Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- President Bush today announced a freeze on some subprime mortgage rates in an effort to stop a wave of foreclosures undoing the six-year expansion.
- Some ABX indexes rose, suggesting the perceived risk of subprime-mortgage bonds defaulting fell, before the scheduled release of a US plan to freeze interest rates of adjustable-rate loans.
- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank should avoid cutting interest rates, predicting the world economy will weather the fallout from the US housing slump.
- Repackaging “valued assets” that underlie collateralized debt obligations will become a “great opportunity” for Wall Street, said Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald LP. (video)
- Crude oil is bouncing $1.90/bbl in NY after a government report showed that US supplies of natural gas, a competing fuel, fell the most since April.
- Lead is falling to a five-month low in London on speculation an Australian pit with the capacity to account for as much as 3% of world mine supply will restart production.

Wall Street Journal:
- The three banks assembling a “super fund” aimed at helping to ease the global credit crunch are scaling back its size due to a lack of interest from financial firms that are supposed to benefit from the plan.
- IBM(IBM) scientists described a “significant milestone” in speeding up computer processors by using optical signals on a chip instead of electronic signals.
- Michael Vranos blew it with one of his big hedge funds this year. Now, he may ask investors for a second chance.
- Watching What You See on the Web. New Gear Lets ISPs Track Users and Sell Targeted Ads; More Players, Privacy Fears.

VarietyAsiaOnline.com:
- China sets ban on Hollywood films.

NY Post:
- AQR Capital Management LLC’s flagship AQR Absolute Return fund fell 5.8% in November. The $4 billion fund’s return is down 11.9% for the year. AQR has about $36 billion under management in quantitative strategies that use computers to detect investment opportunities.
- NBC boss Jeff Zucker is expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company’s news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC’s management team.

Reuters:
- The United Arab Emirates will keep its dollar peg unchanged for the “foreseeable future,” citing the country’s central bank governor.

International Oil Daily:
- Oman will boost daily crude oil output by 50,000 barrels to about 800,000 barrels in 2008, citing the country’s Oil Minister Mohammed al-Rumhy.