Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Google may raise $4.41 billion today in its first stock sale since going public, the largest such offering in more than 10 years.
- Morgan Stanley Chief Economist Stephen Roach, who in May said he was no longer bearish on bonds after “a number of years,” has flip-flopped back to calling for a decline.
- Merrill Lynch agreed to buy Advest Group from French insurer Axa SA for $400 million, adding more than 500 financial advisers.
- Crude oil and heating oil jumped after the EIA reported a larger-than-expected decline in US inventories last week as Hurricane Katrina cut production.

Wall Street Journal:
- GE’s Universal Pictures, Sony Corp., Time Warner’s Warner Bros. and other film companies are making a growing number of movies in China because of low production costs.
- Aggressive patent suits filed by small companies with a broad patent pose a growing problem for large companies including Microsoft.
- The US Dept. of Homeland Security plans to send investigators to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina to ensure that federal aid isn’t misspent.
- US carmakers may now longer be able to set the price paid to parts suppliers, if Collins & Aikman, an interiors maker, wins a court hearing tomorrow.
- Mark Lanier, the plaintiffs’ attorney who won a $253 million ruling in Texas against Merck related to the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, told financial news network CNBC that the drugmaker is “probably set to win” at trial in New Jersey.

NY Times:
- US companies have contributed $312 million so far toward helping Americans on the Gulf Coast recover from the devastation wrought by Katrina.

NY Post:
- Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is planning a new lifestyle magazine that will focus on women in their 30s.

Financial Times:
- Federal Reserve policy makers will raise interest rates at their meeting on Sept. 20 and discuss changes to the wording of their policy statement.
- GE plans to sell some industrial units in the next few months.
- Linens ‘n Things is considering putting itself up for sale.