Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- A three-day rally in US stocks faltered after the second home lender this week said it may default on payments to creditors.
- Manpower Inc. said a net 18% of employers plan to add jobs next quarter versus 19% last quarter.
- Crude oil is falling more than $2/bbl. from session highs to $57.99/bbl. and breaking convincingly lower through its recent uptrend after OPEC said they may increase production in future months.
- US lawmakers will have to consider providing aid to about 2.2 million subprime mortgage borrowers who are at risk of defaulting and losing their homes, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said.
- Goldman Sachs(GS) said first-quarter profit rose 29% to a record, exceeding analysts’ highest estimates, on trading gains and investment-banking fees.
- Lehman Brothers(LEH) bought 20% of DE Shaw, the fourth-largest hedge fund company, to gain a larger foothold in the fastest-growing part of the asset-management industry.
- Billionaire investor Carl Icahn bid $955.9 million for WCI Communities(WCI) after saying he wanted to oust the board of the Florida condominium and single-family homebuilder because the stock was undervalued.
- Subprime delinquencies rose to 13.3% from 12.56% in the third quarter.

Wall Street Journal:
- OPEC may soon start boosting output of oil to keep world supplies from getting too tight and head off a potential surge in prices that could hurt the global economy.
- President Bush’s administration wants to switch as much as $3.2 billion in defense expenditures to the purchase of military vehicles and equipment, money that would be diverted from weapons systems programs.
- An unusual array of academics, mutual-fund trustees, institutional investors, union leaders and politicians have joined forces to limit executive pay and protect Connecticut’s $24 billion public-employee pension fund.
- Dole Food, the world’s largest producer of fresh vegetables, and Western Growers, whose members grow, pack and ship half the US fresh produce, have started using radio frequency tags and global positioning systems to contain possible contamination.

NY Times:
- Ronald Neumann, the outgoing US ambassador to Afghanistan, is “reasonably optimistic” about the country’s future and said the Taliban isn’t as large a threat as previously thought.
- Senator Edward Kennedy said he plans to promote an immigration bill a Republican-controlled committee introduced last year rather than write his own legislation.
- Protesters from Code Pink, a women’s antiwar group, are camping in front of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco mansion to demand American troops’ return from Iraq.

Ma’ariv:
- Orckit Communications(ORCT) is close to signing a contract worth tens of millions of dollars with an unidentified company.

Energy Intelligence Group:
- Kuwait plans to make agreements with BP Plc(BP) and Chevron Corp.(CVX) next month that will give the companies additional scope in developing Kuwaiti oil fields.