Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Petroleo Brasileiro SA(PBR) rose the most in almost two months in Sao Paulo trading on speculation the state-controlled oil company found oil off the coast of Maranhao state in Brazil’s northeast. Traders are speculating Petrobras discovered a field in Maranhao that is bigger than its Tupi field offshore Rio de Janeiro.
- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said a government bailout of banks should be based “solely on preventing systemic risk” and not on helping financial and property speculators.
- CME Group(CME), the world’s largest futures market, said it will buy Credit Market Analysis to give its customers pricing information on derivatives such as credit-default swaps.
- Emerging-Market Bond Spreads Widen on Credit Loss Concerns.
- Countrywide Financial(CFC) and UK lender Lloyds TSB Group Plc led a decline in the cost of protecting bonds from default to the lowest in a month. Credit-default swaps on Countrywide tumbled 82 basis points to 374 and Lloyds TSB dropped a record 49 basis points to 76, according to CMA Datavision.
- The risk of corporate debt defaults in Asia has increased because of the global credit turmoil, weakening US dollar and slowdown of the US economy, S&P said. Companies from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam that have borrowed heavily in the past are likely to struggle as their economies rely on exports to the US, S&P said.
- James B. Bullard, the deputy director of research and monetary analysis at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, was named president of the bank, the St. Louis Fed said. Bullard, 47, will take over April 1 for William Poole, who is retiring.
- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than one percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign. The couple earned more than $2.6 million in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book in 2005. They donated $137,622 over those two years and made their church, Trinity United Church of Christ, one of the biggest beneficiaries of their philanthropy, donating $27,500. Obama is under scrutiny for his ties to the church because of comments made by its senior pastor.
- Google(GOOG) said rival Yahoo!(YHOO) will support its OpenSocial software, allowing developers to put their programs on a broader range of social-networking sites.

Wall Street Journal:
- Starwood(HOT) Plans $4 Billion Renovation to Boost Brand.
- Vornado Realty(VNO) May Offer Bargain for REIT Investors.
- Securitization Market Will Recover, Penner Says.

NY Times:
- Clinton’s Mortgage Solution: Bring in Greenspan? Post-Fed Mr. Greenspan has secured multiple advisory positions, including one at Paulson & Company, the hedge fund that has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of the destruction in the housing market.

Albany Journal:
- AMD(AMD) to Unveil $3.2 Billion NY Chip Plant.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
- Sony BMG, the music joint venture of Sony Corp.(SNE) and Bertelsmann AG, may charge a fixed monthly fee to let users download unlimited music from the Web and is discussing distribution accords with Apple Inc.(AAPL) and Nokia Oyj(NOK).

Daily Telegraph:
- Hedge funds are the likely culprits behind the rumors that hit HBOS, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, says Ian Cowie.

Kauppalehti:
- Microsoft Corp.(MSFT) said most of Europe’s biggest companies will be using its Vista operating system by the end of this year. About 80% of “large” corporations in Europe plan to install Vista by the end of 2008, citing an interview with Pierre Liautaud, head of Microsoft’s western European unit. Sales of Vista to corporate clients have been stalled by concerns about compatibility with existing systems. Liautaud said credit-market turmoil in the US has not so far affected information technology sales in Europe.