Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Susan Bies, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s point person on banking, resigned after five years.
- Crude oil rose above $60/bbl. briefly for the first time in five weeks after an explosion shut down a California field owned by Occidental Petroleum boosted speculation by investment funds on the commodity.
- Natural gas is falling in NY as speculators said record inventories were adequate to handle a bout of below-average temperatures across the northern US.
- European bio-fuels production is expanding fast enough to absorb the continent’s grains and sugar surpluses, softening the impact on farmers of declining subsides, the European Union said.

- Shares of Fortress Investment Group LLC, the first US manager of private-equity and hedge funds to go public, soared almost 70% in their initial day of trading.
- Micron Technology(MU) said a fall in the price of its products has created a “horrible situation” for the company. The shares are falling .37 to $12.53.
- The UN nuclear agency is set to suspend up to 40% of the projects it’s sponsoring in Iran after deciding that the work may violate a Security Council resolution to stop assistance that may help the Islamic Republic develop atomic weapons.
- US Treasuries fell as a Federal Reserve official reinforced expectations the central bank won’t lower interest rates during the first half of the year.
- General Motors(GM) and Ford Motor(F) shares surged after Deutsche Bank AG upgraded the two biggest US carmakers on optimism they will reach a union agreement to reduce health-care costs.
- The perceived risk of owning US corporate bonds fell to a record low today as a survey showed economists are more optimistic about US growth, according to an index of credit-default swaps.
- Hedge funds charge too much in fees for performance that frequently mimics major stock indexes, said Russell Read, chief investment officer of the $225 billion California Public Employees Retirement System.
- China’s economy may expand at a slower 8% rate this year, according to the Chinese central bank’s quarterly monetary policy report, issued today.
- The US Dollar strengthened against the euro, snapping a three-day slide, on speculation Asian investors will increase buying of US Treasuries.

Wall Street Journal:
- Goldman Sachs Group(GS) may have raised as much as $19 billion for its new private-equity fund, the biggest such sum raised by a Wall Street investment bank.
- AutoNation Inc. CEO Jackson, head of the largest US auto retailer, has called on US automakers to build cars that suit consumer preferences rather than their own.
- American Greetings(AM) plans to make over the Care Bears designs that have been the company’s most successful licensing property.
- Exchange Traded Funds have been a bonanza for fund managers who get about $950 million in annual fees and less so for investors who foot the bill in commissions and bid-asked spreads every time ETF shares trade, John Bogle wrote.
- Blackstone Group LP(BLK) is close to a $6.5 billion agreement with Beacon Capital Partners to sell office building in Seattle and Washington, DC.

NY Times:
- Sadr City, Iraq, the once volatile and slum-filled area half the geographic size of Manhattan, has begun to thrive. The Shiite dominated area owes its recovery to both $41 million in funds from the Shiite-led government, and from protection from the Mahdi Army. The militia may even disarm if the US army attempts to secure Baghdad, citing Sadr officials.
- NYC will become an experimental location where the US Dept. of Homeland Security will test detection devices for nuclear explosions and so-called dirty bombs.

Independent:
- One of Iraq’s main Sunni insurgent groups set out for the first time terms for a ceasefire that would enable US and British troops to leave the country.

Die Welt:
- Almost 10% of Germany’s citizens are so deep in debt that they can no longer pay their bills, citing a study by Creditform, a credit-risk assessing company.
- The Russian ruble would not weaken much if oil prices fall in world markets, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in an interview.