Bloomberg:- New Orleans port director Gary LaGrange told CNBC that shipping traffic passing through the port is about 40% to 50% of normal.
- The US government may set aside $51.8 billion more in relief dollars for Hurricane Katrina recovery as New Orleans floodwaters recede from last week’s levels amid repairs to the city’s levees.
- Sears Holdings ousted CEO Alan Lacy and named Aylwin Lewis to succeed him after comparable sales at Sears and Kmart stores fell.
- US Treasuries are rising after a government report showed Japanese investors bought the most overseas bonds in six weeks, raising optimism that demand for debt will increase at an auction today.
- Boeing’s third-quarter profit may be reduced by at least 14 cents a share if a strike by machinists against the world’s No. 2 commercial-airline maker isn’t resolved by the end of the month, analysts said.
- Crude oil is falling again after a government report showed that US oil and petroleum product inventories declined less than expected in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
- The National Assoc. of Realtors was sued by US antitrust enforcers who accused the trade group of trying to restrain competition by restricting Internet brokers access to listings of home sales.
- GM will stop offering employee discounts to all buyers Sept. 30 and begin relying on lower list prices to sell 2006 models after sales fell in August.
Wall Street Journal:- Insurers of offshore oil platforms and drilling rigs are likely to demand increases of more than 50% in premiums in the wake of the hurricane catastrophe on the US Gulf Coast, citing Charles Franks, an underwriter with Kiln Plc.
- News Corp. has agreed to pay $650 million for IGN Entertainment, a US video-games fan Internet company.
- EBay Inc. is in talks to buy Web telephone operator Skype Technologies SA for between $2 billion and $3 billion.
- Apple Computer’s latest member of its iPod portable music player family outperforms its maker’s specifications, Walt Mossberg wrote.
- Abbott Labs, Wyeth and Eli Lilly are among US drugmakers who bypassed the government to figure out how to quickly send medicine and equipment to clinics and hospitals helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.
- Insurers are facing pressure to should some of the cost of rebuilding flood-damaged homes along the US Gulf Coast, most of which lacked flood insurance.
- The NASDAQ stock market cut the fees it charges for listing closed-end mutual funds, as part of a contest to wrest market share from the NYSE, which dominates listings of such funds.
NY Times:- Katrina will cost US farmers about $2 billion, citing the American Farm Bureau Federation.
- Fortune Brands is running television commercials for its Jim Beam bourbon for the first time in the brand’s 210-year history.
NY Post:- The NASD asked companies to submit data on stock lending operations as part of a probe into illegal “naked” short selling.
Washington Post:- US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is drawing criticism from some who say she’s using the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe to raise he political profile.
RollCall.com:- California Governor Schwarzenegger plans to announce next week that he will run for re-election.
Financial Times:- President Bush’s administration has told US refiners to postpone scheduled maintenance to get the most out of gasoline production, citing unidentified senior refinery executives.
