Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Crude oil is falling for the first day in four and natural gas has declined 15% in two days as Tropical Storm Chris weakened.
- Israeli planes pounded more than 120 targets in Beirut and troops pushed into Lebanon as eight civilians died in Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.
- July sales at the biggest US retailers, led by Wal-Mart(WMT), exceeded forecasts notwithstanding the 5th hottest July on record.
- Colorado State Univ. hurricane forecasters trimmed the number of intense hurricanes expected this year to 3 versus 7 last year.

Wall Street Journal:
- Technology companies such as Microsoft(MSFT), Cisco Systems(CSCO) and Oracle(ORCL) are courting hackers and so-called security researchers to work with them rather than against them.
- US venture capital firms are seeing earnings fall as excess capital is reducing returns.
- SABMiller Plc has dropped US television marketing for Foster’s beer, a drink it licenses in the country, and will spend its entire advertising budget on Internet ads instead.
- The new cell phone model sold by Verizon Wireless(VZ), called Chocolate, has a flawed design and isn’t yet a worthy competitor to Apple’s(AAPL) iPod, Walt Mossberg wrote.
- Auto dealers are adding their own discounts on top of automaker incentives to boost lagging sales and reduce inventory.

NY Times:
- Medtronic(MDT), Boston Scientific(BSX) and St. Jude Medical(STJ) are among medical-device makers expected to benefit from a final rule on Medicare payments to hospitals that was released this week by the federal government.

Chronicle of Higher Education:
- The number of workers at US colleges grew faster than the civilian workforce over a 10-year period, citing a US Education Dept. study of 3,186 institutions.

NY Post:
- Global diamond trading prices have declined as the fighting between Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel has disrupted Hezbollah’s reputed diamond smuggling.

Handelsblatt:
- Burger King Holdings(BKC) plans to open 50 restaurants a year in Germany.

Yonhap News:
- North Korea is building more missile bases and silos along its east coast to target Japan and US bases in Japan.

Mehr News:
- Iran’s volume of trade with major economies including China, Germany and France totaled $6.25 billion in the past four months, even as those countries discussed sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.