Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Crude oil is falling again in NY on forecasts that US inventories rose and skepticism OPEC will cut production by 1 million barrels a day.
- The cost of transporting crude oil on supertankers may fall next year as 110 vessels enter service at a time of declining demand, Lorentzen & Stemoco AS said.
- Confidence among US homebuilders unexpectedly rose this month on optimism the housing market may be bottoming out, according to the NAHB.
- The Chicago Merc(CME) agreed to buy the Chicago Board of Trade(CBOT) for about $8 billion, crating the largest exchange for futures contracts on stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities.
- China’s government will uphold sanctions against North Korea imposed by the UN Security Council after the isolated state conducted a nuclear weapons test.
- Merrill Lynch(MER) said third quarter earnings rose 41% to a record as revenue from trading climbed at the fastest pace on Wall Street.
- Carlyle Group plans to raise as much as $15 billion for US buyouts as its seeks funds to rival competitors Blackstone Group LP and Texas Pacific Group.
- The European Union said its diplomacy is failing to curb Iran’s nuclear program and the UN should act on US-led demands for sanctions against the Islamic nation.
- Eli Lilly(LLY) will buy its partner ICOS Corp.(ICOS) for $2.1 billion, acquiring full marketing rights to Cialis, the world’s second-biggest-selling impotence drug after Viagra.
- President Bush signed into law legislation to allow the prosecution of suspected terrorists before military tribunals and continue aggressive interrogations of enemy prisoners.
- Level 3 Communications(LVLT) agreed to buy Broadwing Corp.(BWNG) for $1.4 billion to add larger corporate clients and a 19,000-mile fiber optic network.

Wall Street Journal:
- The European Central Bank may be ready to take a break from raising interest rates, after raising them five times in 10 months, some economists say.
- Ritchie Capital Management LLC, a Geneva, Illinois-based hedge fund with $2.8 billion in assets, said it avoided a flood of investor departures after investors approved a plan that would lock up some assets for more than three years.
- DaimlerChrysler AG’s(DCX) Chrysler Group Head Tom LaSorda said the automaker probably will gain about a full percentage point in market share next year as a result of new models.
- Criminals are using online job resumes to collect data for identity theft.
- The US economy will do fine so long as tax rates remain low, wrote Brian Westbury, chief economist at First Trust Advisors.

NY Times:
- India, which produces 400,000 engineers a year, has too few with the language, workplace and technical skills to satisfy high-tech companies’ growing need for employees.
- Some Latin American countries are losing as much as 8% of national economic growth to years of rampant violent crime, citing economists and World Banks officials.

Washington Post:
- About 53% of Virginians would vote for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, while 42% would vote against such a law.

AP:
- Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, running for re-election as an independent, debated democratic opponent Ned Lamont yesterday over the war in Iraq. Lamont said Lieberman was a career politician in step with President Bush. Lieberman accused Lamont of running a negative campaign and said that pulling troops out of Iraq too soon will be disastrous. Lieberman leads Lamont in recent polling.

Focus:
- German solar-panel manufacturers face a price war as competition increases, citing Solarworld AG CEO Asbeck.

Vedomosti:
- OAO Lukoil, Russia’s biggest oil producer, plans to invest $115 billion by 2016 to expand its refining into the US and Europe, increase output and raise its market value.

Reforma:
- Mexico hosted 575,000 few foreign visitors in the first eight months of the year as drug-related violence, political unrest and storm damage discouraged tourists.