- UK retail sales fell for a sixth month in August, a survey of 109 companies showed.
- A jump in fuel prices caused by production and supply bottlenecks after Hurricane Katrina would do more to slow the US economy than the demand-driven price increases of the last two years, economists said.

Washington Post:
- The US Air Force issued rules yesterday saying that prayers aren’t appropriate at most official events.

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