Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Papandreou Sees Make-or-Break Time in Debt Crisis on Eve of Europe Summit. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou says Europe’s leaders need to show tomorrow that they can resolve the European Union debt crisis to avoid a contagion enveloping Italy and Spain. “It could be a make-or-break moment for where Europe is going,” Papandreou said during an interview in his Athens office at Parliament yesterday. “Markets are saying pretty much what I’m saying too: that Greece is doing what it can, but that Greece is not going to be able to carry the weight of all of Europe and the other problems that Europe has.”
• Corporate Bond Risk Falls in Europe, Credit-Default Swaps Show. The cost of insuring against default on sovereign and corporate bonds fell for a second day on optimism agreements will be reached to resolve debt crises in the U.S. and Greece. The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps on 15 governments dropped 17 basis points to 278 at 11:30 a.m. in London. Swaps on U.S. Treasuries fell 3 basis points to 51, down from a 2 1/2-year high of 56 on July 18, according to CMA. Swaps on Greece dropped 58 basis points to 2,442, according to CMA. Ireland tumbled 72 to 1,084, Portugal decreased 83 to 1,099 and Spain fell 23.5 to 334.5, while Italy declined 19 to 286. France fell 11 to 104 and Belgium was 15 lower at 189. Contracts on the Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of 40 companies with mostly high-yield credit ratings decreased 19 basis points to 442, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The Markit iTraxx Europe Index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings fell 4.5 basis points to 119.25 basis points. The Markit iTraxx Financial Index linked to senior debt of 25 banks and insurers decreased 13 basis points to 175 and the subordinated index dropped 24.5 to 305.
  
• Existing-Home Sales in U.S. Fell .8% in June. Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in June to a seven-month low as the industry struggled to overcome rising unemployment and foreclosures.
• BofA(BAC) Jumps as Analysts Dismiss Capital Hike. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) gained the most in four months of New York trading as analysts from Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. (C) and Nomura Holdings Inc. wrote that the biggest U.S. lender probably won’t need to raise capital. The bank rose 40 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $9.97 at 11:13 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
• Amazon(AMZN) Boosts Netflix(NFLX), Hulu Rivalry With CBS Deal. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), escalating its competition with Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Hulu LLC, reached an agreement allowing customers to watch thousands of the CBS television shows online. The non-exclusive agreement with CBS Corp. (CBS) adds 2,000 episodes of shows, including full seasons of “Numb3rs” and “Medium” at no additional cost to subscribers of the Amazon Prime service, the world’s largest online retailer said today in a statement.
• Zillow(Z) Triples to $60 in Stock Market Debut. Zillow Inc., an online real estate information service, more than doubled in its trading debut after selling shares above an increased price range. The shares, trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol Z, climbed to $43.21 at 11:26 a.m. New York time, after earlier surging to $60. Zillow had raised the price range on the IPO to $16 to $18 a share earlier this month, after initially proposing to sell at $12 to $14. Citigroup Inc. (C) was the lead underwriter for the offering.
• AllianceBernstein(AB) Stops Bets Against Dollar, Starts Shorting Euro, Pound. AllianceBernstein LP, a New York- based fund manager with $460 billion in assets, said it ended its bets against the dollar as the debt crisis in the euro region deteriorates. The U.S. unit of French insurer Axa SA (CS) has moved to a so- called neutral position on the dollar, according to Anthony Chung, its London-based director of research and currency strategies. That means its holdings match the weight suggested by indexes used to benchmark performance. AllianceBernstein is also betting on a weaker euro and British pound, as well as strength for Scandinavian currencies and the Swiss franc. “The dollar is cheap at the current level, as a lot of bad news has been discounted,” Chung said in an interview. “We are slightly more positive on the dollar now. We were a bit short three months ago. Another reason is that the debt problem in Europe is getting worse.”
• Gundlach's Hedge Fund Said to Rise 28% on Mortgage-Backed Bond Investments. Jeffrey Gundlach’s hedge fund has gained 28 percent since its Sept. 1 start, driven by bets on mortgage-backed securities, according to an investor briefed on the returns. The DoubleLine Opportunistic Income Fund, which invests in fixed-income securities, is up 16 percent through the first half of the year, net of fees, said the investor, who asked not to identified because the information is private.
• Japan Can't Rule Out Possible Export of Contaminated Beef. Japan's government said it can't rule out the possibility beef contaminated with radioactive material has been exported, as consumers and lawmakers accused authorities of negligence on food safety. "We cannot completely rule out the possibility" contaminated beef was beef was also sold abroad, Yuichi Imasaki, the deputy director of the farm ministry's meat and egg division said by phone.
• Massachusetts Suing RBC Capital, Agent Over 'Dishonest' Leveraged ETF Sale. Massachusetts’ top securities regulator is suing RBC Capital Markets LLC and one of its former registered representatives over the sale of leveraged exchange- traded funds, saying they sold them to clients who didn’t understand how the investments worked.
• SEC Weighs Approving System to Monitor Biggest Traders' Activity. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it will decide July 26 whether to establish a system to watch the trading behavior of big market participants including high-frequency trading firms and hedge funds. The system, proposed three weeks before the May 6 crash that temporarily erased $862 billion in market value of U.S. shares, would apply to firms that buy and sell at least 2 million shares a day. Traders that execute $20 million of equities a day or $200 million in a month also would qualify.

Wall Street Journal:

• Obama Open to Short-Term Debt Deal. President Barack Obama is open to a short-term deal to raise the debt ceiling if the White House and congressional leaders need just a bit more time to finalize a large deal to slash the country's deficit, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. Mr. Obama remains opposed to a short-term stand-alone deal to raise the country's debt ceiling. "We believe a short-term extension absent an agreement to a larger deal is unacceptable," Mr. Carney said at the White House.
• China Gives Details of Bloody Ethnic Clash. China offered new details of a bloody battle in its restive Xinjiang region this week, with state media saying police shot dead 14 rioters in the clash and a local government website publishing the first photographs of the incident. Local officials have described the violence Monday in the remote city of Hotan as a terrorist attack by separatists from the mostly Muslim ethnic Uighur minority. The government hadn't previously said how many assailants died in the incident, saying only that two security personnel and two civilian hostages had been killed.
• BofA(BAC) Merrill Lynch Rolls Out High-Frequency Powered Trading Platform. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC) has launched a high-speed system for electronic stock trading, built for the bank by a high-frequency trading firm. The platform, called BofAML Express, aims to provide rapid connections to U.S. securities exchanges alongside new risk control measures now required by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Meet Google's(GOOG) Latest Takeover Target: InterDigital(IDCC).
• BigBand(BBND) Sees AT&T as Significant Customer in 2nd Half.
  

MarketWatch:

• Apple(AAPL) Shares Still a Bargain, Street Says. Analysts pump up estimates, targets following blow-out results.

CNBC.com:

• Banks Say Euro Zone Levy for Greece Wrong Option: Sources. Banks may launch lawsuits if a euro zone bank levy is imposed on the industry to help fund a rescue of Greece as it would unfairly punish banks not exposed to the country, two bank industry sources said on Wednesday. A tax on euro zone banks to raise 10 billion euros a year for three years has been proposed, but that would send a completely wrong signal by punishing banks regardless of their holdings, the sources said.
• US Bancorp(USB) Earnings Rise as Loan Losses Ease. Shares of US Bancorp last rose about 4 percent.

Business Insider:

• Dreamworks CEO: It's Unbelievable How Bad Movies Are Right Now.
• Mind-Melting Facts About Apple's(AAPL) June Quarter.
• Here's Everything You Need to Know About Tomorrow's Huge EU Meeting.
• NYU Professor Catches 20% of His Students Cheating, And He's The One Who Pays For It.
• The Case For A Hard Landing in China.
  

Atlantic Wire:

• Welcome to China's Fake Apple(AAPL) Store. (pics)

Philly.com:

• Penn State Report Even More Bullish on Marcellus Shale. An updated Pennsylvania State University economic study of the Marcellus Shale gas boom is even more bullish than past reports, projecting that Pennsylvania could supply a quarter of the nation's natural gas by 2020.

Gallup:

• Obama Job Approval: 48% Disapprove, 42% Approve. (graph)

Politico:

• Ethics Panel Outsources Waters Case. Stung by allegations of misconduct within the panel, the House Ethics Committee has hired an outside counsel to take over the case against Rep. Maxine Waters.

The Economic Times:

• Real Estate Sale Registrations in Mumbai Hit 24-Month Low. Mumbai, the largest residential market in the country, has hit a new 24-month low as far as sale registrations are concerned. For the month of June, the city clocked a 27% dip in sales registrations, which is close to the levels that were last seen during June 2009. A monthly report on Mumbai real-estate, published by Prabhudas Lilladher, paints a grim picture of the city's realty space. "With no visible signs of a meaningful correction in prices, affordability continues to remain a major cause of concern..." the report states. "The current sales environment is likely to be much worse than what is reflected in the already low June sale registration figures, as the June numbers will reflect sales that have happened in March and April," it added. A couple of days ago, global property consultants, Knight Frank came out with a similar report that talked a crisis brewing in Mumbai's realty space.

Xinhua:

• Beijing's commercial housing sales dropped 20% to 3.89 million square meters in the first half from a year earlier, citing the city statistics bureau.