Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- General Motors(GM) and Ford Motor(F) led junk bonds to their biggest monthly gain since June on optimism that job cuts, new models and the sale of a GM unit will restore profitability.
- Burger King plans to sell shares to the public for the first time, allowing its private equity owners to cash out three years after buying the company for $1.5 billion.
- United Airlines will exit three years of bankruptcy today with 35 new international routes, a fleet that’s about a fifth smaller, and one-third fewer workers.
- Yale, Columbia, Brown and the Univ. of Penn. Received a record number of applicants for the Class of 2010 because of increased efforts to recruit low-income students with improved financial aid packages.
- US Treasury notes fell after an industry report showed the manufacturing sector may be growing fast enough to spur the Fed to raise interest rates at least one more time.
- General Motors(GM), Ford Motor(F) and DaimlerChrysler AG(DCX) reported unexpected increases in US sales in January, while Japanese rivals Toyota Motor(TM) and Honda Motor(HMC) continued to post gains.
- The US dollar is rising against the euro and reached a high versus the yen for the year as a manufacturing report added to evidence the US economy is growing more rapidly than other industrialized nations.

Wall Street Journal:
- Jobs created by Nissan Motor, Toyota Motor and other Asian and European carmakers in the US South have helped stabilize employment in the industry after the big three cut back in older US industrial strongholds.
- Investors in mutual funds that focus on Japanese stocks withdrew $360.7 million between Jan. 18 and Jan. 25, citing Emerging Portfolio Fund Research.
- Boeing(BA) is likely to win this year only about half of 2005’s 1,002 aircraft orders, but investors shouldn’t necessarily bail out of the stock.
- The SEC wants to require companies to disclose the amount of stock cited as collateral for any loans take by a firm’s directors and its five highest-paid executives.
- US television stations are demanding that affiliated networks include them as partners in online media ventures.
- Angiotech Pharmaceuticals(ANPI) may announce today that it will acquire American Medical Instruments Holdings, a Lake Forest, Illinois-based maker of medical devices, for $785 million.
- Deloitte & Touche is developing an employee-profiling service that companies can use to screen for wrongdoers.
- US auto-safety regulators may propose as early as this summer a rule that would require every new vehicle to have equipment to reduce rollover accidents.

CNBC:
- Morgan Stanley’s(MWD) talks to buy all or part of money manager BlackRock Inc.(BLK) have broken down because the transaction would be too costly.

Washington Post:
- General Motors(GM) CEO Wagoner may announce plans today to invest in a transmission plant in White Marsh, Maryland, so the facility can produce parts for hybrid vehicles.

AP:
- Egyptian officials today called on Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and honor past peace deals.

NY Times:
- Persian Gulf countries are joining the US and its allies in criticizing Iran’s nuclear program after years of hesitating to do so.