Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Deere(DE) Profit Tops Estimates on Farm Equipment Demand. Deere & Co., the world’s largest farm-equipment maker, reported a 47 percent jump in fiscal third-quarter earnings, while tempering investor expectations for the fourth quarter amid weakening demand in Western Europe. Net income climbed to $617 million, or $1.44 a share, in the third quarter ended July 31, amid strength in the U.S. farming industry, the Moline, Illinois-based company said in a statement today. The average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for profit excluding some items of $1.22. Deere fell in New York trading after saying fourth-quarter earnings will be $375 million, less than the average estimate from analysts for $389.4 million, excluding items. Deere, led by Chief Executive Officer Sam Allen, said full-year sales will rise 5 to 10 percent in the U.S. and Canada on “solid” commodity prices, while Western Europe sales will fall as much as 20 percent. “While the company’s guidance looks a tad light relative to expectations, this is a conservative management team and is probably trying to set a reasonable bar to exceed,” Joel Levington, managing director of corporate credit at New York- based Brookfield Investment Management Inc., said in an e-mail.
• Maersk Raises Forecast as Freight Rates Help First-Half Earnings Recover. A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the owner of the world’s largest container-shipping line, raised its full- year earnings forecast after increases in freight rates and global trade helped the company restore first-half profit. Net income in the first six months of the year was 13.4 billion kroner ($2.31 billion) compared with a 3.67 billion- krone loss a year earlier, the Copenhagen-based company said today in a statement. That beat the 8.22 billion-kroner average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales rose 20 percent to 154 billion kroner.
• Druckenmiller Calls It Quits After 30 Years as Job Gets Tougher. Stanley Druckenmiller, the hedge- fund icon who boasts one of the best long-term trading records and the distinction of having made $1 billion for George Soros by forcing a devaluation of the British pound in 1992, is closing his firm after 30 years. Druckenmiller, 57, said he was tired of the stress of managing money for others and frustrated by his failure in the past three years to match returns that had averaged 30 percent annually since 1986. His Duquesne Capital Management LLC, which oversees $12 billion and has never had a losing year, is down 5 percent in 2010. “Managing more than $10 billion seems to challenge my long-term standard” for investment performance, Druckenmiller said in a two-hour interview in his New York office on 57th Street overlooking Central Park. “For 30 years I’ve been responsible for managing client money and it’s been a joy, but at some point I need to move on. Thirty years is enough.” “While the joy of winning for clients is immense, for me the disappointment of each interim drawdown over the years has taken a cumulative toll that I cannot continue to sustain,” he wrote to his 100 clients today.
• Obama Says He Has 'No Regrets' About Remarks Supporting Ground-Zero Mosque. President Barack Obama said he had “no regrets” about defending the rights of Muslims to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site in New York. Obama was responding to a question as he left an event in Columbus, Ohio. His comments about the controversy last week drew criticism from some Republicans and some representatives of families of those killed at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Obama spoke about the center for the first time Aug. 13 during an annual White House iftar dinner, marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.New York voters oppose the plan by more than two to one, according to a Siena College Research Institute survey. While 64 percent of voters said developers of the mosque have a constitutional right to build, only 27 percent supported putting the project two blocks from the World Trade Center site, with 63 percent opposed, according to the poll. Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said Obama should have urged leaders to compromise and find a new location for the mosque. The symbolism of having it near Ground Zero is wrong, he said Aug. 15 on CNN.
• Crude Oil Falls After Industry Report Shows Higher U.S. Oil, Gasoline Supplies. Crude oil fell to a one-month low after the U.S. Energy Department said total petroleum stockpiles surged to the highest level in at least 20 years. Inventories of crude and fuels climbed 5.34 million barrels to 1.13 billion in the week ended Aug. 13, according to the department. Supplies of distillate fuel, which include heating oil and diesel, rose to the highest level since 1983. “Our inventories are rising at a time of year when they usually decline, so we’re getting a growing surplus,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “Demand has improved but supply has risen even faster.” Crude oil for September delivery fell $1.02, or 1.3 percent, to $74.75 a barrel at 12:48 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. “We got another big build in distillate supplies,” said Rick Mueller, director of oil markets at Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield, Massachusetts. “This is a well- supplied market.” Plans by China to curb oil demand growth by 2020 will have “major implications” for crude prices and refining margins, a consultant said. China may allow oil consumption to peak in 2020 at about 13 million barrels a day, after which growth will slow to about 150,000 barrels a day, or about 1.1 percent a year, Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of Singapore-based FACTS Global Energy, said in an e-mailed note today.
• Vietnam Devalues Its Currency as Equities Approach Bear Market. Vietnam devalued its currency for the third time since November, moving to reverse a slump in exports that helped to drive stocks close to a bear market. The dong dropped 1.1 percent to 19,320 per dollar as of 11:22 a.m. in Hanoi, after touching a record-low 19,425 as the central bank lowered the reference rate by 2 percent. The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange’s VN Index dropped 1.7 percent to 455.49, extending its decline from the May peak to 17 percent, near the 20 percent that would indicate a bear market.
• Mexico Imposes Tariffs on U.S. Food Products in Dispute Over Truck Access. Mexico will impose import tariffs on some U.S. pork cuts, ketchup, cheeses, sweetcorn and some fruits because of the U.S. government’s failure to restore a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate north of the border, the nation’s official gazette said. The list includes a tariff of 5 percent on some cuts of pork and as much as 25 percent on fresh white cheese, according to the notice. Onions, apples, pears, oranges, cherries, soy sauce, mineral water and sunglasses are also on the list. Mexico will charge the duties on a rotating list of 99 U.S. products valued at about $2.5 billion, Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari told reporters Aug. 16 in Mexico City.
• Paychecks to Shrink Because of Higher Health Premiums, U.S. Companies Say. Workers will pay more for their health care next year as U.S. companies prepare for provisions of the overhaul signed into law by President Barack Obama, according to a survey released today. About 63 percent of businesses plan to make employees pay a higher percentage of their premium costs in 2011, said the Washington-based National Business Group on Health, which surveyed 72 companies that employ more than 3.7 million people. The survey showed 46 percent plan to raise the maximum level of out-of-pocket costs that workers must bear. The companies surveyed expect their costs of health-care benefits to rise an average of 8.9 percent next year.
• Homebuilder Mergers Loom as 'Elephant in Room,' Citigroup Says. Homebuilder takeovers may increase as tumbling demand for new houses and a faltering U.S. economic recovery spur companies to consolidate to gain market share, according to Citigroup Inc. Ryland Group Inc.(RYL), Meritage Homes Corp.(MTH) and Beazer Homes USA Inc.(BZH) are the most likely acquisition targets, Josh Levin, a New York-based analyst, wrote in a note to clients today. D.R. Horton Inc., KB Home, MDC Holdings Inc. and PulteGroup Inc. would be probable buyers, he said. “We view consolidation as the proverbial elephant in the room,” Levin wrote.
• BHP's(BHP) Kloppers Goes Hostile in Bid for Potash(POT). BHP Billiton Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers flew to Chicago to deliver the letter containing his $40 billion offer to Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. CEO Bill Doyle. The reply was a blunt rejection.
• American Eagle(AEO) Call Option Trading Surges on Speculation Retailer For Sale. American Eagle Outfitters Inc. call trading jumped to a nine-month high on speculation that the teen retailer may be acquired. Almost 16,000 calls to buy the stock changed hands, eight times the four-week average and 19 times the number of puts to sell, as the shares increased 4.3 percent to $12.86 as of 1:23 p.m. in New York. The most-active contracts were September $13 calls, which doubled to 75 cents and accounted for a quarter of the bullish volume.
• JPMorgan(JPM) Said to Plan $1 Billion CMBS Offering in Biggest Sale of the Year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to sell $1 billion of commercial mortgage-backed bonds, giving control of soured loans to a holder of the riskiest portion after another offering ceded power to investors in the safest pieces. JPMorgan’s sale, the largest this year of the debt, would grant hedge fund H/2 Capital Partners LLC, the buyer of the bottom $50 million slice, primary authority over troubled loans, according to people familiar with the transaction who declined to be identified because negotiations are private.

Wall Street Journal:

• Banks Face Fight Over Mortgage-Loan Buybacks. Fannie and Freddie Work to Push Bad Loans to Originators; A Search for Applicants' Lies. While mortgage delinquencies are easing, banks are facing a new round of losses from loans made just before the financial crisis, and the fight to keep them off their balance sheets is intensifying. Leading the charge to make originators repurchase their loans are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-owned finance agencies that guaranteed the mortgages. The firms are sorting through delinquent loans for signs of any violations of the representations and warranties, known as "reps and warranties." In essence, they are looking for lies made by borrowers or lenders in loan applications.
• GM May Invest $2.85 Billion in Brazil Production. General Motors Co. is investing 5 billion Brazilian reais ($2.85 billion) to overhaul its portfolio of cars in Brazil, as the firm aims to avoid losing its share of sales in the domestic market, the company's new top executive in Latin America's largest economy said Wednesday.

CNBC:

• Where Google(GOOG) Stands Six Years After Going Public. Thursday marks the sixth anniversary of the Google's IPO. Although the company's share price is down about 20 percent this year, it's up an amazing 389 percent since the initial public offering on August 19, 2004.
• Target(TGT) Quarterly Profit Rises 14%.
  

Business Insider:

• Read The Letter Stanley Druckenmiller Wrote About His Retirement.

Zero Hedge:

• Goldman(GS) Tells Its "Special" Clients to Sell Gold Even as It Raises Its Price Target on the Shiny Metal.

Benzinga:

• Arcelor Mittal(MT) Is Looking to Acquire United States Steel Corp.(X) at $80. There is a rumor out on Wall Street today that Arcelor Mittal is looking to acquire ,United States Steel Corp Inc. at $80.00.

NY Daily News:

• Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, Wants Investigation into Ground Zero Mosque Opposition Funding. Nancy Pelosi wants some answers. The house speaker is calling for an investigation into groups protesting the building of the Ground Zero mosque. "There is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some," she told San Francisco's KCBS radio on Tuesday. Pelosi added that she joins "those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded." Many Republicans have said they are against the building of the mosque, and have demanded Democratic candidates and incumbents to publicly choose a side. The GOP said it will keep hammering the issue in a drive to take back Congress.

LA Times:

• California Pension Reform Effort Loses Support. The bill's sponsor, state Controller John Chiang, and others say it has become so watered down that it would do little to prevent public employees from spiking their end-of-career paycheck.

AppleInsider:

• HBO to Offer Streaming Video to Subscribers Via Apple's(AAPL) iPad.

Light Reading:

• What's Intel's(INTC) Next Move? (NYSE: Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) is adding one more piece to the do-it-all cable video gateway puzzle by purchasing Texas Instruments Inc.TXN)'s cable modem business, but the chip giant may have to do more shopping if it's to match up with Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM)'s ability to develop super-integrated system–on-chips (SoCs) for advanced set-tops, TVs, and other broadband-connected devices. (See Intel Snares TI's Cable Modem Business .) Companies that could top that list include Entropic Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTR), the leading maker of Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) chipsets, and MaxLinear Corp. and Microtune Inc. (Nasdaq: TUNE), which make silicon tuners.

Boston Globe:

• Grow Jobs and Shrink Government by Mitt Romney. IT’S NOT happening the way President Obama had planned. Unemployment blew past his 8 percent ceiling and hasn’t looked back. Private sector investment in new jobs and capital has languished. Even the head of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, has resigned. Almost every action the president has taken has deepened and lengthened the downturn. The private sector has retreated, frightened by his agenda and paralyzed by the uncertainty, lack of predictability, and outright hostility he has engendered. His policies are anti-investment, anti-jobs, and anti-growth. Raising taxes — with a 15 percent hike on certain small business corporations, new taxes to pay for ObamaCare, and an increase on the dividend tax from 15 percent to nearly 40 percent — depresses new investment throughout the economy. Promoting an open-ended cap-and-trade tax dissuades expansion by employers in the energy sector. Bowing to the demands of unions to tilt the table in their favor — with proposals for card check and mandatory arbitration as well as the installation of a labor stooge at the National Labor Relations Board — chills new hiring.

The Post and Courier:

• Charleston Port Volume Soars for July, But Caution is Urged. July's container volume at the Port of Charleston rebounded to a level not seen since the financial market meltdown two years ago, but the head of the State Ports Authority cautioned that the uptick might be short-lived. The SPA handled nearly 74,000 containers in July, a 26 percent increase over a year earlier and the port's best month since October 2008.

AP:

• AP Poll: Obama at New Low for Handling Economy. A new Associated Press-GfK poll is giving President Barack Obama his lowest marks ever on how he's handling the economy. The same poll finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans now describe the nation's financial outlook as poor. If this sour outlook lasts until the November elections, frustrated voters could take it out on the party in power, which means Obama's Democrats. Just 41 percent of those surveyed approve of the president's performance on the economy — down from 44 percent in April — while 56 percent disapprove. And 61 percent now say the economy has gotten worse or stayed the same on Obama's watch.

Reuters:

• Chico's(CHS) Beats With Trendier Clothese, Sees Sales Gains. Women's apparel retailer Chico's FAS Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit as trendier fashions attracted shoppers and margins were boosted by exclusives at its outlet stores. Chico's shares rose 7.5 percent to $9.04 on Wednesday as the company also forecast further sales gains through the end of the year.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

• The European Commission may introduce a tax on raw materials including wood, metal, water and fossil fuels, citing an internal commission document.

National Post:

• A Brave Canadian Confronts Ground Zero Mosque. Unlike U.S. President Barack Obama who insists putting a mosque near the site of 9/11 is “legal” and not his concern, a leading Canadian Muslim has publicly attacked the proposal as inappropriate, insensitive and wrong. Farzana Hassan lives in Toronto and is an astonishingly brave woman who has written three books since 9/11, putting Islam into perspective. She, along with Tarek Fatah, founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress (MCC), are among the few Muslims who speak out loudly and clearly against extremism. Both have had death threats, both soldier on fearlessly and honestly.

Beijing News:

• China's western Qinghai province will raise minimum wages by an average of 29% from Sept. 1, the 27th of the nation's 31 regions to increase pay rates this year, citing the local government. The remaining four - Guangxi, Gansu, Guizhou and Chongqing - also plan increases.