Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average is 25 points from an all-time record high as an unexpected increase in new-home sales bolstered confidence that consumer spending will support economic growth.
- Natural Gas futures in New York are plunging about 9% to their lowest in almost four years as mild weather cut demand and record inventories pared the need for fresh purchases.
- US gasoline supplies are now at the highest level for this time of the year in 15 years.
- Federated Department Stores(FD) said billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to buy $113.4 million to $500 million of additional stock, sending the retailer’s shares to a record.
- The NY Merc told Amaranth Advisors LLC that the hedge fund’s natural gas bets were too big a month before the trades led to a $6 billion loss.
- NY’s 18,000 restaurants would have to stop cooking with artificial trans fats, blamed for increasing the risk of heart disease, under regulations proposed by the city’s Health Department.
- McDonald’s(MCD) raised its annual dividend 50%, the biggest gain in three years, as sales climbed.

Wall Street Journal:
- General Motors(GM), Ford Motor(F) and DaimlerChrysler AG(DCX) are reducing some sticker prices for the 2007 model year, in an attempt to lure consumers with “value pricing.”
- General Motors(GM) will ask for a multi-billion dollar payment to form an alliance with Nissan Motor and Renault SA.
- Florida’s younger families are being pushed out of the state by rising housing prices and insurance, an influx of retirees and concern over another big hurricane.
- The US oil industry and Silicon Valley venture capital firms are involved in an increasingly vicious fight over a proposed tax to fund conservation and alternative-energy measures.
- Pirate Capital LLC, a hedge fund that pressures companies for changes that might boost their stock price, is experiencing problems this year with below-industry performance and a SEC investigation into possible securities-law violations.
- Citigroup(C), Merrill Lynch(MER), and Goldman Sachs(GS) are among six Wall Street firms planning a new electronic trading service for big stock trades, a venture that will compete with NYSE Group’s(NYX) NYSE and Nasdaq Stock Market(NDAQ).

NY Times:
- US clinics and medical centers are developing a consistent set of forensic methods to detect elder abuse.
- Qwest Communications(Q), the fourth-largest US phone company, has enough cash to buy a rival, perhaps a wireless carrier or a corporate provider of telecommunications services.

USA Today:
- At least seven men have died from electrocution in the US since July after a surge in thefts of copper wiring used for electricity, citing police and utility officials in five states.

Washington Post:
- More state and local law enforcement are beginning to check the immigration status of people they come into contract with as part of a nationwide effort to better police those living in the US illegally.

Reuters:
- The NYSE expects to refer 140 cases of potential insider trading to the SEC, 26% more than last year, citing Robert Marchman, the executive vice president of NYSE Regulation, a unit of the bourse.

Washington Square News:
- NYU, the largest private university in the US, raised a record $397.5 million in fiscal 2006, including $68 million for financial aid.

AP:
- 7-Eleven, Inc., the largest US operator of convenience stores, is dropping Citgo Petroleum as its gasoline supplier throughout the country. Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, became a “public-relations issue” for 7-Eleven because of recent comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that President Bush was an alcoholic devil. “Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership.” 7-Eleven will instead purchase fuel from several US distributors, including Sinclair Oil and Frontier Oil.

Financial Times:
- The US hedge-fund industry may regret that a SEC rule requiring registration and “modest” disclosure was thrown out by a court this year, because more rigorous rules may replace it.