Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The DJIA is hitting another all-time high today as the US stock market continued the best April rally in four years after earnings from some of the biggest industrial and technology companies topped estimates.
- US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today that US subprime mortgage risk will remain contained and that all the signs he looks at lead him to conclude housing is near or at the bottom.
- Hedge funds will be urged to disclose more information about their strategies and the risks they involve, according to a report commissioned by central bankers and finance ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrial nations.
- Foot Locker(FL) made an unsolicited $1.2 billion bid for Genesco Inc.(GCO) to gain the Journeys and Johnston & Murphy footwear chains.
- H&R Block(HRB) said it found a buyer for its money-losing subprime mortgage unit after a six-month search and will sell the business for about 40% less than it sought.
- Church bells tolled in Virginia today as the state remembered victims of America’s deadliest shooting rampage, a crime parents of slain students say has been glorified by news networks airing the gunman’s boasts.
- Uranium prices, which have almost tripled in a year, are “illogical” and caused by investment fund speculation, the head of Kazakhstan’s state-owned producer of the metal said. “The financial speculators did something else yesterday, are trading uranium today and will do something else again tomorrow,” he said.
- New Jersey’s pension system approved $1.15 billion of new investments in hedge funds, buyout firms and real estate funds today.
- Schlumberger Ltd.(SLB), the world’s largest oilfield-services provider, said first-quarter profit rose 63% to a record as oil and gas producers ramped up spending on exploration.
- Corn futures in Chicago fell for a third straight session this week before the onset of warmer, drier weather in the Midwest firms muddy soils for farm machinery and planting of what will be the most acres since 1944.
- Duke Energy(DUK), the fifth largest US utility owner, is seeking proposals for supplies of electricity fueled by sun, wind or other renewable sources to limit pollution as the company adds needed power capacity.
- Libya, Africa’s second-largest crude oil producer, increased its recoverable oil reserves last year by 1 billion barrels, state-owned National Oil Corp. said.
- Crude oil is rising on speculation that tomorrow’s presidential election in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, may result in a disruption of shipments.

Wall Street Journal:
- The US United Auto Workers Union is considering buying a majority interest in the Chrysler Group.
- World Bank staff opposition to expense cuts, tighter corporate governance and concern over the possible exposure of corruption are behind much of the campaign to force Bank President Paul Wolfowitz from office, Robert Holland wrote.

NY Times:
- NYC Mayor Bloomberg plans to disclose Sunday his proposals to cut air pollution, ease congestion, improve public transportation and develop industrial sites in the city.
- Law firms such as Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP are benefiting from more hedge funds becoming activity company shareholders.
- Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters yesterday that “this war is lost,” an assessment that was seized on by Republicans as a remark that would demoralize and endanger troops fighting in Iraq.
- Former Democratic North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who is running for president, said he reimbursed his campaign for two $400 haircuts by a hair stylists in Beverly Hills, California.

San Francisco Chronicle:
- Lawmakers in the California Senate approved an increase of almost 40% in the number of slot machines at the state’s Indian-run casinos.

Philadelphia Inquirer:
- The Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, the smallest casino on the city’s boardwalk, plans to double in size at a cost of more than $1 billion.

Washington Post:
- The US National Rifle Association is working with Congress on legislation that may include barring the mentally ill from buying guns.

Chronicle of Higher Education:
- The National Science Advisory Board said scientists should police themselves before publishing research that might be beneficial to terrorists.

Financial Times:
- Pep Boys(PBY) is in talks with investment banks about exploring its options, which may include a possible sale.

London Times:
- Airbus SAS has cut the price of its A350 airplane by half and is offering other inducements in an effort to compete with Boing’s(BA) successful 787 Dreamliner.

Globe and Mail:
- Ivanhoe Energy Inc., a Vancouver-based oil and gas firm, said it signed a deal with Inpex Corp. of Japan to develop a heavy oil field in north-central Iraq, near Iraqi Kurdistan, citing Ivanhoe Deputy Chairman Leon Daniel.

Reforma:
- Mexico’s government may lower its forecast for economic growth this year because demand for vehicle exports is slowing, citing Deputy Finance Minister Alejandro Werner.