Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government and banks will “soon” announce a plan to keep subprime mortgage borrowers “with steady incomes and relatively clean payment histories” from losing their homes.
- Fannie Mae’s(FNM) business of guaranteeing mortgage bonds is going “gangbusters,” CEO Daniel Mudd said today.
- William Ackman, the hedge fund manager who’s been shorting MBIA Inc.(MBI) shares since 2002, said the bond insurer could be bankrupt by February. On Wall Street, his nonstop assault on MBIA is highly controversial, and a number of people speak of him with distaste. Their central point is that MBIA is in a business that depends on the market’s confidence in its ability to insure bonds and that Mr. Ackman’s attacks are an effort to undermine that confidence. MBIA insists that the holding company has only $80 million in corporate debt and $500 million in cash and that it is completely healthy. It says that his bankruptcy prediction “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of MBIA’s capital structure and financial statements.” When Mr. Ackman used the word bankruptcy, he is tossing gasoline on a fire.
- Agrium Inc., North America’s third-largest fertilizer producer, agreed to buy UAP Holding Corp.(UAPH) for $2.16 billion to double its US retail outlets as demand for crop-protection products rises.
- Crude oil is falling another $.32/bbl. as investment fund speculation continues to subside ahead of OPEC’s December 5^th meeting.
- Google Inc.(GOOG) may bid to lose when the US government auctions off wireless airwaves next month.
- Dollar Bears Poised for Reversal as Deficits Shrink. At a time when everyone from billionaire investors such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gross to celebrities want nothing to do with the dollar, a growing number of strategists say the stage is being set for rally in 2008.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suffered his first electoral loss in nine years as voters turned down his plan to revamp the nation’s constitution and tighten his grip on power.
- Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and probably hadn’t restarted it as of mid-2007, according to a new report form the US intelligence community.
- Ford Motor(F) said its domestic sales of cars and trucks rose .4% in November, ending 12 straight months of decline.

Wall Street Journal:
- US Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said he supports cutting taxes and curbing federal spending in a way that would make government more efficient.
- Li Ka-shing, the billionaire chairman of Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd., may buy a $60 million stake in social-networking site Facebook Inc.

NY Times:
- Small Merchants Gain Large Presence on Web.
- High-Priced Comic Books in Fashion.

USAToday.com:
- US customs officers will begin scanning all 10 fingerprints of foreign visitors under a Homeland Security initiative to identify terrorists, criminals and illegal immigrants.

CNBC.com:
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought $2.1 billion of TXU Corp. high-yielding bonds from Goldman Sachs Group.