Stocks Slightly Higher into Final Hour as Fed Remains on Hold, Emphasizing Economic Strength

Bloomberg:
- The Federal Reserve kept the benchmark Fed Funds rate at 5.25%. The Fed said that the US expansion is supported by “solid” job growth and incomes, as well as strong global growth. They also said core inflation has improved modestly.
- Francois Trahan, Wall Street’s top-ranked strategist, is one of the most bullish as he sees the S&P 500 rising to 1,700.
- Apple Inc.(AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs introduced three sleeker versions of the iMarc desktop computer to win over back-to-school shoppers.
- Countrywide Financial(CFC) and CIT Group(CIT) said they’ll be able to ride out the mortgage industry’s credit crunch.
- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will host a fund-raising event for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Nebraska this month.
- Lenovo Group Ltd. said it is in talks with an independent third party to buy Packard Bell BV.
- The risk of owning corporate bonds is falling on speculation the US government may seek to contain losses on subprime mortgage securities, according to traders of credit-default swaps.
- Brushfield Capital, a unit of ABN Amro Holding NV, raised $1.25 billion from investors for a collateralized debt obligation including US subprime mortgage securities.
- Paulson & Co., the NY-based hedge-fund manager whose assets more than doubled this year to $20 billion, is posting among the industry’s highest returns by wagering that declines in subprime mortgages are far from over.

Wall Street Journal:
- Eric Dinallo, NY’s top insurance regulator, is looking at reviving the defunct NY Insurance Exchange as a rival to Lloyd’s of London, citing Dinallo.
- US technology entrepreneurs have set up a Web site to evaluate venture capitalists.
- Mutual funds designed to produce returns whether the market goes up or down haven’t performed as billed in recent turmoil. So-called long-short funds, which are supposed to lose less in a stock-market slump, lost 5.3% in the month ended Aug. 3. “Market-neutral” funds lost 1.24%.

NY Times:
- US Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have barely spoken to each other in months, though their paths sometimes cross several times a day.

NY Post:
- The NY Times(NYT) will stop charging for access to online content including columnists and archived stories.

Washington Post:
- The House ethics committee is suspending its investigation of Democratic Representative William Jefferson after the Justice Dept. indicated that a congressional inquiry could conflict with a criminal investigation.

USA Today:
- The US government’s decision to send additional troops to Iraq is “making the situation better,” according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll.

Financial Times:
- US advertising online is expected to overtake that in newspapers by 2011, citing a study by Veronis Suhler Stevenson.
- Russia’s bid to gain control of the seabed at the North Pole highlights the potential wealth of the area, which may contain a quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves according to Bernstein Research.

Vedomosti:
- Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska bought about 5% of General Motors(GM) late last year.

Haaretz:
- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is examining a new peace proposal in which Israel would transfer to a future Palestinian state areas equivalent to 100% of the land conquered in 1967.