Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The number of mortgage applications filed in the US jumped last week as a drop in borrowing costs caused refinancing to almost double.
- Commodities rallied for the third straight day on a decline in the US dollar, a decline in US energy stockpiles and continuing historic speculation by investment funds.
- Emerging-market bonds are falling, led by Argentine securities, after a worse-than-expected report on US durable goods. The so-called spread on Argentine debt swelled 17 basis points, the most in emerging markets, to 5.52 percentage points.
- Apple Inc. has placed a manufacturing order for 109 million updated iPhones that can download from the Internet at a faster rate than current models, Gartner Inc. said. The new phones operated on third-generation, or 3G, wireless networks, analyst Ken Dulaney said today.
- Google Inc.(GOOG) led US search engines in market share for February with 58.7%. Yahoo! came in second at 17.6%.

Wall Street Journal:
- Barack Obama is drawing fire for pledging to hold direct talks with foreign adversaries, an approach both Hillary Clinton and John McCain say they will hit hard. Critics in the foreign-policy establishment and from rival presidential camps said his idea could undercut pro-Western forces and legitimize leaders whose power the US wants to undermine, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Increasingly, they are presenting his ideas as a radical departure from standard US doctrine.
- Iraqi Religious Leader Talks Helpful, McFarlane Says.

NY Times:
- Many US Muslims Turn to Home Schooling.

NY Post:
- TV journalist Charlie Gasparino has inked a $400,000 advance for a book on the collapse of Bear Stearns(BSC).