Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The US should merge the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to create one federal regulatory body because distinctions between stocks and futures are growing increasingly blurred, former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt said.
- KKR’s purchase of Royal Philips Electronics’ semiconductor unit last week ended a 10-day stretch of $46.7 billion worth of deals, almost a fifth of all leveraged takeovers this year.
- Gilead Sciences(GILD), maker of the world’s best-selling AIDS treatment, is offering to help generic-drug makers in India produce the medicine, a move intended to get the life-saving pill to millions more people in the world’s poorest countries.
- BHP Billiton(BHP) faces a strike today at Escondida, the biggest copper mine in the world, after failing to reach a wage agreement with the labor union.
- Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments are among companies that will benefit from almost $2 trillion in new money likely to be pumped into US retirement funds as a result of pension legislation Congress passed last week.
- Natural gas may fall in the US on forecasts the hurricane season won’t be as severe as initially predicted, easing concern that Gulf of Mexico production will be disrupted.
- US Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman trails Ned Lamont, his anti-war challenger, by 51% to 45% among likely Democratic voters in tomorrow’s Connecticut primary, a Quinnipiac Univ. poll found.
- Crude oil surged above $77/bbl. in NY after BP Plc(BP) said it will shut Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay field, the largest in the US, at a time of peak gasoline consumption.
- CommScope(CTV) offered to buy Andrew Corp.(ANDW) for about $1.5 billion, outbidding ADC Telecom(ADCT).

Wall Street Journal:
- Kindred Healthcare(KND) and AmerisourceBergen(ABC) are close to an agreement to combine their institutional-pharmacy business and put them into a separate, publicly traded company.
- MGA Entertainment, the maker of Bratz fashion dolls, plans to sell a virtual-reality electronic gadget, putting it into more direct competition with Hasbro(HAS) and Mattel(MAT).
- Home Depot(HD) is developing a new unit to increase orders from professional customers in the $400-billion-a-year wholesale building-supply market in the US.

NY Times:
- Fifteen US states in the past year have expanded their self-defense laws, allowing crime victims to use deadly force against their aggressors.
- Asia and Central and Eastern Europe may be the world’s fastest growing regions for movie audiences over the next five years as attendance declines in the US.
- Costco Wholesale(COST) and other retailers are phasing out television models using glass cathode-ray tubes as consumers prefer wide-screen plasma and LCD flat panel sets.

Crain’s NY Business:
- NYC may allow Verizon Communications(VZ) and other phone companies to provide cable tv.

Washington Post:
- President Bush is expected to sign an executive order requiring federally financed health care providers adopt quality-measurement tools and uniform standards for keeping records.

Financial News:
- Warburg Pincus LLC is in talks with private equity firms Apollo Management LP and BC Partners about making a bid for HCA Inc.(HCA), the target of the biggest leveraged buyout.