Bloomberg:
- Fannie Mae(FNM) will stop requiring bigger down payments in regions where home prices are dropping.
- Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, will increase crude production by 300,000 bpd next month in response to rising demand from its customers and a request by President Bush to ease the strain of record oil prices.
- Crude oil rose above $127/bbl. after Goldman Sachs(GS), one of the world’s largest commodities traders, boosted its second-half price forecast for crude to $141/bbl.
- India’s inflation rate unexpectedly rose to 7.83%, the highest in 3 ½ years, adding pressure on the central bank to raise borrowing costs further to tame prices.
- Osama bin Laden marked the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel by pledging to fight the Jewish state and Western powers, in the latest audio message purportedly from the al-Qaeda leader.
NY Post:
- Yahoo! executives are scrambling to finalize a search-advertising pact with Google(GOOG) in the face of a fresh challenge to its independence from billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
Dow Jones:
- Morgan Stanley(MS) Private Equity, the buyout unit of the world’s second-biggest securities firm, will close its first round of money-raising in July at about $2.5 billion for its main buyout fund.
Reuters:
- Sluggish gold sales during the Akshaya Tritiya festival, normally seen as an auspicious time to buy the metal, provide the latest evidence of high prices hurting demand form the world’s top consumer. Weak demand during the May 7-8 festival could also point to poor demand in the festivals and wedding season, which starts in September. Imports of gold have plummeted this year because of high prices, falling to 42 tons in January-March, down 76% from a year ago, Bombay Bullion Assoc. says.
Financial Times:
- Chip Mason, chairman of Legg Mason(LM), said there was a bubble in commodities and oil prices, and the stock market would not recover until those prices came down. "Most things that we deal with in life from a business standpoint have some reality to cost . . . but, when you get to certain commodities, oil being one, it doesn't seem to have any relationship to production costs. The cost to create a barrel of oil is still in the $40s . . . Yet the price has gone up immensely. I would think the oil industry would be a little concerned right now. The price has gotten to a point where they're creating economic imbalances. They're causing the poor countries to suffer a lot. They're causing major economies to go through big shifts," he said.
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