Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- US Treasury yields are rising after an index of homebuilder confidence improved this month and most of the Fed’s 12 district banks reported a moderate pace of economic expansion.
- Brookfield Asset Management Inc. agreed to pay $1.35 billion for Mills Corp.(MLS), gaining 38 US regional shopping malls at half the price it would have had to pay a year ago.
- NYC Mayor Bloomberg proposed ending automatic teacher tenure, $1 billion in tax cuts and steps to increase development citywide in his sixth State of the City address today.
- Sirius Satellite(SIRI) and XM Satellite(XMSR) wouldn’t win approval of a merger under current US FCC rules, agency Chairman Martin said.
- Lennar Corp.(LEN) the fourth-largest US homebuilder, said profit may rise this year, helped by a robust economy.
- Fewer than two of every five participants passed the most recent first-level exam toward the designation of chartered financial analyst, the test’s administrator said.
- Industry analysts are becoming increasingly cautious on US stocks as the market advances, rather than jumping on the bandwagon as they did during the 1990s Internet bubble. Just 46.2% of their calls in January have been “buy” ratings or equivalents, according to Bloomberg. This percentage is the lowest since the stats started in 1997 and has fallen six months in a row.

Wall Street Journal:
- European Union staffers have advised EU Antitrust Commissioner Neelie Kroes to charge Intel(INTC) with illegally restricting competition in computer chips.
- News Corp.’s(NWS) MySpace.com, the most-viewed US Web site, plans to distribute software to give parents information about their children’s online profiles.
- Pittsburgh’s commercial real estate market is starting to stabilize as demand from financial services, health care, construction and hotels offsets a loss of manufacturing jobs.
- Sprint Nextel(S), AT&T(T) and Google(GOOG) are considering how to put more advertising on cell phones.
- Cablevision Systems(CVC), Time Warner(TWX) and other cable operators are targeting businesses.
- Nike Inc.(NKE) may consider acquisitions for faster growth, citing analysts.

NY Times:
- Procter & Gamble(PG) is putting a $100 million advertising campaign behind its new Crest Pro-Health toothpaste, in an effort to regain a sales lead over Colgate-Palmolive(CL).

Washington Post:
- Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would like lobbying legislation aimed at reducing the influence of family connections in the chamber to include a provision that exempts spouses who are already lobbyists. Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican who drafted the bill proposing to ban spouses of senators from lobbying any part of the chamber, said he would oppose Reid’s proposal.