Bloomberg:
- US Treasuries rose after the Fed left its target for the overnight lending rate between banks unchanged at 5.25% for a fourth straight time and downgraded its assessment of the economy.
- Sabre Holdings, the owner of tourism Web site Travelocity.com, agreed to be acquired by buyout firms Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners for about $4.4 billion.
- OMV AG, central Europe’s largest oil and natural gas company, plans to invest $50 million to develop new energy technology like hydrogen filling stations and gas made from vegetable oils.
- China passed Mexico as the second-largest US trading partner in the first 10 months of this year, demonstrating a surge in commerce between the two countries since China joined the WTO.
- Merrill Lynch’s(MER) Chief Investment Strategist Richard Bernstein, one of Wall Street’s most bearish analysts during a four-year rally in US stocks, raised his 12-month forecast for the S&P 500’s Index by 5.5% to 1570.
- US retailers’ sales last week rose at their fastest pace so far this holiday season, helped by colder weather and increased gift-buying by consumers.
- Nucor(NUE), the second-biggest US steelmaker, said fourth-quarter profit will be less than anticipated because of rising inventories and lower prices.
- Best Buy(BBY) said earnings rose less than it estimated because the company was forced to cut prices to meet competition from Wal-Mart Stores(WMT) and Circuit City Stores(CC).
- Goldman Sachs(GS) capped the most profitable year ever for a Wall Street firm, almost doubling fourth-quarter earnings on trading, underwriting and investments in Asia.
- Needham, Mass., won’t publish its high school honor roll in the local newspaper to help reduce tension among students.
Wall Street Journal:
- US and European scientists have identified certain proteins which may help detect the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease, citing a paper in the Annals of Neurology.
- Hedge funds are breaking with traditional lending practices by opting to take control of companies that fail to repay debt.
- San Francisco’s Soma neighborhood, home to hundreds of Web companies in the 1990s, is again attracting small technology companies.
- Harrah’s Entertainment(HET), the largest US casino operator by revenue, probably will get an $87-per-share increased bid from Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group.
- PlusFunds Group Inc. is causing consternation among hedge fund managers by offering detailed trading histories of dozens of funds to whomever will pay $75,000.
- Salesforce.com(CRM) will today say that it will help other companies sell services through its Internet site in exchange for a share of the income.
NY Times:
- The largest of six American Muslim charities that the Treasury Dept. has said support terrorists is suing the agency.
Washington Post:
- Military experts told President Bush they didn’t agree with some Iraq Study Group recommendations, particularly the plan to withdraw American forces from Iraq.
- The House and Senate passed a bill to bolster the Bush administration’s $5.6 billion dedicated to countering bioterrorism by restructuring the program’s management and funding more research and testing.
Stratfor:
- Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, Turki al-Faisal, resigned from his post yesterday.
Financial Times:
- A hedge fund and a fund of private-equity funds are being set up to invest in renewable energy as interest in green technologies grows.
- The bidding war for Corus Group Plc, the British steelmaker, may be showing that steel and other commodity prices are at their peak, “Lex” wrote.
China Oil News:
- China’s government will start implementing an oil-product pricing system that will reflect international prices on Jan. 1. China will link fuel prices to Brent, Dubai and Minas crude benchmarks.
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