Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Chile’s Karen Poniachik, mining minister in the world’s biggest copper producer, said about $17 billion will be spent on new projects to bolster output as prices for the metal head for a sixth consecutive annual gain.
- Wheat plunged 3.2%, the exchange limit, in Chicago and Kansas City after rains moistened dry ground in the southern Great Plains as US farmers plant the winter crop.
- Crude oil is dropping almost $3/bbl. to $78.70/bbl. on reduced speculation by investment funds as demand is seen waning and the US dollar rises.
- Corn is falling to a two-month low on speculation US farmers will harvest a larger crop than the US Dept. of Agriculture estimated last month.
- Vonage Holdings(VG) is having its biggest single-day advance since going public last year after it settled on of two-patent suits that threatened its survival.
- Cognos Inc.(COGN), the Canadian maker of business-management software, rose the most in more than five years in Nasdaq Stock Market trading after analysts said it may be an acquisition target.
- Garmin Ltd.(GRMN), the biggest US maker of car navigation devices, climbed as much as 5.1% on speculation the company may be bought by Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) and after an analyst raised his rating on the shares.
- Google Inc.(GOOG), owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, surpassed $600 in Nasdaq trading, joining Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A) among the six stocks that crack that mark.
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A) reported cutting its PetroChina(PTR) stake for the fifth time.

Wall Street Journal:
- Can Ailes Outfox CNBC? Invoking Stonewall Jackson, Fox Business Chief Prepares To Battle Entrenched Rival.
- The market for new issues of collateralized loan obligations, which repackage money lent to leveraged-buyout firms, returned almost to last year’s level in September, citing a Deutsche Bank AG study.

NY Times:
- For Google(GOOG), Advertising and Phones Go Together.
- Quick, name the competitors of US News & World Report. Time and Newsweek right? Would you believe Consumer Reports?
- Credit Crunch Shows Signs of Easing.

NY Post:
- Nintendo’s Wii May Be in Short Holiday Supply.

USAToday.com:
- Medicaid spending, which increased 10.7% in the first six months, may reach a record $330 billion this year.

Financial Times:
- Investors will withdraw $500 billion – a quarter of the asset base – from hedge funds in the next year, leading to the collapse of a “large number” of hedge funds. So predicts Giles Conway-Gordon, managing partner of Cogo Wolf, a San-Francisco-based fund of hedge funds, who believes investors are increasingly dissatisfied with industry performance, and that computer-driven quantitative hedge funds now simply run too much money to make healthy returns.

Straits Times:
- Clean energy quietly taking hold in China.