Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Crude oil is falling again, erasing the year’s gain, after a government reported showed stockpiles of winter fuel are near 7 year highs.
- Boeing Co.(BA) won a multibillion-dollar Homeland Security contract to secure US borders against illegal immigration.
- Morgan Stanley(MS) reported record third-quarter earnings as investment banking, brokerage and credit-card revenue, along with reduced compensation, enabled CEO Mack to give shareholders the biggest profit gain on Wall Street.
- Circuit City(CC) said second-quarter profit increased 700%, beating analysts’ estimates, as the company sold more flat-panel TVs and laptop computers.
- CarMax(KMX), the largest used-car dealer in the US, reported a 44% jump in second-quarter profit and said 2006 earnings will exceed its forecast as rising sales reduced the need for price cuts.
- World steel output climbed 11% in August as Chinese production surged.
Wall Street Journal:
- AstraZeneca Plc(AZN) will still look for acquisitions and licensing deals for some of its new drugs, even as it focuses on its own laboratories.

NY Times:
- Young athletes in extreme sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross are turning to sports academies and home schooling to both stay competitive and receive an education.

NY Post:
- Amaranth Advisors LLC, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund that said it lost about $4.6 billion after wrong bets on natural gas prices, invested in the penny stock market and blind pools, citing SEC filings.

LA Times:
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $1.8 million to a Los Angeles charter school organization that is creating small, community-oriented high schools.

Reporter Herald:
- People are not to blame for global warming, and the notion that they are is perpetuated by the media and by scientists seeking grants, a university professor said Monday. Bill Gray, who works at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, said that global warming is caused by “ocean circulation patterns” and that Earth was actually warmer during some medieval periods. Gray has studied tropical meteorology for more than 40 years.

Interfax:
- Azerbaijan will produce a record 30 million tons of oil in 2006, 35% more than last year. Output in the former Soviet state should rise to 47 million tons next year and 65 million tons a year by 2010, citing Rovnag Abdullaev, the CEO of the state oil producer SOCAR.

AFP:
- The new chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial ejected the former Iraqi president from court after he protested the judge’s appointment.

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