Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Natural gas and oil are falling, erasing morning gains, amid robust inventories and forecasts showing mild weather the next two weeks.
- Gold is falling $6/oz. in NY on a surge in the US dollar after stronger economic reports and positive comments from Treasury Secretary Paulson.
- US Treasuries are falling after a government report showed the economy added more jobs than expected in November.
- Shares of Citigroup(C) surged as much as 3.9% on speculation the company may shed some businesses or shuffle its executive ranks.
- MIT scientist said they engineered a new strain of yeast that can increase the speed and efficiency of ethanol production.
- Shares of Heelys Inc.(HLYS), the maker of wheeled sneakers, surged as much as 85% in its first day of trading after an IPO raised more money than planned.
- The euro will halt its seven-year climb against the yen and yearlong gain versus the US dollar in 2007, Lehman Brothers said.
- Bank of America(BAC) may be “very interested” in buying Barclays Plc in what would be the world’s biggest financial-services acquisition, analysts at Merrill Lynch(MER) said.
- Derrick Shareef, an Illinois man, was arrested and charged with plotting a terrorist attack in a shopping mall, the FBI said. He was accused of planning to place hand grenades in garbage cans at the CherryVale Shopping Mall in Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago.

Wall Street Journal:
- Some hedge-fund managers are hiring lobbyists to tell them what’s going on in the US Congress building in hopes of gathering information on which they could make a profit.
- US mutual funds’ plans to change the way in which they pay for research reports might boost returns for investors, but they threaten the trading desks of smaller brokerage firms.

NY Times:
- US wages for non-managers are climbing faster than inflation. US consumer buying power is increasing faster than it has since the last 1990s.

NY Post:
- Time Warner’s(TWX) cable subsidiary sued DirectTV Group yesterday, claiming the satellite television company engaged in false advertising about the NFL Network.

Washington Post:
- Sirius Satellite(SIRI) CEO Karmazin hinted to analysts Dec. 6 that his company could merge with competitor XM Satellite Radio(XMSR).
- The UN General Assembly’s chief budget committee approved a $4.9 million renovation of the secretary general’s Manhattan residence.

Business Week:
- McAfee Inc.(MFE), the world’s No. 2 maker of anti-spam and anti-spyware software, may be targeted for a takeover.

Jiji Press:
- The Bank of Japan probably won’t raise interest rates at a policy meeting this month.