Japan Shares Drop, Led by Exporters on Yen, Quake Fallout; Canon Slides

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks fell, led by
exporters including Canon Inc. and Nintendo Co. on concern yen
gains versus the dollar will erode the value of their U.S. sales.

Automakers such as Honda Motor Co. also fell after reports
that an earthquake-related shutdown at Riken Corp., which has a
70 percent share of the sealant market for transmissions as well
as a 40 percent share for engine piston rings, will have an
impact on production.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Bijou Brigitte Modische, E.ON, Infineon, Lanxess: German Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following stocks may rise or fall
in German markets.

Germany's X-DAX Index slipped 0.1 percent to 8027.48. The
index provides an estimate of the DAX Index, based on trading in
DAX futures after the Xetra electronic market closes. The DAX
fell 0.8 percent to 8038.21 on the Xetra electronic-trading
system.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Japan Stocks Drop, Led by Exporters on Yen, Quake Fallout; Canon Slides

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks fell, led by
exporters including Canon Inc. and Nintendo Co. on concern yen
gains versus the dollar will erode the value of their U.S. sales.

Automakers such as Nissan Motor Co. also fell after the
Nikkei newspaper reported that an earthquake-related shutdown at
Riken Corp., which has a 70 percent share of the sealant market
for transmissions as well as a 40 percent share for engine piston
rings, will have an impact on production.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

South Korea's Department Store Sales Increase 4.4 Percent on Summer Demand

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's department store sales
increased at the fastest pace in four months in June, adding to
signs growth in Asia's third-largest economy may accelerate.

Sales at the nation's three biggest department store chains,
including Lotte Shopping Co., climbed 4.4 percent from a year
earlier, after falling 0.1 percent in May, the Commerce Ministry
said today in a report released in Gwacheon, South Korea.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Intel profit margin woes overshadow earnings rise

(Reuters) - The numbers underscored the challenges Intel still faces despite having clawed back market share in a continuing, bruising price war with rival AMD and despite restarting profit growth after five quarters of slumping performance,




Profit margins were hit as lower prices for personal computer processors and weak demand for memory chips for mobile telephones offset higher revenue and unit volumes.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

UPDATE 1-Alfa Corp. says gets $17.60/shr privatization offer

(Reuters) - Alfa Mutual Insurance Co., Alfa Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
and Alfa Mutual General Insurance Co. own a majority of the
company's common shares and are referred to collectively as
Alfa Mutual.




The group, which as of March 6 held almost 55 percent of
company shares, offered to buy the outstanding Alfa Corp. stock
it does not currently own. Its $17.60 per share cash offer
represents a 15.8 percent premium over Alfa Corp.'s Nasdaq
closing price of $15.20 on Tuesday.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Dow ends at record on profits; Intel, Yahoo drop late

(Reuters) - But weakness in energy stocks and lingering worries about the subprime mortgage market held back the advance of the broader S&P 500, which closed virtually unchanged.




A brokerage upgrade of American Express Co. pushed the credit-card company's stock up 4.6 percent and helped lift the Dow average of 30 blue-chip stocks.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Nikkei seen moving higher on Wall St, earnings eyed

(Reuters) - "A solid rise in U.S. stocks, especially semiconductor issues, is likely to encourage investors here to pick up chip and other high-tech shares," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager of the equity marketing department at Daiwa Securities SMBC.




"But the ceiling could be around 18,300 as the market awaits a series of Japanese corporate earnings results and for the impact of lackluster results from Intel and Yahoo on the U.S. market overnight."


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

UPDATE 3-Bear says troubled funds have "very little value"

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 17 - Bear Stearns Cos. Inc.'s
two troubled hedge funds that bet heavily on risky
subprime loans now have "very little value," the company said
in a letter sent to investors on Tuesday.




Bear Stearns in June had said it would provide up to $3.2
billion in financing for its High-Grade Structured Credit
Strategies Fund. The investment bank had also said its Enhanced
Leverage Fund had taken greater risk in investments backed by
subprime mortgages.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Japan's Semiconductor Shares, Advantest May Rise; Property Stocks May Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese semiconductor related shares
may advance after U.S. chip-equipment maker Novellus Systems Inc.
forecast orders that beat expectations for the current quarter.

Advantest Corp., the world's biggest maker of equipment used
to test computer memory chips, and Elpida Memory Inc., Japan's
largest memory chipmaker, may pace gains. The Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index, a price-weighted index of 19 companies
involved in the design and manufacturing of chips, surged 3
percent in the U.S., reaching the highest level since March 2006.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

FACTBOX-No subsidies to millionaires-US House bill

(Reuters) - House proposal




--People with adjusted gross income of more than $1 million
not eligible for crop or land stewardship payments.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

U.S. House Passes Energy Spending Bill Despite Threat of Veto From Bush

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House of Representatives
passed an energy spending bill that directs hundreds of millions
of dollars into renewable energy and efficiency.

The $32.1 billion fiscal year 2008 measure, which funds the
Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers' water projects,
prevents the Energy Department from directing loans to nuclear
power plants and slashes funding from a proposal to promote
nuclear waste reprocessing. The bill passed by a 312-112 vote.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

AMB Property second-quarter FFO falls

(Reuters) - Analysts on average had expected the company to post
quarterly FFO of 69 cents a share, according to Reuters
Estimates.





Read more at Reuters.com Market News

US STOCKS-Dow closes at record on earnings

(Reuters) - But weakness in energy stocks and lingering worries about
the subprime mortgage market held back the advance of the
broader S&P 500, which closed virtually unchanged.




A brokerage upgrade of American Express Co. pushed
the credit-card company's stock up 4.6 percent and helped lift
the Dow average of 30 blue-chip stocks.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Yahoo posts drop in profit, hurt by display ads

(Reuters) - Gross revenue rose 8 percent to $1.70 billion. Excluding the cost of payments to advertising partners, revenue rose 11 percent to $1.24 billion.




Wall Street was looking for a net profit, on average, of 11 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates. The consensus for profit excluding one-time items was also 11 cents a share.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Champion Enterprises Q2 earnings fall

(Reuters) - The year-ago quarter included $101.9 million of income from
the reversal of a previously recorded deferred tax asset
valuation allowance, the company said in a statement.





Read more at Reuters.com Market News

UPDATE 3-Exelon's N.J. Oyster Creek reactor shut Tuesday

(Reuters) - In a release, the company said the unit shut due to a low
water level in the reactor from an apparent electrical fault and
resulting failure of a feedwater pump.




The feedwater pump is one of three pumps that supply water
to the reactor.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Ratings agencies may cut Lyondell Chemical on sale

(Reuters) - "We expect Basell to finance the purchase largely with
debt, which will result in a very aggressive capital
structure," Standard & Poor's said in a statement.




Moody's Investors Service awards Lyondell a "Ba3" corporate
family rating, which is three steps below investment grade. S&P
and Fitch Ratings assign the company a "BB-minus" corporate
credit and issuer default rating, respectively, each also three
steps below investment grade.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

JumpTV buys sports network

(Reuters) - Toronto-based JumpTV offers online video channels from
countries including Albania, Australia, Egypt and Hong Kong.




The unit of Sanford, Florida-based XOS, which developed and
maintains official Web sites for collegiate and professional
sports teams, streams over the Internet thousands of U.S.
National Collegiate Athletic Association football, basketball,
volleyball, baseball and track & field games.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Treasuries Decline as Investors' Concern Over Subprime Mortgage Rout Eases

(Bloomberg) -- Treasuries fell for the first time
in three days as ebbing concern over losses in securities backed
by subprime mortgage loans fueled gains in equities.

Investors sold government debt after Merrill Lynch & Co.,
the third-biggest U.S. securities firm, said second-quarter
profit rose 31 percent even as revenue declined in the unit that
includes its mortgage business. U.S. stocks rose, with the Dow
Jones Industrial Average surpassing 14,000 for the first time.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

U.S. joins whistleblower suit vs Fresenius

(Reuters) - The complaint alleges that claims submitted between 1999
and 2005 for home dialysis supplies and equipment were false.




Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Fed's Hoenig-workforce growth in process of change

(Reuters) - The Fed bank president, speaking to a group here also
cautioned that monetary policy cannot determine potential
growth rates.




"It cannot change the long-run growth rate," said Hoenig,
who is a voting member this year on the Federal Reserve's
interest rate-setting committee.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Plains to buy Pogo in stock, cash deal

(Reuters) - The combined company will have proved reserves of 635 million barrels of oil equivalent, and total estimated reserve potential -- which includes probable and possible reserves -- of 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.




Plains' top management, including Chairman, President and Chief Executive James Flores and Chief Financial Officer John Wombwell, will head up the combined company, keeping their positions.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Cameco doesn't own Paladin stock, mum on bid talk

(Reuters) - "We don't comment whether we are or are not pursuing specific investments," said Cameco spokesman Lyle Krahn.




"We have a vision to grow in the nuclear industry, so we'll be the subject of many rumors."


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

TREASURIES-Bonds steady, still down after housing index

(Reuters) - The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo U.S.
housing market index fell to a reading of 24 in July, the
lowest since January 1991.




Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Schwab profit up 16 percent as client assets rise

(Reuters) - Net income rose to $292 million, or 23 cents per share, from $251 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier. The results met the average Wall Street forecast compiled by Reuters Estimates.




Net revenue increased to $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion, slightly exceeding analysts' estimates.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

TREASURIES-Bonds reel as profit boom buffers subprime

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 17 - U.S. Treasury debt prices
fell on Tuesday as investors were drawn to stocks after profits
at the big investment banks jumped despite turbulence in
mortgage investments.




A surge in producer prices outside food and energy also
depressed bonds, whose value erodes as inflation rises. Adding
to the pain, a spike in industrial output further lessened the
perceived chances of an interest rate cut by the Federal
Reserve this year.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Corn Falls in Chicago as Midwest Rains May Improve Prospects for U.S. Crop

(Bloomberg) -- Corn fell for a second session in
Chicago as rains in the Midwest were expected to improve
prospects for crops following a two-month heat wave.

Some fields from Iowa to Ohio may receive as much as
1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) of rain in the next 72 hours, said
Joel Burgio, senior agricultural meteorologist for Meteorlogix
LLC in Woburn, Massachusetts. As much as 1.5 inches of rain fell
from Minnesota to Illinois in the past 24 hours, he said.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Microsoft offers subscription software in South Africa

(Reuters) - Microsoft has launched a pay-as-you-go computing system aimed at making its office software more accessible for people in emerging markets, the company said on Tuesday.

Microsoft will charge 199 rand for a three-month subscription to use Microsoft Office 2007 and first-time users will get an extra three months for free.


Read more at Reuters Africa

BA unfazed by rivalry for Iberia, eyes dividend

(Reuters) - By Pete Harrison



LONDON, July 17 - British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh said on Tuesday that competition from Air France KLM was irrelevant to BA's possible bid for Spain's Iberia .


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Mexico's Central Bank Won't Purchase U.S. Dollars in Next Three Months

(Bloomberg) -- Banco de Mexico will refrain from
selling dollars from its reserves in the August to October
period, according to a statement released today by the bank on
its Web site.

Banco de Mexico's said it won't sell dollars since it
didn't accumulate international reserves over the past three
months. This is the first time that Mexico's central bank will
hold off from selling dollars on a daily basis since it began
auctioning dollars in 2003 to reduce the cost of holding
reserves.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Encysive, KeyCorp, Lyondell, Novellus, Pogo, STEC: 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 10:15 a.m. New York time.

American Express Co. (AXP US) rose $2.38, or 3.9 percent, to
$64.26. The No. 4 U.S. credit-card issuer was upgraded to ``buy''
from ``neutral'' at Goldman, Sachs & Co., which said its card-
network business was ``undervalued'' compared with its rivals.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

UK mortgage standards safer than U.S.

(Reuters) - LONDON, July 17 - UK lenders have been more conservative so far than their U.S. counterparts in providing mortgages to those with less than perfect credit histories, though standards are on the slide.



The UK subprime mortgage market is newer and smaller than its equivalent across the Atlantic, which means it has had less opportunity to come unstuck.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Metabasis diabetes drug fails trial; shares plunge

(Reuters) - The diabetes drug, CS-917, failed to significantly lower glycosylated hemoglobin, a measure of glucose load, in patients with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.




"We are surprised and disappointed by the results we have seen so far in this important Phase 2b clinical trial," Dr. Mark Erion, executive vice president of research and development, said in a statement.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

UPDATE 1-Plains to buy Pogo for $3.6 billion

(Reuters) - The deal values Pogo at about $60 per share, a premium of
19 percent over its closing stock price on Monday.




The combined company will have proved reserves of 635
million barrels of oil equivalent, and total estimated reserve
potential -- which includes probable and possible reserves --
of 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 2-Wells Fargo 2nd-qtr profit rises 9 pct

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 17 - Wells Fargo & Co. , the fifth-largest U.S. bank, said on Tuesday second-quarter profit rose 9 percent, as growth in several fee categories offset a decline in mortgage banking income.



Net income for the San Francisco-based company increased to a record $2.28 billion, or 67 cents per share, from $2.09 billion, or 61 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 13 percent to $9.89 billion.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Texas Agency to Borrow $1.9 Billion for a 20-Year Supply of Natural Gas

(Bloomberg) -- Texas Municipal Gas Acquisition &
Supply Corp. II will borrow $1.9 billion to finance a 20-year
supply of natural gas for municipal utilities in today's largest
U.S. offering of tax-exempt bonds.

The Houston-based special-purpose borrower will sell
floating-rate debt in a deal managed by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
South Carolina's Lexington Medical Center, the State University
of New York and two Boston-area colleges also plan to offer
almost $700 million of bonds as soon as today.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Air France KLM eyes Spanish airline Iberia

(Reuters) - Spanish publication El Economista and the Financial Times earlier said Air France KLM could team up with private equity company Apax in a consortium that could bid 3.8 billion euros for Iberia.




Apax was not immediately available to comment.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-U.S. overall producer prices fall in June, core up

(Reuters) - WASHINGTON, July 17 - Cheaper energy helped
reduce overall U.S. producer prices in June, according to a
Labor Department report on Tuesday, but a closely watched
measure of core inflation kept rising at a pace likely to keep
concerns about inflation on policy-makers' minds.




The producer price index -- a gauge of prices paid at the
farm gate and factory door -- declined by 0.2 percent last
month after shooting up by 0.9 percent in May, the first
decline since January.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

U.S. Stock Futures Decline After Gauge of Wholesale Inflation Advances

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures declined
after a gauge of wholesale inflation rose more than forecast,
spurring concern that higher prices will hinder economic
growth.

Prices paid to producers excluding food and energy
increased 0.3 percent in June, compared with a 0.2 percent gain
forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The report may
bolster the Federal Reserve's assessment that a pickup in
inflation is the biggest risk to economic growth.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Treasuries Decline as Report Shows Core Wholesale Prices Exceed Forecast

(Bloomberg) -- Treasuries fell for the first time
in three days after a government report showed core producer
prices rose last month more than economists forecast.

Ten-year note yields advanced as gains in wholesale prices
suggest inflation risks are not subsiding, raising the prospect
of interest rate increases. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke will testify before a congressional committee on the
economy and monetary policy tomorrow.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

UPDATE 1-State Street quarterly profit surges 61 pct

(Reuters) - Boston-based State Street, which also makes money by
holding trillions of dollars in securities in custody and
calculating the bulk of mutual fund prices printed in
newspapers, said net income climbed to $366 million, or $1.07
per diluted share, in the second quarter.




That compares with $227 million, or 68 cents, a year
earlier, when non-cash tax adjustments of 25 cents a share
weighed on earnings.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Dow Jones Shares Rise After Journal Says Agreement With Murdoch Reached

(Bloomberg) -- Dow Jones & Co. shares advanced after
the Wall Street Journal reported Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
reached a tentative deal to acquire the company for $5 billion.

Dow Jones shares rose 1 percent to $57.50 in early trading.
The company's board will vote this evening on the $60-a-share
offer after negotiators reached an agreement yesterday, the
Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation. Linda
Dunbar, a Dow Jones spokeswoman in New York, declined to comment.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

State Street reports higher quarterly profit

(Reuters) - The company, a competitor to Bank of New York Mellon and
Northern Trust as well as large asset managers like Franklin
Resources, said revenue rose to $1.9 billion from $1.7
billion.





Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Assurant CEO, CFO placed on leave following SEC notice

(Reuters) - The ruling prevents the defendants from obtaining U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market a generic version of Allergan's product Acular, for temporary relief of eye itching associated with seasonal allergic conjunctivitis.



In 2006 the defendants appealed a ruling by the U.S.District Court for the Northern District of California that the defendants' proposed generic product infringed a patent owned by Roche Palo Alto LLC and licensed to Allergan.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

UPDATE 1- LKQ to buy Keystone Automotive for $811 mln

(Reuters) - The purchase price represents a 10 percent premium to
Keystone's Monday close of $43.61 on the Nasdaq.




The merger is currently expected to close early in the
fourth quarter, and would add to earnings in 2008, LKQ said in
a statement.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Ford Says It May Invest $931 Million to Modernize Its Car Plant in Romania

(Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., the world's third-
largest carmaker, plans to invest 675 million euros ($931
million) to upgrade and modernize a Romanian automotive factory
if the company succeeds in buying the plant.

Ford aims to boost annual production at the factory to
300,000 vehicles and 300,000 engines, Cologne, Germany-based Ford
of Europe said in a statement on its Web site. The plant last
year built 24,000 cars and 116,000 engines.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Alexandria Real Estate says H1 profit up 220 pct

(Reuters) - Egypt's Alexandria Real Estate Investment's net profit in the first half of 2007 is up 220 percent at 105.4 million Egyptian pounds, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

However, trading in the shares on the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) was suspended on Tuesday until the company responds to CASE inquiries on the results, the bourse said in a statement.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Comair says FY profit to climb 20-40 pct

(Reuters) - South African airline operator Comair -- a franchised partner of British Airways -- on Tuesday said full-year headline earnings per share and EPS would increase between 20-40 percent.

But the company said "unprofitable ticket pricing" by state run airline SAA through its new low-cost airline Mango had negatively affected industry profits in the fourth quarter of the financial year to end-June.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index Gains; Cnooc, PetroChina Gain, Sinopec Falls

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong stocks rose for the third
time in four days. Cnooc Ltd. climbed after Deutsche Bank AG
boosted share-price estimates for oil producers and crude traded
near an 11-month high.

``As oil prices continue to increase, it's natural to see
more upgrades of oil companies and gains among oil companies in
the Hong Kong stock market,'' said Anthony Muh, who oversees
about $1 billion at Alliance Trust Plc in Hong Kong.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Germany's DAX Index Slides, Paced by TUI, Deutsche Postbank, Siemens

(Bloomberg) -- Germany's main stock index fell for
the first time in four days, led lower by TUI AG, Europe's
largest travel company. Shares of Deutsche Postbank AG and
Siemens AG also declined.

The DAX dropped 55.27, or 0.7 percent, to 8050.42 at 10:08
a.m. in Frankfurt. DAX futures expiring in September lost 0.7
percent. The HDAX Index of the country's 110 biggest companies
decreased 0.7 percent.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

U.K. Pound Gains Against Dollar for Third Day Before June Inflation Report

(Bloomberg) -- The pound rose for a third day
against the dollar before a report that's forecast to show U.K.
inflation exceeded the Bank of England's 2 percent limit for a
14th month in June.

The pound has risen 1.4 percent this month and touched a 26-
year high on speculation the BOE will keep raising interest rates
while the Federal Reserve stays on hold, increasing the
attraction of sterling-denominated assets. Gilts advanced today,
buoyed by the highest yields of any Group of Seven nation.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

German Stocks Fall; Shares of Bayer, Linde, Hypo Real Pace the Retreat

(Bloomberg) -- German stocks slipped, led by Bayer
AG, Linde AG and Hypo Real Estate Holding AG.

The benchmark DAX Index lost 36.64, or 0.5 percent, to
8069.05 as of 9:08 a.m. in Frankfurt. The HDAX Index of the
country's 110 biggest companies also dropped 0.4 percent.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

JGBs rise, track gains in Treasuries

(Reuters) - With few domestic factors to trade on, market players were
closely watching developments in the troubled U.S. subprime
mortgage sector, which had pushed up Treasuries prices.




"JGB prices right now tend to move depending on developments
outside the market," said Takafumi Yamawaki, a fixed income
strategist at Morgan Stanley.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News