Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Yahoo!’s share of Internet searches fell to 23.5% in July, while Google Inc.(GOOG) extended its lead of the market with more than half of US queries, a researcher said.
- Natural Gas in NY is plunging 13%, the most in four years, on forecasts Hurricane Dean will probably miss the oil and gas production regions of the Gulf of Mexico.
- Gasoline futures in NY are falling more than 4%, the most in two weeks.
- Lowe’s Cos.(LOW), the second-largest US home-improvement retailer, reported profit that rose more than analyst estimated after it took sales from Home Depot. The shares surged the most in four years.
- Yields on US Treasury bills are falling the most since 1983 on demand for liquid safe securities.
- The US government should put pressure on Syria to stop letting terrorists pass through Damascus on their way to Iraq, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman said.
- Atticus Capital LLC, the activist hedge fund run by Timothy Barakett, increased its stake in credit card company MasterCard Inc.(MA) to 9% from about 4.7%, according to a regulatory filing.
- US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will meet with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd tomorrow to discuss responses to “ongoing turmoil” in the markets.
- Lehman Brothers(LEH) raised its recommendation on global financial stocks to “overweight” from “neutral,” citing their underperformance and speculation the Fed will cut rates.
- Hedge funds and other investors that can bet on falling stocks are boosting the number of so-called short positions with ETFs. Investors in the US by the end of June had increased their short positions to 1.4 billion ETF shares, or about 19% of the total number of shares issued, from 929 million shares at the start of the year, Morgan Stanley analyst Debbie Fuhr said. They have probably raised them again since then, she said.
- Steel shipments in the US fell 8.4% in June as customers reduced inventories before placing new orders and a housing slowdown cut demand for the metal used in construction and appliances, an industry group said.

Wall Street Journal:
- FairTax.org, a US movement for tax reform, is gaining momentum among Republicans and hopes to influence party-leadership nominations and agendas.

NY Times:
- Skilled professionals are finding demand for their services is increasing worldwide even as many countries have grown more reluctant to take in unskilled labor.

Chronicle of Higher Education:
- US business schools reported a rise in the number of applications to their graduate programs for the second year running, citing the Graduate Management Admission Council.

Barron’s:
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A) may find Countrywide Financial(CFC) an attractive acquisition target liquidity problems sent the largest US mortgage lender’s shares down 23% last week.

AFP:
- French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the worst of the market declines stemming from the US subprime mortgage rout has passed, citing her comments on BFM radio.

Inquirer:
- Memory Chip prices to skyrocket says chief.