Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Zinc and copper led a slump among metals in London as forecasts for rising supplies prompted speculation that production will outstrip demand. Zinc, used in steelmaking, fell the most in at least 18 years and copper dropped as much as 6.3%. Aluminum, lead and tin also fell.
- China’s stocks fell again last night, rounding off the Shanghai Composite Index’s biggest weekly drop(-7.3%) in five years.
- Crude oil is rising $1.67/bbl. on increasing speculation by investment funds jumping from metals.

Wall Street Journal:
- Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) said it will help other companies to make software compatible with its operating system software by licensing a set of instructions.
- Red Kite Management Ltd.’s $1 billion metals-trading hedge fund lost 20% in the year to so far this year, citing an “unofficial estimates” the fund gave to one investor. Red Kite is asking investors to give more notice before they withdraw from the fund.
- Fed officials are considering adopting a “soft” rather than “specific” inflation target to help better manage the economy.
- IntercontinentalExchange Inc.(ICE), an Atlanta-based electronic futures-trading market, has agreed to divulge big individual natural-gas traders activities to regulators for the first time.

NY Times:
- House Democrats approved funding for President Bush’s plan to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria globally.
- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is establishing a record-setting fundraising goal, asking top-tier donors to raise at least $1 million, according to her advisers.

Washington Post:
- Democratic leaders supporting a Republican resolution against President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq ran into unexpected opposition from fellow Senate Democrats yesterday.

Financial Times:
- Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s plan to boost spending to develop new energy reserves gives its stock a solid if unspectacular outlook for the future.

Handelsblatt:
- Economic expansion in the thirteen euro nations is going to slow in the second quarter, citing its own monthly indicator.

Report:
- The Venezuelan government will take control of as many as 50 farms spread over eight states that it deems are being underutilized. The National Land Institute plans to confiscate more than 17,200 hectares of idle land across the state of Monagas, Lara, Guarico, Tachira, Aragua, Barinas, Merida and Trujillo, citing the agency.