Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The yen had the steepest two-day decline in three years versus the dollar as rallying global stocks persuaded investors to buy high-yielding assets funded by loans in Japan’s currency.
- William Ackman, whose hedge fund has short positions on bond insurers, said he will make “hundreds of millions of dollars” on his bets and plans to donate the proceeds to charity.
- Analog Devices(ADI) rose the most in nine months after analysts said the company will become more profitable.
- Freddie Mac(FRE) and Fannie Mae(FNM) rose the most in about two decades on optimism the mortgage-finance companies will raise enough capital to weather the housing slump.
- Chinese stocks are poised for their steepest monthly decline since at least 1995 as the government deflates a bubble that caused prices to quadruple in a year. The Shanghai Composite fell 19% so far in November.
- After 25 years of increases, US obesity rates were unchanged at about 34% in 2005-2006 compared with the previous two years, according to a survey by US health officials.
- Comcast, Time Warner and Charter Communications advanced after US regulators dropped for now a push to expand their oversight of the cable-tv industry.
- The US dollar gained the most in two weeks against the euro on speculation traders were scaling back bets on further declines in the US currency as stocks rallied.
- The Iraqi government has approved a plan to build an oil refinery with a capacity of 300,000 barrels a day in the southern city of Nasiriyah, Iraq’s oil minister said.
- Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez alleged Time Warner’s(TWX) CNN is seeking to incite his assassination and called for an investigation of the cable-television news channel.
- The perceived risk of companies defaulting on their debt fell for a second day on optimism that financial companies will be able to shore up capital that was eroded by losses tied to subprime mortgages, according to credit default swap traders. Credit-default swaps tied to Citigroup(C) fell 8 basis points to 75 basis points. The contracts, used to speculate on a company’s ability to repay its debt or hedge against the risk it won’t, have dropped 17 basis points the past two days after reaching the highest in a least five years recently.
- Gold and silver fell for the second straight day after the dollar rebounded against the euro, reducing the appeal of the precious metals as alternative investments.
- US emissions of greenhouse gases fell 1.5% in 2006, the first annual reduction since 2001.
- Crude oil is falling another $3.30/bbl. in NY after a government report showed that US supplies declined less than expected and refineries increased fuel output.
- Nickel fell to its lowest in more than 2 months as stockpiles advanced for a 16^th straight day.

Wall Street Journal:
- ‘Value’ Stock Funds Take a Beating in Subprime Crisis. Name a big-company stock you didn’t want to own this year, and there’s a good chance it’s in the portfolio of your large-cap value fund.

CNNMoney.com:
- LinkedIn Sale Would Cost More Than $1 Billion.

Nikkei English News:
- Apple’s(AAPL) Japanese unit and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. will offer free wireless Internet access to users of Apple’s iPod Touch media player.