Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Russ Koesterich, who helps manage $1.8 trillion at Barclays Global Investors, said today’s New Home Sales report was “unambiguously good.”
- Crude oil is falling $1.53/bbl. because of a glut of oil at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point used for benchmark futures.
- Gold is falling another $8/oz. to a two-month low in NY as a gain in the value of the dollar reduced demand for the precious metal and worries over emerging market demand rose.
- Copper futures in NY fell the most in more than three months on speculation that supplies in China, the biggest consumer, may exceed demand. The metal has declined 17% in about five weeks.
- Shares of Greenlight Capital(GLRE), the reinsurer led by hedge fund manager David Einhorn, surged on their first day of trading as investors bet on his ability to manage the company’s portfolio.
- Dell Inc.(DELL) said it will sell personal computers at Wal-Mart Stores(WMT), in the biggest step away from its direct-sales strategy since the company was dethroned by Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) as the industry leader.

Wall Street Journal:
- Citigroup Inc.(C), one of the biggest issuers of credit cards in the US, is switching thousands of American Airlines credit cards from Visa to American Express(AXP) as part of its bid to boost its relationship with American Express.
- China stock picking has turned to numerology that often relies on combinations of the letter eight.
- Goldman Sachs Group(GS) started a market to trade stakes in companies that want to avoid the oversight and costs of going public.
- Services from SimulScribe.com and SpinVox Ltd. that convert voice mail messages to text are quite useful.

Washington Post:
- Democratic strategist Robert Shrum, who worked on John Edwards’ 1998 North Carolina Senate campaign, is critical of Edwards in a new book. In Shrum’s memoir, “No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner,” he wrote that he asked Edwards at the beginning of the 1998 campaign about his position on gay marriage. Shrum wrote that Edwards replied, “I’m not comfortable around those people,” to which his wife, Elizabeth said “John, you know that’s wrong.”

Reuters:
- Iraq will auction 15 oil and gas fields for exploration after a new energy law is passed by parliament, citing an Iraq oil ministry official on a trip to India.

Interfax:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country’s $113.7 billion Stabilization Fund won’t be invested in Russian stocks.

Yonhap News:
- South Korea will suspend plans to provide food aid to North Korea until the country meets a commitment to close its main nuclear reactor.

Algeria Presse Service:

- OPEC won’t heed calls from consumers to increase crude-oil output because the market is already well supplied, citing Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil.