Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- China’s corn exports may drop as the country’s ethanol production rises more than 300% by 2010, according to the head of the China National Grain and Oils Information Center.
- Gold is falling $5.40/oz., resuming a decline that sent prices last week to their lowest level since March, on concern that higher global interest rates may cut demand for the metal as an alternative investment.
- Crude oil is falling $.60/bbl. on speculation that an Energy Dept. repot tomorrow will show US fuel inventories increased as refiners boosted operating rates.
- Copper in NY declined for the fifth time in six sessions, falling another 2.3%, as imports by China, the largest consumer of the metal, tumbled in May.
- The 10-year T-note yield is rising 7 basis points after reports in China and Japan showed consumer and producer prices rising, which the head of the UK central bank signaled borrowing costs may need to rise to keep inflation from accelerating.
- The US dollar is posting its longest rally against the euro since October as speculation increased that the Fed will hold interest rates steady this year as the economy accelerates.
- Lehman Brothers(LEH) said profit rose 27% to a record as a rally in stocks fueled equity trading and investment-banking revenue increased.

Wall Street Journal:
- European Central Bank policymakers are at odds over the part money-supply growth plays in price inflation, indicating that there’s no unanimity about how much to raise interest rates.
- UK entrepreneur Richard Branson plans to start an Internet marketplace called Virgin Charter, which will match passengers with companies that charter private jets.
- A large Bear Stearns(BSC) hedge fund has dropped 23% from the beginning of the year through late April as it was hit by problems with the US subprime mortgage market.
- The US plans to direct $200 million to provide small business loans in Latin America and help counter anti-capitalist sentiment in the region.
- Valero Energy(VLO), the largest US refiner, ConocoPhillips(COP) and Tesoro Corp.(TSO) have put on hold or canceled refinery expansions because of higher costs and worries over demand. The delays have helped boost gasoline prices to records and may put the industry under added criticism from consumer groups and Congress for not doing anything to boost capacity after record profits.
- Time Warner’s(TWX) Warner Bros. unit plans to release selected movies to video-on-demand services the same time they come out on DVD.
- Charles Schwab(SCHW), TD Ameritrade(AMTD) and other brokers are making it easier for individual investors to buy bonds.

NY Times:
- Seventeen executives have left Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO) since December, when CEO Semel reorganized the company into three units.
- Dog breeders who use genetics to produce pups with certain qualities are also breeding in health problems.
- Google Inc.(GOOG) will soon begin testing with Walt Disney(DIS) and Time Warner(TWX) a system that blocks copyrighted material from being uploaded onto its video-sharing Web site YouTube.

Washington Post:
- Senator Hillary Clinton’s lead over Senator Barack Obama in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination is largely due to her support from lower income, less educated women. Obama received more support from highly educated women, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll.

NY Daily News:
- NY may sell resident-only permits to prevent outsiders from parking in neighborhoods as a way to avoid a proposed fee for driving into Manhattan.

Financial Times Deutschland:
- Google Inc.(GOOG) plans to start European versions of its YouTube video-sharing Web site.

Economic Daily News:
- AU Optronics(AUO) and Innolux are developing touch-panel technologies as they attempt to get orders for Apple’s iPhone.

Ham Mihan:
- A group of 57 Iranian economists has written a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warning about the “heavy costs” of the government’s economic policies which “lack scientific basis.”