Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new all-time high today, surpassing its prior peak of 11,750 on January 14, 2000.
- Crude oil plunged over $2/bbl. to a seven-month low of $58.84/bbl., despite more calls from OPEC to cut production, on speculation that a government report will show US fuel inventories jumped.
- Gold is dropping $16/oz. to $587.70 on diminishing inflation worries and less speculation after oil continued to fall.
- UK natural-gas sellers are being forced to give the fuel away after a new pipeline from Norway increased supply at a time when storage sites are full, pushing prices below zero for the first time in nine years.
- The greatest hurricane danger in the Atlantic is over for the year, according to Colorado State University forecasters who had predicted the season would be one of the worst.
- DaimlerChrysler’s(DCX) US auto sales fell 2.3% to 188,761 in September, while Ford Motor’s(F) rose 4.7% to 238,848 on higher demand for passenger cars.

Wall Street Journal:
- Global steelmakers are worried about world oversupply and rising exports from China, the biggest steel producer and consumer, citing comments made at the International Iron and Steel Institute conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Swedish government incentives to use cars run on renewable fuels have led to a big increase in sales, and automakers such as General Motors(GM) are hailing the country’s good example.
- The Medicare drug-benefit program will enter its second year next month, when beneficiaries will have new options to explore.

NY Times:
- In Georgia, divisions over jobs and government benefits that split the black and Hispanic communities have been overcome by two churchmen who have forged a long friendship.

Washington Post:
- Trial lawyers, labor unions, and Moveon.org spent almost $1 million on ads against Republican Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, more than she and her Democratic opponent, Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, spent combined. The $34 million in “independent expenditures” already reported for this election is almost double what outside interest groups spent in total for the 2002 mid-term election, citing PoliticalMoneyLine.com.

Reuters:
- OPEC President Edmund Daukoru said members of the oil producing group should follow Nigeria’s example in cutting production because the market is “slightly oversupplied.”

AP:
- The US Energy Dept. said it won’t buy oil for the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve this winter.

Financial Times:
- The bid for Harrah’s Entertainment(HET) by Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group shows how private-equity firms are looking at takeovers of companies previously thought unsuitable for leveraged buyouts.