Bloomberg:
- Circuit City(CC) began selling high-definition radios that pick up digital signals from more than 1,030 US radio stations.
- Growth in European service industries from banking to telecom, the biggest part of the economy, unexpectedly slowed in October.
- Pakistan President Musharraf said Mulism countries need to do more to battle terrorism and the poverty that’s making Islamic nations breeding grounds for extremists.
- Microsoft(MSFT) chairman Gates and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal plan to buy Four Seasons Hotels(FS) in an offer that values the hotelier at $3.7 billion.
- Abbott Labs(ABT) said it will buy Kos Pharmaceuticals(KOSP) for $78 a share, or 56% more than the last closing price, to add the cholesterol drugs Niaspan and Advicor.
- OSI Restaurant Partners(OSI), the owner of restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse, agreed to be acquired for $2.98 billion in cash by Bain Capital Partners LLC, Catterton Partners and three other company founders.
- Swift Transportation, the second-largest US trucking company, said founder and former CEO Moyes offered to buy the company for $29 a share.
- Natural gas prices in the US East are falling 4% as milder weather forecast throughout the Northeast is expected to damp heating demand.
- Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, cut its prices in Asia for lighter varieties of crude oil for a second month in December, while raising prices for the US.
Wall Street Journal:
- Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM(GM), said an agreement on GM’s contribution to labor costs at components maker Delphi Corp. might be reached “reasonably soon.”
- US homeowners’ insurance premiums are falling in many parts of the country while car insurance costs are rising at less than the inflation rate, suggesting that risks for both are declining.
- US retail forecasters remain divided over what coming holiday-season sales will be like with estimates for gains from a year earlier of between 2.5% and 7.5%.
- Morgan Stanley(MS) is reorganizing its brokers’ pay packages, to improve rewards for those who have better customers and generate more money, and to cut compensation for those whose performances are sub-standard.
NY Times:
- Hollywood studios, feeling the pinch of rising budgets and rampant piracy as well as worries over the future of new media, want concessions from actors, directors and writers. Both sides are ready to fight as the studios prepare to start contract negotiations in January. The average movie budget last year increased to $96.2 million, up from $54.1 million in 1995.
LA Times:
- Wachovia Corp.(WB) plans to re-brand 120 World Savings bank branches, open another 30 to 50 outlets a year and buy smaller banks as it seeks to expand in California.
CNBC:
- Former Fed Chairman Greenspan said an economic slowdown is likely temporary and that the worst of the housing slowdown is over.
Washington Post:
- A US pullout from Iraq now would have devastating consequences, dozens of enlisted US soldiers and officers said. Such a withdrawal would invigorate the insurgency, put Iraq on a course toward civil war and create the possibility that four years of fighting for democracy has been for naught, the soldiers told the Post.
Le Monde:
- The European Union should do more to help NATO forces in Afghanistan, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Financial Times Deutschland:
- China wants to add US dollar-denominated assets to its foreign exchange reserves that offer higher yields than US government bonds.
Les Echos:
- Union for a French Democracy party leader and presidential candidate Francois Bayrou said he would cut labor taxes and on overtime hours and curb levies on wealthy people.
Khaleej Times:
- Middle Eastern young people are frustrated by high unemployment as population growth outstrips job creation.
Haaretz:
- Israeli military commanders are planning for the possibility that Syria or Hezbollah will start a war against Israel next summer.
Boerson:
- Denmark targets doubling its use of renewable energy to 30% in 12 years, lifting investment in wind energy.
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