Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- US ethanol prices dropped to the lowest in almost three months, following a plunge in crude oil that’s led to cheaper costs for gasoline.
- Corn futures in Chicago are falling today on speculation that high prices will prompt a bigger jump in plantings than previously expected.
- The European Union’s mandatory targets for using renewable fuels will herald opportunities for “entrepreneurial” farmers, said European Commission President Jose Barroso.
- The 17% drop in oil this month has caused benchmark NY gasoline futures, which are based on wholesale prices, to tumble 14%. Gas station prices usually lag behind futures by four to eight weeks. A corresponding drop for retail gasoline would lower the nationwide average to about $1.95/gallon.
- Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield-services provider, said fourth-quarter profit soared 71% and forecast “significant growth” in 2007 as oil and gas producers work harder to find and tap new deposits.
- General Electric(GE) said fourth-quarter earnings rose 12% on commercial loans, sales of equipment for power plants and a rebound in the NBC Universal media unit.
- Fortress Investment Group LLC, a NY-based hedge fund and private-equity firm, may raise as much as $634.3 million in the first IPO by a US manager of alternative assets.
- Supplements of folic acid, a vitamin found in yeast, organ meats and green, leafy vegetables, improve memory and cognitive functions that decline in old age.
- Crude oil is bouncing $1/bbl. on short-covering, but is set for its fifth weekly decline, after US stockpiles surged and the IEA trimmed forecasts for global demand.

Wall Street Journal:
- Oil companies that have been among investors’ favorites lately, such as Canada’s Suncor Energy(SU), will be hurt if the oil-price slide continues.
- Some hedge-fund investors are worrying that worldwide commodity-trading funds have peaked after strong 2006 returns. The number of hedge funds trading commodities futures has risen 67% in just the last year, with assets growing 71% during that period, citing David Mooney, a fund manager with UK-based New Finance Capital.

NY Times:
- Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may no longer support President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Two newspapers, including the Khamenei-owned Jomhouri-Eslami, have called on the president to stay out of the country’s nuclear plan.
- General Electric Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Alcoa Inc. and Caterpillar are among 10 large US companies that will call on Jan. 22 for a cap on US emissions of carbon dioxide and reductions of 10% to 30% over 15 years.
- Wall Street investment firms control as much as half of US futures contracts for commodities such as cattle, corn, wheat and oil, stakes that are helping drive up prices at the supermarket and gas pump.

AP:
- Men face a 77% higher risk than women of dying in a road accident, according to Carnegie Mellon Univ. research.

al-Hayat:
- Iran is ready for talks with the US, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said. Iranian officials told Talabani during a November visit to Tehran that they were ready to reach an understanding beneficial to both Iran and the US on issues ranging from Afghanistan to Lebanon.

JANA:
- Libya sold its crude oil this week at an average price of $49.63/bbl.