Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- US stocks rose, extending the market’s first weekly gain this year, as odds increased that the Fed will cut its benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point this week.
- The risk of SLM Corp.(SLM) defaulting on its debt fell to the lowest in almost two weeks after the biggest US student lender received $31 billion in new bank financing needed to keep the company running.
- Subprime-Loan Contracts May Rally on Fed Cuts, JPMorgan(JPM) Says.
- How to survive the fortune you made shorting subprime.
- Intel Corp.(INTC), the world’s biggest computer-chip maker, will buy renewable energy certificates form solar power generators and wind farms equal to the electricity needed to power 130,000 average US homes a year.
- NASDAQ Short Interest by Industries. Total Nasdaq short interest surged 7.24% during the first two weeks of January.
- CME Group(CME), the world’s largest futures exchange, is in talks to acquire Nymex Holding(NMX) for more than $11 billion to gain the biggest energy-trading market.
- Current Media(CRTM), the television new network co-founded by former US VP Al Gore, plans to raise as much as $100 million in an IPO.

Wall Street Journal:
- AMD(AMD) Graphics Card May Test Nvidia(NVDA).

NY Times:
- LeapFrog(LF) Hopes for Next Hit With Interactive Reading Toy.

Reuters:
- The rally in sugar prices is likely to end because of a record cane crop coming out of Brazil and high global stockpiles, citing the International Sugar Organization.
- A hefty Federal Reserve rate cut and a stimulus plan that would expand the availability of home loans may reinvigorate the beleaguered U.S. housing market and help the broader economy along with it.

Financial Times:
- French CEOs are best paid in Europe. Total US pay for CEOs is two and a half times that of European CEOs, but most of that is in bonuses and long-term incentives. Basic salaries of European CEOs on average exceed US base salaries by 20%.