Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Billionaire financier Wilbur Ross Jr. plans to seek about $4 billion from investors including Arab sovereign wealth funds to buy US depositary banks.
- Monsanto Co.(MON) jumped 6%, the highest since its October 2000 IPO after Goldman Sachs(GS) raised their 2008-2009 earnings estimates and lifted their price target to $140. The company also announced a new three-year share repurchase program.
- The Federal Reserve said economic growth has slowed in nine of its 12 districts since February.
- Jack Welch, who handpicked Jeffrey Immelt to succeed him as CEO at General Electric(GE), said his protégé “has a credibility issue” following the company’s surprise first-quarter profit shortfall.
- Confidence in the global economy improved for the first time in five months in April after the US Fed cut interest rates to avert a recession, a survey of Bloomberg users on five continents showed.
- Bush, Democrats Sell Fear Itself on US Economy. The economy is to the Great Depression what an April drizzle is to Hurricane Katrina.
- Banks worldwide are demanding 60% more in collateral from investors such as hedge funds to cut the risk of derivatives trades going bad, the Intl. Swaps and Derivatives Assoc. said.
- The risk of US companies defaulting fell, according to traders of credit default swaps. Contracts on the Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index of 125 companies in the US and Canada dropped 2 basis points.
- Crude oil and gas rose to records after the EIA reported gasoline supplies dropped on a another plunge in refinery utilization.

Wall Street Journal:
- US airlines – abuzz over the blockbuster merger deal between Delta Air(DAL) and Northwest Air(NWA) – are already focusing on the next potential pairing as the fragmented industry struggles to cope with a harsh operating environment.
- NY Times Co.(NYT) said it expects its flagship newspaper will resort to newsroom layoffs as buyouts offered to trim the paper’s ranks haven’t lured enough volunteers.
- President Bush will propose stopping growth in US greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025 and curb increases in output from power stations within 10-15 years.
- With small-business customers finding it harder to finance high-tech purchases, Microsoft(MSFT) plans to increase the amount it lends them for purchases, by as much as 60%.
- Airline Mergers Make Sense, Anderson, Steenland Say.

NY Times:
- US States Boost Aid to Avoid Home Foreclosures.
- Kenneth G. Langone, a billionaire financier and a founder of Home Depot(HD), is giving another $100 million donation to NY University Medical Center, matching the one that he made anonymously in 1999.

NY Post:
- Bad blood could be stirring between JPMorgan(JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Ken Griffin, the Wall Street wunderkind who’s beefing up his buzz-gathering hedge fund.

USA Today:
- Barack Obama often boasts he is “the only candidate who isn’t taking a dime from Washington lobbyists,” yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show.

Newsweek:
- Free Trade Not Behind Job Losses, Samuelson Writes.

FINalternatives:
- Global hedge funds assets reached $2.65 trillion at the beginning of 2008, with over 390 firms in the Billion-Dollar Club.

Daily Telegraph:
- Silvio Berlusconi, who won national elections for prime minister this week, will form an alliance with French President Nicolas Sarkozy against the European Central Bank, which he blames for the euro’s strength. “A very strong euro is hurting Italy’s economy,” Berlusconi said. “I will discuss intervening with the ECB with Sarkozy.” Bernard Connolly, global strategist at Banque AIG, said Spain could join a French-Italian alliance “before too long.”

iHNed.cz:
- Czech T-Mobile may offer Apple’s(AAPL) iPhone by Christmas.

Al-Hayat:
- The value of shares on the Iraqi stock market increased 10.5% to $1.8 billion last year, citing the head of the exchange. The number of shares traded increased to 158 billion in 2007 from 58 billion the year before, citing stock market CEO Taha Ahmed Abdul-Salam.

al-Bayan:
- Persian Gulf states need to invest $375 billion on telecom infrastructure over the next 10 years to maintain competitiveness, citing a telecom study.