Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Bear Stearns(BSC), the US firm that posted its first-ever loss last quarter on mortgage writedowns, is betting more than $1 billion that subprime home loans and bonds will continue to decline.
- Copper is rising another 2.4%, heading for its biggest weekly gain since May 2006, as inventories fell to the lowest level in more than three months.
- Oil is rising $3.41/bbl. to $91.44/bbl. after OPEC said it may cut oil production despite the fact that record prices for the commodity are greatly contributing to the global economic slowdown and that it may abandon the US dollar for the euro in pricing oil.
- Amazon.com(AMZN) posted its biggest two-day gain since November after saying it plans to buy back as much as $1 billion of stock in the next two years.
- Google Inc.(GOOG) hasn’t received formal objections from EU regulators about its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick(DCLK), indicating the EU is close to approving the deal.
- McDonald’s(MCD), the world’s largest restaurant company said comparable-store sales at US outlets rose 1.9%, more than the 1.5% increase it had previously forecast.
- OPEC may cut crude production when it meets next month to keep the price near record levels.

Wall Street Journal:
- Internet Logjams Spur Cable Boom. Seven years after a telecom boom and bust created a glut of fiber optical cable and destroyed $2 trillion in stock-market wealth, another building binge is on.
- Retailers in the US are turning to the Internet to sell to shoppers abroad in hopes of easing the pain of an economic slowdown at home.
- Toyota Motor(TM) is offering 7-year loans on new cars to help dealers boost sales.
- Now that the excitement of Super Tuesday has passed, we should remember the kinds of policies and principles at stake, Exhibit A: three pieces of legislation pending in Congress that would dramatically increase the liability of private companies for alleged acts of employment discrimination.

NY Times:
- Seattle Becomes New Destination for Venture Capital.

CNBC:
- An agreement for a bailout of bond insurers Ambac Financial(ABK) and FGIC Corp. might be reached as early as next week.

Social Science Research Network:
- Do Hedge Funds Profit from Mutual-Fund Distress?

CNNMoney.com:
- Unusual Perks: Goldman Sachs’(GS) Health Insurance Covers Sex Changes.

Reuters:
- The US dollar fell against the euro after a magazine report said OPEC may adopt the euro and abandon the US dollar when pricing oil.

Financial Times:
- PGGM, Europe’s second largest pension fund, has shaken up its commodities investment portfolio, halving its exposure to the agricultural sector and scrapping its gold and silver allocations in spite of recent record prices in both areas. At the same time, the Dutch pension fund has increased its exposure to industrial metals and livestock, according to officials and bankers familiar with the fund.

Dagens Naeringsliv:
- StatoilHydro ASA, Norway’s largest oil producer, will send a team to investigate the Bay Hassan oil field in northern Iraq, citing Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. Iraq plans to expand oil production to 6 million barrels a day in five years, from 2.4 million barrels a day now, al-Shahristani said.

Xinhua:
- Chinese mobile phone users are expected to send a record 17 billion text messages during the Lunar New Year holiday, citing government forecasts.