Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- President-elect Barack Obama and his election rival John McCain will meet Nov. 17 in Chicago to discuss ways they can cooperate on some of the most urgent issues that will confront the next administration. ``It's well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government,'' Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Obama's presidential transition, said in a statement. They ``will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality.''

- Kenneth Heebner, the fund manager who beat all peers last year by buying energy stocks and selling financials, reversed course in the third quarter, snapping up Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. Heebner's Capital Growth Management LP, based in Boston, bought 15.4 million shares of Wells Fargo, 27 million shares of Citigroup and 15.6 million shares of Bank of America in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing today. The combined stakes equal about 15 percent of the U.S.- listed stocks reported in the filing. The firm sold all its shares of Schlumberger Ltd., along with those of Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., Peabody Energy Corp., and Consol Energy Inc. The four companies were four of the money manager's top five holdings as of June 30, Bloomberg data show.

- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said central bankers worldwide are prepared to take additional actions as needed to unfreeze credit markets, citing continued strains even amid ``tentative improvements.'' ``The continuing volatility of markets and recent indicators of economic performance confirm that challenges remain,'' Bernanke said today at a panel discussion hosted by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. ``For this reason, policy makers will remain in close contact, monitor developments closely and stand ready to take additional steps should conditions warrant.''

- New Star Asset Management Group Ltd. and RAB Capital Plc, U.K. firms that went public on the backs of star money managers, are shrinking because of client defections. RAB, founded in 1999 by Philip Richards, said today that assets under management may slump as much as 73 percent this year as it closes at least six funds to focus on resource and energy investments. New Star, set up in 2000 by John Duffield, said in a separate statement it will cut 20 million pounds ($30 million) in costs after assets slumped 28 percent since June 30.

- The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, advanced for a third consecutive day in London. The Baltic Index has advanced 2.8% in the last three sessions.

- The ruble dropped the most this week for more than two months after Russia's central bank let the currency weaken against its dollar-euro basket amid an exodus of foreign capital. Urals crude, Russia's export oil blend, slid for a second week and the Micex stock index lost 18 percent as Bank Rossii allowed the ruble to fall 1 percent Nov. 11 and raised interest rates. The currency move was ``clumsy,'' said Renaissance Capital. Alfa Bank said it was a ``mistake.'' Moscow's Trust Investment Bank estimates policy makers sold as much as $15 billion this week to curb its decline.

- Crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel as the global economic slowdown cut demand in the largest energy- consuming countries. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., supplier of more than half the fuel to the Asian nation, is slashing processing rates by 10 percent from July’s record. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, supplier of 40 percent of the world’s oil, is “very likely” to recommend a production cut at the end of this month, Iran’s OPEC governor, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, told the country’s state-run Mehr news agency.

- Oil tanker demand is being buoyed by traders seeking to store unwanted crude, potentially bolstering hire rates that have plunged 71 percent since July. Frontline Ltd., the largest owner of supertankers, got about 10 enquiries from oil companies seeking vessels for storage this week, Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief executive officer of the management unit, said by phone today. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, booked the carrier Leander, Paris- based shipbroker Barry Rogliano Salles said this week.

- Twenty nations including Japan, Italy and Australia may be releasing more greenhouse-gas pollution than they agreed to under the Kyoto treaty to curb global warming. They're failing to rein in carbon-dioxide output enough to meet their pledges signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, according to reports by individual countries. As a penalty for missing their goals under the treaty, the nations are required to buy permits for every excess ton of the heat-trapping gas released through 2012. That will total 2.3 billion permits for 20 nations, New Carbon Finance, a research firm in London, has estimated. The potential penalty, 36 billion euros ($46 billion) for the group based on current permit prices, and the fact that only a minority of 37 Kyoto signatory nations may meet their pledges bodes poorly for international efforts to limit global warming.

Wall Street Journal:

- Banks across the U.S. are engaged in a heated competition for deposits as the battered industry tries to shore up its funding sources. From giant Citigroup Inc. to tiny S&T Bancorp Inc. -- which is based in Indiana, Pa. and has just 55 branches -- banks are responding to uncertain times by sharply increasing the interest rates paid on deposits. The result is a boon for consumers hungry for higher returns as the stock market lurches.

AppleInsider:

- A single listing on the Apple's(AAPL) career pages suggests the company has pledged itself to releasing the iPhone in China, one of its most elusive markets. The posting made Thursday for an iPhone Quality Assurance Engineer in Beijing doesn't try to mask its likely role. Apple is looking to "to focus on international releases of our iPhone and iPod touch products for Beijing," it reads.

- Google(GOOG) as early as today is expected to introduce a free application for the iPhone that lets you search for information, directions, or virtually anything else by speaking into the handset, eliminating need for the keyboard entirely. "The service can be used to get restaurant recommendations and driving directions, look up contacts in the iPhone’s address book or just settle arguments in bars," wrote the New York Times' John Markoff, who profiled Google's broad speech-recognition efforts while breaking word of the new offering.

Reuters:
- Top U.S. financial regulators and agencies agreed on Friday to cooperate on developing a central clearing infrastructure for credit default swaps to try to bring transparency to the $55 trillion market, blamed for worsening the financial crisis. The group is reviewing proposals from several potential providers of counterparty services. Previously, the SEC had informed several industry firms of its CDS clearing house plans, including IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE), CME Group Inc (CME), NYSE Euronext (NYX) and Eurex.

- Europe's drive for an early and far-reaching revamp of global financial regulation, drawing on lessons from the credit crisis, faces at best a lukewarm reception at this weekend's summit of top economies.

- A default or bankruptcy of General Motors would have little impact on credit markets because the risk of failure by the automaker is already priced into the market, a Citigroup director said on Friday. In contrast to Lehman Brothers, which collapsed practically overnight, the troubles at GM, the largest U.S. automaker, have been years in the making. Investors and dealers already have priced in the risk of any failure based on trading of GM bonds and credit default swaps, said Marc Heimowitz, a director at Citigroup Global Markets.

- The White House has been in talks with Congress about finding a way to accelerate loans to automakers under a $25 billion program already appropriated for the troubled industry, spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Friday.

Dagens Industri:

- Volvo Cars, the Swedish automobile maker owned by Ford Motor Co., wants to accelerate development of electrical hybrid cars, citing CEO Stephen Odell. The company will likely make a final decision in a few months’ time and aims to eventually take a large slice of the market for more exclusive electrical hybrid cars.