Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Aries Maritime Transport Ltd.’s plan to sell shares to the public for the first time may make the three months through the end of June the busiest on record for shipping company offerings.
- Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest bond fund, said 10-year US Treasury yields may fall to as low as 3% because there is little threat of accelerating inflation through 2010.
- Intel President Otellini’s push to sell more laptop computer chips my be paying off as demand for notebooks surges, prompting analysts to raise their estimates for sales and profit.
- Nucor CEO DiMicco said US steel prices, down about 20% since October, will rebound “in the next month or two” as distributors work off excess inventories stockpiled last year.
- Federal Reserve Governor Edward Gramlich will leave the central bank effective Aug. 31 after serving seven years, the Fed said.
- Apollo Management LP agreed to buy Metals USA for $22 a share.
- US 10-year T-notes are surging, pushing yields back near 4%, after a government report showing a measure of consumer prices was unchanged in April eased inflation concerns.
- Viacom’s CBS canceled “60 Minutes Wednesday,” as ratings have declined due to airing an unsubstantiated report by Dan Rather that said President Bush received preferential treatment when he was in the National Guard.
- Crude oil is falling to a three-moth low after an Energy Department report showed US oil inventories rose more than expected.
- Los Angeles voters elected Antonio Villaraigosa mayor, giving the second-biggest US city its first Hispanic mayor since 1872.

Wall Street Journal:
- Hedge fund managers, driven by their trading instincts, have become some of the most active buyers and sellers of hundreds of millions of dollars in art works.
- Hedge funds’ losses are piling up, causing concern about possible repercussions on financial markets.
- Las Vegas has become one of the hottest retail development markets in the world.
- A new highway bill passed yesterday by the US Senate would force automakers to print crash-test data on the information stickers of all new cars.
- US cable operators and wireless companies have been in talks for months about joining forces and Comcast Corp., the biggest cable company, is being watched especially closely.
- MetLife, Allstate and Chubb are among insurers offering all-in-one policies that bundle coverage from home to auto into one policy.

NY Times:
- California, Washington and Maine are among US states considering allowing unused drugs from nursing homes and long-term care centers to be redistributed to poorer patients in an effort to reduce health-care costs.
- The Bush administration suggested that Newsweek magazine, which retracted a false report about US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should clarify US policies on religious symbols such as the Koran to “help repair the damage” from the article. Newsweek’s erroneous report that interrogators tried to flush a Koran down a toilet resulted in anti-US riots in Muslim countries in which 17 people died.

Washington Post:
- The Bush administration may try to talk Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan into working at least a few months after his Jan. 31 term expiration.
- US Airways Group may not survive if a possible merger with America West Holdings isn’t completed.
- Citigroup will start giving customers more notice that they may face higher rates for their credit cards if they are late in paying other credit card companies.

Financial Times Deutschland:
- SAP AG introduced a new global program aimed at expanding its network of partners that help it win customers among small and mid-sized companies.

Boersen-Zeitung:
- Schering AG said it expects its cancer drugs business to grow by 10% or more each year until after 2010.

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