Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Copper futures are falling the most in three months in NY on signs that demand may slow in China, the world’s largest user of the metal. Stockpiles in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses have more than doubled this year to the highest since December 2005.
- Gold is falling $14/oz. as the euro’s rally against the dollar stalled after the US budget deficit shrunk further and initial jobless claims fell.
- The US government’s budget surplus for April, when tax payments are due, rose to the highest in six years as swelling revenue outpaced spending. For the first seven months of the 2007 financial year, the deficit narrowed 56% from a year earlier. A healthy job market and corporate profits continue to boost tax revenue more than economists expected. Individual income tax revenue rose 17% and corporate tax receipts jumped 15%.
- The virus that causes cervical cancer may be linked to throat cancer in people who engage in oral sex, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- JetBlue Airways’(JBLU) board replaced founder David Neeleman as CEO, three months after the airline canceled almost 1,700 flights and stranded more than 130,000 passengers because of winter storms.

Wall Street Journal:
- Oaktree Capital Management LLC, a LA-based hedge fund, wants to raise almost $700 million by selling shares in itself using a new private market being started by Goldman Sachs(GS).
- The impending merger agreement between Reuters Group Plc and Thomson Corp. may have an impact on News Corp.’s(NWS/A) bid for Dow Jones(DJ) by changing the environment for financial news and data. A Reuters-Thomson tie-up could put Dow Jones Newswires, which is part of Dow Jones’s most profitable subsidiary, at a disadvantage.
- Rules on accounting for hedging are under review by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the US with consideration being given to simplifying them.

NY Times:
- International Business Machines(IBM) plans to invest $1 billion a year in an effort to double the energy efficiency of data centers.

Chronicle of Higher Education:
- There is almost no evidence to judge whether the more than $3 billion the US government spends a year to improve science and mathematics education is effective, citing a yearlong study by the Academic Competitiveness Council.

USA Today:
- The US Dept. of Homeland Security is testing facial-recognition technology that uses digital surveillance photographs as a method for spotting terrorist suspects and criminals.

LA Times:
- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may propose making the state the first in the nation to privatize its lottery system to raise funds for billions of dollars in bond payments coming due through 2010.

Financial Times:
- Adobe Systems(ADBE) is preparing a new platform, which will allow users to work outside web browsers and connect to Internet by using a desktop icon, citing CEO Chizen. The platform, called Apollo, will run applications outside web browsers on computers, mobile phones and other devices, and will keep a limited functionality even when these are disconnected from the Internet.