Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Fed Reserve Chairman Bernanke said the US economy will expand toward its full capacity in the coming year and that inflation should continue to slow.
- Currency options traders are the most bullish on the euro in three years, which could signal the currencies strength is near a peak.
- NYSE Group(NYX) and the NASD agreed to form a single regulator for the securities industry, ending a turf war in order to cut compliance costs for Wall Street firms and better police ever-more complex financial markets.
- Citadel Investment Group LLC plans to sell as much as $2 billion in notes in what may be the first-ever bond sale by a hedge fund, Fitch Ratings said.
- Vornado Realty Trust(VNO), the second-largest US real estate investment trust, agreed to buy the Manhattan Mall on Sixth Ave. for about $689 million, expanding in a neighborhood where it owns eight properties.
- Crude oil is rising to a two-week high on forecasts that most of the US will be colder than normal next week.

Wall Street Journal:
- Nokia Oyj(NOK) is under pressure to introduce slimmer handsets to match those of rivals Motorola(MOT) and Samsung Electronics.
- Morgan Stanley(MS), Merrill Lynch(MER), Bear Stearns(BSC) and other investment banks are buying US subprime-mortgage lenders as that industry is troubled with defaulted payments.
- Intel Corp.(INTC) will invest more than $1 billion in venture capital projects for the first time since 2000.
- Microsoft’s(MSFT) 30-gigabyte Zune digital player failed to make Amazon.com’s Top 10 selling list for electronics yesterday.
- Telephone-equipment makers that have for years dominated the Chinese market may be in for a disappointment. China is likely to begin supporting its own equipment makers, Huawei technologies and ZTE Corp., by starting its 3G networks with its own technology standard, called TD-SCDMA.

Market News Intl.:
- Fed Reserve Bank of St. Louis President William Poole said US inflation is still too high yet may decline further if expectations keep falling.

NY Times:
- The US Agriculture Dept. is trying to decide how to label fish as organic.
- Boeing Co.(BA) is trying to avoid mistakes it made almost a decade ago by not over-producing planes and keeping demand high.
- Members of the Mahdi Army, an Iraqi Shiite militia, are being trained by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
- Latinos are moving in and blacks are leaving the once predominately black neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

AP:
- Alaska plans to take away ExxonMobil Corp.’s(XOM) leases at the Point Thomson oil and gas field in the North Slope after the company failed to develop the site, citing Governor Frank Murkowski.

Handelsblatt:
- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said he’s “content” with the level of interest rates in the US, adding that the key lending rate of 5.25% is “just about right.”

Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
- German families’ net average income has declined 2% since 1991 dented by accords between unions and employers, as well as rising costs for pensions, health and unemployment insurance.