Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Oil may fall further on speculation that OPEC will fail to cut production enough to stem a 27% plunge in prices, a Bloomberg survey of analysts shows.
- The Washtington-based Industrial Energy Consumers of America wants federal regulators to subpoena the trading records of Amaranth Advisors LLC, the hedge fund manager that lost $6.5 billion betting on natural gas.
- Craigslist Inc., which operates online bulletin boards in more than 50 countries, may generate $50 million in 2007 sales, helped by job posting fees in four additional US cities.
- Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year note yields to the highest in more than three weeks, after reports showed a surge in consumer confidence and spending.
- The UN Security Council will vote tomorrow morning on a draft resolution sanctioning North Korea, US Ambassador John Bolton said.
- Microsoft(MSFT) said it will meet its deadline for shipping the Windows Vista operating system after making changes demanded by regulators in Europe and South Korea.
- General Electric(GE) said profit in the third quarter rose 10% as power-plants turbines and locomotives drove sales.

Wall Street Journal:
- President Bush’s series of tax cuts boosted the US economy, and historians will give him credit that he doesn’t get today, said Lawrence Lindsey. Lindsey said that tax cuts helped the US economy pull out of recession caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the collapse of technology stocks that began before Bush took office.
- Avenue Capital Group, a hedge-fund firm that specializes in the debt of struggling companies, is in advanced talks to sell 20% of itself to Morgan Stanley’s(MS) asset management unit.
- A power struggle in Iran between hardline politicians including President Ahmadinejad and clerical groups, aging revolutionaries and businessmen has added to the difficulty of coping with that country’s nuclear ambitions.
- The FTC and FCC want Congress to make pretexting for phone records a federal crime, a move that would give the two agencies stronger enforcement powers against it.
- ING Groep NV’s ING Funds and UBS AG’s Global Asset Management unit are among mutual funds that are trying hedge-fund-like strategies of mixing buying stocks with selling some short.
- Cypress Semi(CY), Atmel(ATML) and STMicroelectronics(STM) are among chip-making companies that may be targets for private-equity buyouts, as buyers become attracted by the chipmakers’ relative lack of debt.
- Goldman Sachs(GS) will announce a new class of partner managing directors, destined to amass “huge riches,” on Oct. 25.

Washington Post:
- The American Psychiatric Assoc. is considering classifying compulsive shopping as a disorder.

LA Times:
- A $ 1 billion park to be created in Irvine, California will be nearly twice the size of NYC’s Central Park and one of the largest in the country.

Reuters:
- China halted duty-free imports of refined copper and aluminum used to make finished products for exports. Processors will have to pay a 2% duty for refined copper imports, 5% for purchases of aluminum, and a 17% value-added tax for the two metals.

AP:
- Liberal talk and news radio network Air America Radio has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing spokesman Jami Horn.
- North Koea is prepared to implement a year-old accord that involves abandoning its nuclear plans in exchange for aid and security guarantees, citing a Russian envoy.

Times-Picayune:
- Valero Energy(VLO), the largest US refining company, applied for a permit to expand the capacity of its refinery in Norco, Louisiana, to 380,000 barrels of oil a day.

NY Post:
- NY has 18 registered lobbyists for every state lawmaker, the highest ratio in the US, citing a report by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity.

Financial Times Deutschland:
- Seagate Technology(STX) may enter the market for flash memory chips used in digital cameras and MP3 music players, citing Seagate CEO Watkins.

Interfax:
- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev flew to North Korea today to try to avoid the “worst confrontational scenario” over the nation’s nuclear program.