Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The median net worth of Americans rose to an all-time record of $93,100 in 2004.
- Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) entered the retail photo-printing market with kiosks it says will produce better prints than those from Eastman Kodak.
- Research In Motion’s(RIMM) BlackBerry scored lower than Palm’s(PALM) Treo in a survey of customer satisfaction.
- Fed Vice Chairman Ferguson’s resignation may help new Fed chief Ben Bernanke win support at the central bank for a numerical inflation goal.
- Texas Pacific Group, the buyout firm that owns stakes in Burger King and China’s Lenovo Group, formed a venture to invest in securities of troubled companies.
- 71% of Americans expect Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton of New York to run for president in 2008 and lose, a poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion found.
- Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari said insurgents are trying “everything” to foment civil war as reprisal attacks followed yesterday’s bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, sacred to Shiite Muslims.
- US Treasuries declined after an unexpected drop in the number of claims for jobless benefits added to evidence the economy is strengthening.
- Wal-Mart Stores(WMT) will reduce the time part-time employees must wait to get health insurance and provide coverage to their children.
- Wal-Mart(WMT) said today it will expand coverage for workers and build more than 50 health clinics in its stores.
- Crude oil is falling more than $1/bbl. in NY on speculation that US fuel supplies are sufficient to meet demand.

Wall Street Journal:
- Officials in President Bush’s administration obtained special security pledges from Dubai Ports World before approving its bid to take over a company which owns some US ports.
- IBM(IBM), Texas Instruments(TXN), Exxon Mobil(XOM) and other US companies are boosting their donations to career-oriented summer camp for US youth in order to create an active worker pool for future retirement.
- The NYSE wants by the end of this year to create a joint venture with the National Association of Securities Dealers to regulate brokerages.
- Nintendo’s Brain Age videogame with word and math problems is intended for older people who never played videogames.
- Fannie Mae’s(FNM) former finance chief J. Timothy Howard is held largely responsible for the company’s accounting policies and problems by a report to be released today.
- More individual investors are putting their money in stocks as the market improves and short-term interest rate increases weaken returns from real estate and bonds. Trades by individual investors at discount brokerage firms increased 30% to 40% in January from December.

NYPost:
- Mario Gabelli’s Gamco Investors may set up a hedge fund that abides by Islamic law to attract Middle Eastern investors.

CNET News.com:
- IBM(IBM) will unveil software called “Octopiler” to help developers write code for products like video games.

AP:
- Lenovo Group Ltd., the world’s third-biggest PC maker, plans to start selling own-brand computers outside its home market of China.
- The US government demanded assurances of cooperation with future investigations from the Dubai company that is acquiring six US ports before approving the takeover.
- America’s Second Harvest, a nonprofit organization representing 80% of US food banks, shelters and soup kitchens, said its members served 25 million people in 2005, an increase of 9% from 2001.