Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The cost to protect US corporate bonds from default fell for the first time in six days amid speculation the Fed may signal today it’s in no hurry to raise interest rates.
- Crude oil is falling $3/bbl. after a US government report showed that inventories rose for the first time in six weeks. Gasoline demand has averaged 9.28 million barrels a day over the last four weeks, down by 2.1% form the same period last year. Demand for distillate fuel averaged 4.06 million barrels, down 1.1% from year ago levels. “Prices shrugged off weakening demand but it has probably gotten to a point where it can be ignored no longer,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst for Citi Futures Perspective. The United Arab Emirates, OPEC's third-biggest oil producer, is ready to boost supplies to the market if needed, Oil Minister Mohamed al-Hamli said today.
- Lead, the worst performer on the London Metal Exchange this year, fell for a third consecutive day on speculation the restart of the Magellan mine in Australia will add to bulging stockpiles.
- The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate at 2%, ending the mo0st aggressive series of rate cuts in two decades.

Wall Street Journal:
- Hedge-Fund Honcho Paulson and the Slings & Arrows of a Canadian Judge. Justice Romaine didn’t buy Paulson’s testimony, calling him a “not credible” witness and implying that he was essentially trying to greenmail the company. His valuation methodology was “unpersuasive in someone of his credentials and level of financial sophistication.” His selective judgment of risk in an oil-sands company was “self-serving.” And as a minority shareholder, Paulson’s “limited and skewed interpretation” of Total’s intention to buy the whole company was “self-serving and patently erroneous.”

NY Times:
- In Overhaul, Disney.com Seeks a Path to More Fun.
- From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

CNBC.com:
- European Governing Council member Christian Noyer said there is "no second wave" in the financial crisis, arguing that additional losses announced by banks are "the mechanical result of market developments." "We are in a normal cycle of risk provision, without the danger this time of contamination of other areas of bank credit," he said in an interview to appear in Wednesday afternoon's edition of Le Monde.

IEA:
- Oil prices will fall to $70 a barrel by 2015 as new production begins in countries such as Azerbaijan, Canada, Brazil and Kazakhstan, the US Energy Dept. said.

LA Times:
- Chrysler LLC will make Internet access an option in its 2009 models, the first car manufacturer to do so.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
- Intel Corp.(INTC) said the market for low-cost notebook PCs was “red hot,” creating demand for its Atom chip, citing Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner. Demand for the Atom chip was “enormous,” he said. Intel will focus more on consumer electronics as buyers of set-top boxes and televisions want their gadgets to be Internet-enabled. The company aims to produce chips using 32 nanometer technology by 2009.