Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The San Francisco Chronicle plans to cut a quarter of its newsroom jobs to stem losses, citing a union official.
- Peter Hickson, global strategist for basic materials at UBS AG, sees copper prices falling further as Chinese demand slows.
- Microsoft’s(MSFT) plan to buy AQuantive(AQNT) for $6 billion increases the likelihood that the software maker will also buy Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO), Goldman Sachs(GS) analyst Anthony Noto said.
- The People’s Bank of China today raised its one-year benchmark lending rate by .18 percentage point and its one-year deposit rate by .27 percentage point.
- Goldman Sachs(GS), the highest-earning securities firm in Wall Street history, set a record today when its market value crossed $100 billion.
- Odyssey Marine Exploration(OMR), a company that searches for sunken treasure, said it may have recovered the biggest collection of silver and gold coins ever salvaged from a shipwreck.
- Shares of Trump Entertainment(TRMP) had their biggest jump in almost two years after the company said it is considering takeover offers.
- Gasoline futures are falling for the first time in four days despite ConocoPhillips(COP) saying it would idle a third unit at its plant in Borger, Texas, for “repairs.”
- Sugar is falling again in NY, capping the biggest weekly decline this year, on concern that a global surplus will widen as demand fails to keep pace with rising supply from India and Brazil, the world’s largest producers.

Wall Street Journal:
- UniCredit SpA is about to make an all-stock offer for Capitalia SpA, to create Europe’s second-biggest bank after HSBC Holdings Plc.

NY Times:
- The pet food contamination that sickened thousands of cats and dogs in the US is leading to pressure on China to improve the safety of its foods and other exports.
- House Democrats scrapped a plan that would have tightened congressional ethics rules by extending a one-year ban on lobbying by former lawmakers or staff members. Democratic leaders in the House faced a rank-and-file revolt over the issue, which would crimp their ability to cash in on their government service for lobbying paychecks.

Sparkspread.com:
- PPL Corp.(PPL) is considering a bid for Mirant(MIR), citing two industry sources.

USA Today:
- US drivers are logging fewer miles for the first time in 26 years, in part because of record gasoline prices, new public transit systems and a shift in demographics, citing federal highway data. While the number of US drivers has increased by more than 1 million since 2005, miles driven in February fell 1.9% from a year earlier, citing figures from the Federal Highway Administration.

Financial Times:
- John Negroponte, the deputy US secretary of state, said terrorist activities will spread widely if the US withdraws from Iraq too soon.
- Controversies over Blackstone Group LP leveraged buyout firm probably won’t slow its proposed IPO.
- US companies raised more funds through private placements last year than IPOs last year for the first time ever.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
- Germany expects a weekend meeting of Group of Eight finance chiefs to make progress toward endorsing a code of conduct for hedge funds.

Kommersant:
- Journalists at Russia’s main radio news provider quit en masse yesterday to protest censorship after management banned coverage of opposition movements, citing a reporter.

Nikkei English News:
- Nintendo Co. Ltd. President Satoru Iwata said the world’s biggest maker of handheld video-game players may pursue more acquisitions to gain access to technologies that can help its product development.

Market News International:- China’s government will allow faster gains in the yuan this year, as long as the economy doesn’t suffer.