Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The FAA, which plans to replace the existing air-traffic-control system, will receive three bids this month for the first stage of a new system.
- Senator Clinton’s opposition to an agreement to tighten US economic ties to South Korea underscores the Democratic party’s growing unease over the benefits of free trade.
- Bank of America(BAC) and Citigroup(C) are preparing new black credit cards with American Express’s(AXP) logo to try to get affluent customers to make more purchases.
- Henry McVey resigned as chief US investment strategies at Morgan Stanley(MS) after 12 years with the second-largest securities firm to join an investment company.
- Corn prices are set for a “disaster” and may fall as much as a fifth in the next year because investors over-estimated the risk to US plantings posed by adverse weather conditions, Morgan Stanley said.
- Nucor Corp.(NUE), the second-largest US-based steel company, said second-quarter profit will fall more than analysts estimated as demand from automakers and homebuilders slowed.
- Antitrust officials may demand that Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) change its Windows Vista operating system to address a complaint that the program’s design hurts competing software, said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
- The New York Stocks Exchange, seeking to bolster trading after losing business to all-electronic rivals, relaxed long-standing rules that limited floor brokers to handling only Big Board listed shares.
- Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, is sticking with his forecast for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in a “schizophrenic” market.
- Google Inc.(GOOG) will work with Sina Corp.(SINA) to gain share in the world’s second-largest online market.
- Apple’s(AAPL) Steve Jobs, who built two of the world’s top consumer brands with the Macintosh and iPod, may let developers write programs for the iPhone to broaden the appeal of the company’s first mobile phone.

Wall Street Journal:
- General Electric(GE) and Microsoft(MSFT) discussed buying Dow Jones(DJ) to merge it with parts of GE’s NBC Universal unit, though they failed to reach an agreement.
- Institutional Shareholder Services is asking shareholders of Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO) to withhold votes from three directors on the Internet company’s compensation committee because they’re paying managers too much money.
- The World Bank plans to start a $250 million pilot project to help Indonesia, Brazil, Congo and other countries prevent deforestation.

CNBC:
- Billionaire investor Edward Lampert has hired Goldman Sachs Group(GS) to raise as much as $5 billion for his ESL Investments hedge fund.

NY Times:
- More than 40 American states have budget surpluses and are looking to use the cash to fund tax cuts or new public projects. Governors in 23 states have proposed tax cuts and many others are putting money toward roads, schools or into savings funds. The surpluses are the result of higher tax collections than expected, with corporate tax revenue having increased 11% more than estimated.
- Medivation Inc.(MDVN) is expected to release results of a mid-stage clinical trial saying its Dimebon drug shows promise in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Microsoft Corp,(MSFT) and other Internet companies are working to develop better software to keep automated spammers from infiltrating their Web sites.

Washington Post:
- Lessons from the Vietnam War should be applied to the conflict in Iraq where “rapid unilateral withdrawal would be disastrous” and “a political solution remains imperative,” former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote.

NY Post:
- Sony Corp.(SNE) has filed for a patent to add a cellphone to the next generation of the company’s PSP game system.

USA Today:
- Tens of thousands of US motorists are now able to report fellow drivers’ bad and dangerous habits to police tip lines.

Financial Times:
- The US Senate will introduce a bill this week intended to increase pressure on China to float its currency.

CityAM:
- Alchemy Partners LLP is preparing a $6 billion bid for Ford Motor’s(F) luxury car brands Land Rover and Jaguar, citing Jon Moulton, managing partner of the private equity firm.

London-based Times:
- Boeing Co.(BA) forecasts it will sell more than 162 versions of its 787 Dreamliner in the next year in addition to the 568 orders for the plane it already has.

Market News International:
- European Central Bank council member Nout Wellink said the bank hasn’t finished raising interest rates.