GE and Abbott end $8 bln deal for diagnostics business

(Reuters) - General Electric said on January 18 that it would buy two of Abbott's diagnostics units for $8.13 billion in cash.




In a statement, Abbott said its second-quarter, 2007 and 2008 forecasts, excluding special items, remain unchanged.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Cerberus committed to Chrysler, confident of funding

(Reuters) - ROCHESTER, Mich., July 11 - Cerberus Capital Management Chairman John Snow said on Wednesday that the private equity firm is committed to making Chrysler Group a successful automaker. "We're committed to Chrysler. We're committed to making it an enormous success," Snow said to an audience of about 700 at the Detroit Economic Club.



Cerberus had agreed to buy the majority of automaker DaimlerChrysler's struggling Chrysler Group for $7.4 billion in May.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-US House sends foreign investment overhaul to Bush

(Reuters) - The business-backed measure would tighten the oversight of deals by the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States' . It has already been approved by the Senate.




The House's 370-45 vote represents Congress' final response to last year's controversy over CFIUS approval of the purchase of some key U.S. port operations by state-owned Dubai Ports World.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Asian Metal, Mining Stocks Advance in U.S. Trading on M&A Speculation

(Bloomberg) -- Asian metal and mining stocks trading
in the U.S. gained on speculation takeovers in the industry will
spread and boost share prices. BHP Billiton and Posco advanced.

The Bank of New York Co.'s Asia ADR Index, tracking American
depositary receipts of Asian companies traded in the U.S., rose
0.2 percent to 171.53.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

US STOCKS-Wall St ends higher on earnings optimism

(Reuters) - The Dow Jones industrial average was up 76.49
points, or 0.57 percent, to end unofficially at 13,578.19. The
Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 8.64 points, or 0.57
percent, to finish unofficially at 1,518.76. The Nasdaq
Composite Index was up 12.63 points, or 0.48 percent,
to close unofficially at 2,651.79.




Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-U.S. House slashes student lender subsidies

(Reuters) - WASHINGTON, July 11 - The U.S. House of
Representatives voted 273-149 on Wednesday to slash federal
subsidies paid to college student-loan companies such as Sallie
Mae and Citigroup and boost grants to students,
ignoring a White House veto threat.




The House bill and a similar measure in the Senate have
been attacked by the $85 billion student-loan industry, but
championed by industry critics, including some student groups.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

California Pizza, Energizer, SLM, Vital, Yum!: U.S. Equity Movers Final

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares had unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges today.
Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names. Share
prices are as of 4 p.m. New York time.

California Pizza Kitchen Inc. (CPKI US) dropped $1.53, or 7
percent, to $20.31. The pizza restaurant chain said in a
preliminary statement that second-quarter profit excluding some
items was 23 cents a share. That missed the 24-cent average
analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Resources Connection quarterly profit rises

(Reuters) - Revenue for the quarter rose 21 percent to $200.5 million.




For the latest fourth quarter, analysts were expecting
earnings of 31 cents a share, before exceptional items, on
revenue of $198.3 million, according to Reuters Estimates.



Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Hot Topic June same-store sales fall 4 pct

(Reuters) - Net sales at the teen retailer fell 1 percent to $60.9
million for the five weeks ended July 7, the company said in a
statement.





Read more at Reuters.com Market News

GLOBAL MARKETS-U.S. stocks rise, bonds and dollar fall

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 11 - U.S. stocks turned higher on
Wednesday, tapping some of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s gains,
but the upswing sapped government bond prices while fears of
further woes in the subprime mortgage smacked the dollar.




The first drop in U.S. crude oil supplies in six weeks and
Lehman Brothers' decision to boost its price target for Exxon
helped lift the oil giant's shares 0.5 percent to $86.90.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Oil Falls After Report of Larger-Than-Expected Rise in Gasoline Supplies

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell after an Energy
Department report showed that U.S. gasoline inventories rose for
a second week.

Gasoline stockpiles climbed 1.14 million barrels to 205.6
million in the week ended July 6, the report showed. Eighteen
analysts in a Bloomberg News survey expected an increase of
825,000 barrels, based on the median of estimates. Stockpiles of
distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and
diesel, rose 760,000 barrels.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Verizon Wireless exec opposes open access idea

(Reuters) - Verizon Wireless's general counsel said at a congressional hearing that consumers ultimately would suffer if the government forced the winner of the auction to make some of the airwaves accessible using any device or software application.




"Consumer choice would be the casualty of policies that mandate that all companies do the same thing the same way," the company's general counsel, Steve Zipperstein, said in a statement at the hearing.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Dollar falls to all-time low vs euro

(Reuters) - The low-yielding yen, on the other hand, fell against most currencies as investor appetite for risk tentatively recovered amd U.S. samidtock indexes rebounded from Tuesday's swoon.




Uncertainty regarding the deteriorating subprime industry on Tuesday caused the biggest decline in the dollar against the yen since mid-March.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Bear Stearns holds risky mortgage stakes longer

(Reuters) - The investment bank said in a quarterly filing that the
average holding period for mortgage securities for a portion of
its inventory was 160 days at May 31, the end of its second
quarter, up from 150 days as of Feb. 28 and Nov. 30.




That could be a sign that the assets are harder to sell,
and any declines in their value could cut into earnings, said
Charles Mulford, an accounting professor at Georgia Tech.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Cerberus chairman says has no plans for IPO-CNBC

(Reuters) - "No, I don't think that is in the cards for us," Snow said in an interview on CNBC. "We prefer to be as we are, a private investment firm."



Blackstone sold $4.1 billion in an IPO in June, while KKR filed earlier in July for a $1.25 billion IPO.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-Fire breaks out at unused Miami airport tower

(Reuters) - Greg Chin, a spokesman for the airport, said the unused
building was a "gate assignment tower." The tower is at the
massive new North Terminal, part of a $6.2 billion expansion
project under way for over a decade and bedeviled by cost
overruns, scandals and delays.




"There was a tar kettle on fire," a spokeswoman for
Miami-Dade county fire and rescue said. "But apparently
everything seems to be under control now."


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Sallie Mae says buyers believe takeover threatened

(Reuters) - Sallie Mae in April accepted a takeover proposal from private equity firms J.C. Flowers & Co. and Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. .




On Wednesday, Sallie Mae said the acquiring group said it believes that current legislative proposals before the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate "could result in a failure of the conditions to the closing of the merger to be satisfied."


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Cerberus says 'confident' on Chrysler financing

(Reuters) - The comments came as DaimlerChrysler shares fell more than 2 percent on Wednesday on market talk of possible financing difficulties for the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus.







Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-US lawmaker sees bill requiring hedge fund records

(Reuters) - WASHINGTON, July 11 - The House Financial
Services Committee will draft legislation requiring U.S. hedge
funds to keep copies of trading data and will take a closer
look at the role of credit rating agencies in the collapse of
some funds linked to subprime mortgages, the panel chairman
said on Wednesday.




Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said his
planned bill would help protect investors in the lightly
regulated hedge fund industry by giving federal agencies the
ability to examine funds' records of trades, e-mail exchanges
and other documents.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Quebecor Media pulls $750 mln junk bond sale - KDP

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 11 - Canada's Quebecor Media has pulled a $750 million junk bond sale, the latest of several casualties of a more jittery U.S. junk bond market, KDP Investment Advisors said on Wednesday.



A unit of Quebecor Inc. , Quebecor Media had announced the debt sale on Monday, a day before fresh worries about the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis sparked a sharp selloff of junk, or high-yield bonds. Quebecor Media owns Canada's largest national chain of tabloids and community newspapers.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Fire breaks out at unused Miami airport tower

(Reuters) - Flames and heavy, black smoke were seen coming from the tower in television pictures of the fire.




Chin said the tower was not being used yet and there were no reports of injuries.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Daiichi Sankyo, Komatsu Wall, Nintendo, Pasona: Japanese Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following stocks may move in
Japanese markets. Prices are as of the close of trading
yesterday. Statements were released after the close. Stock
symbols are in parentheses.

Bookoff Corp. (3313 JT): The retailer of used products such
as books, CDs and toys said sales in its 266 stores open at
least 12 months rose 4 percent in June from the same month a
year earlier. The stock advanced 4 yen, or 0.3 percent, to
1,605.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

UPDATE 1-Fremont to stop Mass. foreclosures for 90 days

(Reuters) - Martha Coakley, Massachusetts' attorney general, said her
office had reached a preliminary agreement in which the
California savings and loan will stop foreclosures on over
2,000 Massachusetts loans that the company services to give
state officials time to review all transactions.




"No foreclosures can occur until the Attorney General's
Office has been provided with documentation for each delinquent
loan and a 90-day period to review each transaction," Coakley
said in a statement.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Ameriprise unit fined in mutual fund kickback case

(Reuters) - The regulator also charged the broker, Michael Bullock,
with receiving more than $280,000 of improper compensation. It
said he failed to disclose the kickbacks to his union
retirement plan clients, even as he advised those clients to
maintain or include the fund company's mutual funds in their
plans.




Bullock worked in the Los Angeles area, and was employed by
Securities America for nearly 17 years before leaving last
month, the regulator said.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Oracle starts marketing drive on database upgrade

(Reuters) - Company president Chuck Phillips cited several examples, including compression technology that allows companies to triple the amount of data on their storage equipment over current software.




"Our friends basically don't have any of this ... this innovation," Phillips said during a presentation that was Webcast. "We don't mind defining the roadmap for them."


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Chico's, Compuware, Freeport, Morgans Hotel, Willbros: U.S. Equity Movers

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares are having unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges
today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.
Share prices are as of 1:10 p.m. New York time.

Chaparral Steel Co. (CHAP US) rose $8.06, or 11 percent, to
$83.75. Gerdau Ameristeel Corp., the U.S. unit of Latin America's
biggest steelmaker, said in a statement that it agreed to buy the
company for $4.22 billion.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

S&P cuts New York Times' ratings to "BBB"

(Reuters) - S&P lowered the New York Times' corporate credit and senior
unsecured debt ratings one notch to "BBB," the second lowest
investment grade ranking, from "BBB-plus."




The rating company's outlook for the Times is negative,
which means a further downgrade is likely over the next two
years.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

U.S. FDIC chief looking at banks' CDO exposure

(Reuters) - "We're going to see more downgrades," FDIC Chairman Sheila
Bair said on Wednesday, referring to a slew of CDO downgrades
announced on Tuesday by two major credit rating agencies.




CDOs are investment-grade securities that are created by
bundling together portions of loans, mortgage-backed bonds,
municipal debt, credit card receivables or other securities.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Cerberus says committed to Chrysler

(Reuters) - Cerberus had agreed to buy the majority of automaker
DaimlerChrysler's struggling Chrysler Group for $7.4
billion in May.




The comments came as DaimlerChrysler shares fell more than 2
percent on Wednesday on market talk of possible financing
difficulties for the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-Mass. probes big banks over sales to investors

(Reuters) - William Galvin, the state's Secretary of the Commonwealth,
is probing some of America's biggest banks at a time when
so-called structured products are becoming extremely popular on
Wall Street, but customers may not be aware of their risks.




Products such as equity-indexed annuities are often sold by
brokerages and insurers and can be expensive and carry heavy
penalties for early withdrawals.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

AMO blasts shareholder on Bausch deal

(Reuters) - Advanced Medical Optics Chief Executive James Mazzo, responding to a critical letter from ValueAct, said he was "surprised and disappointed" by ValueAct's opposition to the $4.23 billion hostile bid for Bausch & Lomb.




Mazzo said this was "especially hard to understand given expressed interest on June 12th in investing $700 million in equity in a Bausch & Lomb acquisition and your reaffirmation of a desire to participate in financing the transaction as recently as July 5."


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

UPDATE 2-Icahn sweetened Lear buyout faces stiff opposition

(Reuters) - CHICAGO, July 11 - Billionaire Carl Icahn's
sweetened $3 billion buyout offer for auto parts maker Lear
Corp. has gained little traction among top advisory
firms or shareholders ahead of a scheduled vote next week.




Influential advisory firm Institutional Shareholder
Services on Tuesday joined Pzena Investment Management LLC and
the California State Teachers' Retirement System in opposing
Icahn's new $37.25 per share offer for Lear.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Brazil's Real Reverses Early Declines Following Benign Inflation Report

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil's real strengthened as a
local inflation report was slightly better than analyst
estimates.

The real rose 0.1 percent to 1.8892 per dollar at 12:39
p.m. New York time after weakening as much as 0.7 percent to
1.9057 in morning trading on concerns about an economic slowdown
arising from losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

U.K.'s FTSE 100 Benchmark Index Declines; Shell, BP, HSBC Shares Lead Drop

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. stocks fell for a second day,
led by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc after Goldman, Sachs &
Co. downgraded the energy companies' shares and crude oil
retreated.

HSBC Holdings Plc and HBOS Plc declined on concern losses in
subprime mortgages in the U.S. will erode economic and earnings
growth.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

LBO Credit Quality Declines to Nine-Month Low in Europe, Derivatives Show

(Bloomberg) -- Loans used to finance leveraged
buyouts are the riskiest in at least nine months on speculation
that losses on subprime mortgage securities will spread to other
markets, according to traders of credit-default swaps.

The iTraxx LevX Index of credit-default swaps on loans to
35 European companies fell as much as 1 percent to the lowest
since the index started last October, according to Deutsche Bank
AG prices. The LCDX index of loans to 100 U.S. companies dropped
as much as 0.57 percent to 96, Phoenix Partners Group in New
York said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Oil Is Little Changed After Report Shows U.S. Inventories Fell Last Week

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed after a
government report showed that U.S. inventories fell for the
first time in six weeks.

Stockpiles dropped 1.46 million barrels to 352.6 million in
the week ended July 6, the report from the U.S. Energy
Department showed. Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, where oil
traded in New York is delivered, fell for a seventh straight
week.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Standard Bank S Africa plans dollar bond - leads

(Reuters) - Standard Bank of South Africa plans to issue its debut dollar senior unsecured bond, the banks managing the sale said on Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank will manage the sale, which will follow an investor roadshow.


Read more at Reuters Africa

TEXT-Fitch release on CMBS loan defaults

(Reuters) - Though CMBS loan defaults fell 15% by balance last year to $1.57 billion,
cumulative CMBS loan defaults increased to $13 billion .




Additionally, the cumulative vintage 10-year average default rate is likely
to rise above the current level of 7.88%. 'Loans issued in 2005, 2006 and this
year contain more IO loans and loans that have or allow for additional
subordinate debt that will be especially sensitive to future market downturns,'
said Senior Director Britt Johnson.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UDPATE 2-Fed's Plosser-housing not derailing growth outlook

(Reuters) - LONDON, July 11 - A downturn in the U.S. housing
sector has not changed forecasts for economic growth to return
to trend by the end of the year, Philadelphia Federal Reserve
Bank President Charles Plosser said on Wednesday.




"The recent reversal of the boom in housing activity and
house prices has contributed to a slowdown in economic growth,"
he told an economic forum in London.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-Fannie Mae sells $1 bln 10-year notes in reopen

(Reuters) - The 5.375 percent notes were sold at 98.815 for a 5.531
percent stop-out rate. The bid-to-cover-ratio was 3.5-to-1.




The total size of the 10-year note issue after the
reopening is $4.0 billion.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Lehman to buy leveraged loan fund LightPoint

(Reuters) - LightPoint Chief Executive Thomas Kramer will join Lehman Brothers Asset Management as a managing director. He will serve as co-head of leveraged asset management at Lehman together with Ann Benjamin, who had led Lehman's high yield team since 1997.




Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-US Congress eyes private equity, hedge fund giants

(Reuters) - WASHINGTON, July 11 - The new kings of Wall
Street -- as the managers of booming private equity and hedge
funds have been dubbed in the business press -- came under
unaccustomed scrutiny on Wednesday before the U.S. Congress.




In three separate hearings on Capitol Hill, lawmakers asked
whether these secretive and wealthy financiers pay enough taxes
and whether the Bush administration does enough to protect the
economy and investors from them.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Canadian Stocks Rise on Commodity Takeover Speculation; Alcan Leads Gains

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian stocks advanced on speculation
that record industrial metals prices will spur takeovers. Alcan
Inc. led the rally on a report that Rio Tinto Group is about to
trump Alcoa Inc.'s hostile bid for the Canadian aluminum producer.

Financial shares and utilities including Bank of Montreal and
TransAlta Corp. fell on concern they may be hurt by rising losses
in U.S. sub-prime mortgages and higher borrowing costs.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Australians Snub New York Offices, Find Value in West Virginia Warehouses

(Bloomberg) -- Australian investors widened their
lead as the biggest international buyers of U.S. real estate,
spurning skyscrapers in New York and San Francisco for warehouses
in Mineral Wells, West Virginia, and malls in Sylvania, Ohio.

This year, Australians purchased $7.7 billion of U.S. real
estate, or $2.2 billion more than they acquired during all of
2006, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics Inc., a
provider of data on the U.S. property market. Germans spent $2
billion in the same period and Middle East buyers $3.9 billion.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Crude Oil Falls After U.S. Gasoline Inventories Increase for Second Week

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell after an Energy
Department report showed that U.S. gasoline inventories rose for
a second week.

Gasoline stockpiles climbed 1.14 million barrels to 205.6
million in the week ended July 6, the report showed. Eighteen
analysts in a Bloomberg News survey expected an increase of
825,000 barrels, based on the median of estimates.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Yen Declines Against Euro as Advance in U.S. Stocks Prompts Carry Trades

(Bloomberg) -- The yen fell versus the euro, dollar
and a dozen other major currencies as strength in U.S. stocks
signaled investors are halting a flight from risky assets.

The yen gave up gains posted earlier today and yesterday
when investors fled risky trades following Moody's Investors
Service's move to cut ratings on $5.2 billion of bonds backed by
U.S. subprime mortgages. The rating reduction led some traders
to exit so-called carry-trade bets financed by borrowing yen.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Fed's Plosser-housing not derailing growth outlook

(Reuters) - "But the consequences of the declines in housing activity and house prices, in my view, have so far not derailed the prospect that economic growth will return toward trend at the end of 2007 and in 2008."




Plosser also said that problems in the subprime mortgage market have yet to significantly affect the financial system and that monetary policy should not focus on one particular asset class like housing prices. Subprime loans are extended to borrowers with spotty credit histories.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

US SEC adopts rule to protect hedge fund investors

(Reuters) - The rule targeting fund advisors who make false or
misleading statements to investors and comes as Congress
scrutinizes the roughly $1.5 trillion hedge fund industry,
which often employs high-risk techniques to pull in tremendous
returns.




The SEC's adoption of the rule comes a year after a federal
court quashed the agency's first attempt to oversee the lightly
regulated industry by overturning a requirement that hedge fund
advisors register with the agency.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Castro says Cuba still facing hardships

(Reuters) - "It made my hair stand on end ... Where on earth did this
brute come from," he wrote.




Castro said the "special period," a euphemism for the dire
straits Cuba lived through after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, had "eased" but was not over due to record high
world prices for oil.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Bank of Mexico Won't Sell Dollars in Next 3 Months After Outflow, UBS Says

(Bloomberg) -- Banco de Mexico won't sell dollars
from August through October because of an outflow of
international reserves, UBS AG said in a report.

Banco de Mexico won't sell dollars in the next three months
for the first time since the bank began auctioning dollars on a
daily basis in 2003 in a bid to reduce the cost of holding
reserves, said Guillermo Aboumrad, a senior economist at UBS's
unit in Mexico City.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News