Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.(LEH), the fourth-biggest U.S. securities firm, is a candidate for a hostile takeover, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. analyst Richard Bove said. He raised his rating on the shares to ``buy.'' ``Management is unwilling to sell out at a deeply distressed value,'' Bove wrote in a note to clients. ``The stage is set for a hostile bid to take over the whole company.''
- Billionaire Sam Zell, founder of the largest publicly traded apartment landlord in the U.S., is investing in distressed debt instead of real estate stocks or property and expects a housing recovery early next year. ``We believe that the opportunities, particularly in difficult situations, are in the debt,'' said Zell, who is looking to buy both real estate debt and distressed corporate debt now trading at a discount. Zell declined to put a dollar value on his expected debt investments, saying only that they would be ``significant.''
- Russia began withdrawing some tanks, artillery and troops from Georgia, stepping up a military pullout required under a cease-fire, as Georgia's leader said Russia is expanding its ``occupation'' of the country. All Russian troops and hardware sent into Georgia on Aug. 8 will be pulled back into a peacekeeping zone by the end of the day tomorrow, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, told reporters today in Moscow.
- The market for short-term debt backed by assets including mortgages and car loans jumped a seasonally adjusted 3.5%, the biggest gain in at least seven years, according to the Federal Reserve. The US asset-backed commercial paper market rose $25.4 billion to $749.9 billion for the week ended Aug. 20, the Fed said.
- Inflation’s Peak Signaled by Tame Labor Costs: John Berry.
- Fadel Gheit, managing director of oil and gas research at Oppenheimer, says oil prices are ‘inflated,’ should fall. (video)
- Russia risks running out of storage capacity for corn, wheat and barley after the best harvest in at least 15 years, threatening a government plan to expand agricultural output and exports.
- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators produced a draft agreement on how long U.S. troops will stay in Iraq and the scope of their mission after 2008, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said, adding that a process leading to parliamentary consideration will begin tomorrow.
- Oil jumped more than $5 as the US dollar slumped and worries over the potential of Russian pipeline disruptions rose.
- Dick's Sporting Goods Inc.(DKS) climbed the most in four years in New York trading after posting second- quarter profit that fell less than some analysts estimated.
- Bally Technologies Inc.(BYI), second- largest U.S. maker of slot machines, climbed as much as 6.9 percent in New York trading after reporting fourth-quarter profit rose 69 percent and reiterating its full-year forecast.
- Argentina’s government may increase price caps on crude oil, a measure that would lower profits for Exxon Mobil(XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell, who buy outside supplies for their refineries in the South American country, oil-pricing service Platts said.

NY Times:
- We have all the oil we need.

- Rumored iTunes Music Subscription: $130 Per Year.

Reuters:
- Apple Inc (AAPL) has agreed with Mobile TeleSystems on the sale of iPhones in Russia and retail sales will begin in October, a market source told Reuters on Thursday.

Alpha Bank:
- Russia’s economy will grow at a slower rate in the second half of the year because of higher borrowing rates in the wake of the country’s clash with Georgia and a slowdown in the construction industry. Interbank lending rates jumped as high as 10% as $7 billion left the country after Russia sent tanks into Georgia on Aug. 8. “The conflict with Georgia and the nervousness created by the government’s criticism of Mechel Steel have substantially damaged the economic outlook” in the second half, Natalia Orlova, Alpha Bank’s chief economist in Moscow, wrote today. Russia’s banking industry is already experiencing a liquidity shortage, with about $45.2 billion of tax payments looming in October. If capital inflow isn’t re-established in Sept., the central bank and the Finance Ministry will have to use “all the instruments available” to support the banking system, Orlova said. In the “worst-case scenario,” the central bank could be forced to cut the mandatory reserve requirements for lenders, which it raised this year to fight inflation, she said. Loans to the construction industry, particularly for residential housing, have become more expensive in the wake of the US subprime mortgage market collapse, Orlova said.

Het Financieele Dagblad:
- Higher prices are feeding into wages, European Central Bank Governing Council member Nout Wellink said.

Radio Television Hong Kong:
- Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang will make curbing inflation a priority, citing Tsang. Hong Kong’s inflation unexpectedly accelerated in July to 6.3%, matching the fastest pace in more than a decade.