Friday, August 25, 2006

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Robert Rubin, the former US Treasury secretary who is chairman of Citigroup’s(C) executive committee, resigned as a director at Ford Motor(F) to avoid conflicts as the automaker considers options that would involve investment banks, including asset sales.
- Crude oil is rising slightly on speculation that a tropical depression heading for the Gulf of Mexico may become a storm strong enough to threaten oil platforms and refineries.

Wall Street Journal:
- Moody’s Investors Service will probably publish its first credit rating for a hedge fund in the next few weeks.
- US wine sales are growing as merchants turn to the Internet and retailers including Costco(COST) press for changes to ease the dominance of the industry’s powerful middlemen.

NY Times:
- The growth of hedge funds has fueled an increase in the number of private investigators specializing in probing such investment instruments.

NY Post:
- A test version of a scanner that can detect a so-called dirty bomb has been installed at the NY Container Terminal to inspect as many as 6,000 containers of overseas goods that pass through the site daily.

Philadelphia Inquirer:
- Philadelphia finished fiscal 2006 with a larger-than-expected $202 million surplus.

AP:
- The two top US generals in the Middle East said security efforts in Baghdad were helping reduce violence.

USA Today:
- At least 10 states, including New Jersey, Florida and Idaho, have or plan to cut property tax rates because of the sharp rise in home prices over the last few years.

Financial Times:
- US IPOs are at their lowest level in three years.

Daily Telegraph:
- 53% of Britons said Islam poses a threat in some degree to “western liberal democracy,” citing a YouGov poll.

No comments: