Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Hedge funds are short-selling S&P 500 futures by the most in three years, a Merrill Lynch analyst said. Short positions have reached “crowded levels” and “we view this as a contrary indicator and readings continue to be bullish for stocks.”
- Paulson & Co., the hedge-fund firm that tripled its assets in the past year with bets on the decline in subprime mortgages, returned 40% in its largest credit fund in June. The Paulson Credit Opportunities Funds soared 129% this year through June 30. Paulson, whose assets have increased to $15 billion from $4.7 billion in July 2006, speculated that securities based on home loans to US borrowers with poor credit histories would drop in value as defaults increased.
- Oil is rising above $73/bbl. in NY for the first time since August as speculators increase bets to record levels on further refinery “problems.”
- Copper is falling in NY after a report showed imports declined in China, the world’s largest consumer of the metal.
- A plunge in the price of sugar and the need to cut output costs will likely help drive mergers in Australia’s cane industry, Maryborough Sugar Factory Ltd. said.
- Nickel declined in London to the lowest in almost six months as rising stockpiles of the metal indicated a slowdown in demand growth.
- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said unexpected changes in inflation today are much more likely to be transitory than before 1980s and that energy price rise only leads to inflation if expectations rise, wage price spiral ensues.
- US treasuries advanced the most in more than a week after Standard & Poor’s said it may cut credit ratings on $12 billion of bonds backed by subprime mortgages and Fed chairman Bernanke’s speech was more dovish than expected.
- China executed its former chief drug regulator for taking bribes in a crackdown on fake medicine, a warning that the country intends to deal sternly with corruption.
- Apple Inc.(AAPL) may introduce a model of its iPhone this year that is 50% cheaper than the handsets that went on sale in the US last month, JPMorgan analyst Kevin Chang said.

Wall Street Journal:
- Dell Inc.(DELL) started an advertising campaign based on colors to boost sales, which have fallen since 2005.
- Short-sellers are targeting credit-ratings firm Moody’s Corp.(MCO).
- Exxon Mobil Corp.(XOM) and Enbridge’s pipelines, which used to carry Venezuelan and Mexican oil to the US, have been reversed to import Canadian oil after political instability in Latin America threatened US supplies.
- Linear Technology(LLTC), whose chips are used by Cisco Systems(CSCO) and Apple Inc.(AAPL), has found a profitable niche making unglamorous chips for a market where competition is limited and margins are high.

NY Times:
- Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq, said violence in the country will increase if American troops are withdrawn. A US troop reduction may bring violence that results in thousands of deaths and heightened conflict with Iraq’s oil-producing neighbors.
- Scientific groups around the world are developing robotic devices designed to help stroke patients regain function in impaired limbs.

Lloyd’s List:
- A sea-traffic control system similar to that used for aviation should be introduced to cut accidents involving merchant ships, Circuit Court Judge Jon Newman said.

AP:
- Users of TiVo Inc.(TIVO) digital video recorders can, from today, order movies from Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN) over their television sets.
- Nielsen/Net Ratings plans to drop online measurements based on page views and start recording how long people stay on Web sites.
- Al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, issued an audiotape in which the group threatens to attack the UK in retaliation for honoring novelist Salman Rushdie with a knighthood.

USA Today:
- FCC Chairman Kevin Martin plans new broadband rules to let consumers bypass a carrier’s pre-packaged wireless service and choose the mobile device and software they want.

Financial Times:
- Markit Group, the financial data provider, plans to offer real-time prices for credit-default swaps, citing Kevin Gould, head of data.

Nottingham Evening Post:
- Bank of England policy maker John Gieve said higher interest rates may be slowing segments of the UK economy.

Nepszabadsag:
- Hungarian Environment Minister Gabor Fodor opened the country’s first bioethanol station, with as many as 50 more planned for this year.

Le Monde:
- OPEC needs to raise output and could do this “discreetly” in the coming months, Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency said. Oil prices are “worrying” and “catastrophic” for consumers in developing countries who have to spend a greater proportion of their disposable income on energy.

AFP:
- A man convicted of adultery was stoned to death in Iran earlier this month., citing judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi.

Haaretz:
- Comverse Technology(CMVT) is up for sale after its board instructed management to liquidate the company and its subsidiaries.