Bloomberg:
- The DJIA is climbing to another all-time high after IBM(IBM) raised its share buyback.
- Gold and silver fell the most this month in NY as a drop in prices for oil and other commodities reduced the appeal of precious metals as a hedge against inflation.
- Crude oil is falling $1.31/bbl. because shipments from Nigeria have been unaffected by an upsurge in violence in the country.
- Apple Inc.(AAPL) won’t be sanctioned by the SEC for backdating stock options, including some to CEO Steve Jobs, because it cooperated with regulatory probes.
- NY Times(NYT) shareholders, led by Morgan Stanley(MS), withheld 42% of their votes from directors to protest the Sulzberger family’s control over the company.
- Home prices in the Hamptons, New York’s beachside playground for the rich and famous, rose in the first quarter at the slowest pace in four years.
- International Business Machines(IBM) added $15 billion to its stock buyback program, the most ever, and raised the quarterly dividend by 33% to boost shareholder returns. The stock is rising the most since 2003 today.

Wall Street Journal:
- Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. agreed to acquire as many as 24 of Boeing’s(BA) 787 Dreamliners.

NY Times:
- Several black elected officials in New York are undecided about supporting home sate Senator Hill Rodham Clinton or Illinois Senator Barack Obama, citing interviews.
- China will allow US regulators to enter the country to investigate if contaminated pet food that killed at least 16 cats and dogs originated with Chinese suppliers.
- LanzaTech, a New Zealand-based company, has secured financing to develop a process to create ethanol from carbon monoxide gas, citing the company’s founder.
- Las Vegas is adding to its 151,000 hotel rooms as the weekend occupancy rate reaches 95%.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
- Washington state will begin its first comprehensive probe of gas prices in 16 years. The state’s attorney general, governor’s office and Dept. of Community, Trade and Economic Development, will probe the reasons behind the high prices and present their findings in July.

Energy News Today:
- Exxon Mobil Corp.’s(XOM) “maintenance” on a crude refinery unit at its Baytown, Texas, will last until the second week of June. Unusually low refinery utilization at this time of the year has been the main reason for the recent surge in gas prices.

Etemaad:
- Iranian women dressed as “models” in the streets of Tehran risk severe penalties including imprisonment, citing a top judiciary official.

Tehran Times:
- Iran’s budget deficit rose to almost $16 billion in the Iranian year that ended March 20, citing official statistics. The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come under criticism from Iran’s parliament over its failure to curb public spending. Inflation officially stands at about 14%.