Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The cost of protecting corporate bonds from default held near a 12-week low as capital-raising plans by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and CIT Group(CIT) boosted confidence that financial companies are weathering a freeze in some credit markets. Contracts on CIT, the biggest independent US commercial finance company, reached the lowest in more than three months as concerns eased about the NY-based company’s ability to repay debt maturing this year.
- Growers and traders said the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) is failing to adequately regulate speculators and index funds during the record rally in crop prices. “The market is broken, it’s out of whack, and someone has to step in and bring relief,” William Dunavant Jr., chairman of cotton merchant Dunavant Enterprises, said. The rallies have been fueled by a surge in demand for futures by large funds such as the Goldman Sachs(GS) Commodity Index Fund, AIG Index Fund and Pimco Commodity Fund. The increased investment by index funds in crop futures has “put a strain on consumers as well as many producers and commercial participants that utilize the futures markets to manage risk and discover prices,” Walter Lukken, acting chairman of the CFTC, said. Index funds had almost doubled positions to 1.732 million agricultural contracts as of April 15, up from 896,734 contracts in January 2006. Global commodity investments, including those from hedge funds, rose by more than a fifth in the first quarter to $400 billion.
- Crude oil rose to a record $119.86 a barrel in NY as the US dollar dropped, boosting speculation in the commodity by investment funds.
- Citigroup(C) CEO Vikram Pandi, facing shareholders for the first time since his appointment in December, said the credit-market contraction that saddled his bank with record losses is abating.
- GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit investment firm bought by Blackstone Group last month, is raising a $510 million collateralized loan obligation to buy high-risk, high-yield debt being sold by banks at discounted prices.
- Coach Inc.(COH), the largest US market of luxury leather handbags, posted third-quarter profit that advanced more than analysts estimated, helped by a 20% sales gain at namesake stores in North America.

Wall Street Journal:
- Why I Left Greenpeace by Patrick Moore, co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace. Greenpeace puts politics before science, Moore says.

VentureBeat:
- Google(GOOG) wants to turn your home page into your social network. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace are often just one click of a bookmark away on users’ web browsers. Google looks to be one-upping them by turning its personalized home page, iGoogle, into a social network of sorts.

USA Today:
- New US Smog Rules Would Hit Smaller Counties.

Detroit News:
- The US Transportation Dept. today will propose a sweeping increase in fuel economy standards, requiring passenger cars to average 35.7 miles per gallon and light trucks 28.6 mpg by 2015.

Kydo News:
- Macau’s government won’t issue new gaming licenses nor provide land for new casinos, citing city CEO Edmund Ho.

Gulfnews.com:
- Iraq on Monday made much-needed diplomatic gains after Gulf countries and Egypt pledged to consider opening embassies in Baghdad. The decision by the eight-member group to embrace Iraq’s political and security progress was seen as a “qualitative leap forward” by Iraq’s foreign minister who attended the one-day meeting in the Bahraini capital.

Haaretz.com:
- Italy is expected to join a European Union consensus on Iran’s nuclear program, after dropping earlier objections last week, possibly paving the way for new sanctions.