Regulator seeks comments on "unfair" lending

(Reuters) - The proposal comes at a time when U.S. banking authorities, including the Federal Reserve, have been criticized for responding too late to problems in home loans made to borrowers with poor credit histories, so-called subprime loans.




The OTS, which regulates more than 800 savings and loan institutions with $1.5 trillion is assets, typically focuses on mortgage lending.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

US STOCKS-Indexes flat after jobs data; ISM to come

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, Aug 3 - U S. stocks were little changed
on Friday after a report showing weaker-than-expected job
growth last month rattled investors already nervous about
losses in the mortgage industry.




Investors were bracing for data on the vast U.S. services
sector at 10 a.m. .


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

US STOCKS-Indexes fall further after services data

(Reuters) - The Dow Jones industrial average was down 65.36
points, or 0.49 percent, at 13,397.97. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index was down 9.64 points, or 0.65 percent, at
1,462.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 14.85
points, or 0.58 percent, at 2,561.13.




Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Mexico markets down on weak U.S. job data

(Reuters) - The price of the benchmark 10-year peso bond
fell 0.062 point to bid 101.149 points, with a yield of 7.81
percent.




The U.S. July jobs report showed non-farm payrolls rose by
92,000, below expectations of 139,000. That suggested a
weakening U.S. economy, which buys most of Mexico's exports.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

IKB subprime shockwaves continue to rattle Germany

(Reuters) - German commercial property financier Hypo Real Estate struggled to calm jittery investors by insisting it would be unaffected by the U.S. subprime fallout.




Its shares skidded more than 6 percent while Commerzbank -- which owns a property financier -- saw its stock fall over 4 percent.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

S&P, Fitch cut Boston Scientific's debt to junk

(Reuters) - Saddled with debt after its $27 billion acquisition of
Guidant Corp. and hampered by slowing sales of its most
lucrative heart devices, the company said in March it was
exploring the partial sale for more than $1 billion.




"Fitch's prior rating for BSX was highly dependent on the
timely paydown of debt with cash proceeds from the potential
divestiture," Fitch said in a statement. "More pressure has now
been placed on BSX's operations, which are currently
challenged, to reduce debt and leverage."


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

REFILE-UPDATE 2-Bear Stearns, brokers debt protection costs rise

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, Aug 3 - The cost to insure the debt of
Bear Stearns Cos. jumped on Friday after Standard &
Poor's changed its outlook on the investment bank's debt to
negative, indicating it is more likely to be cut over the next
one to two years.




Recent developments, including problems at some of Bear
Stearns' managed hedge funds, have the potential to hurt the
company's performance for an "extended period," S&P said in a
statement. For details, see [ID:nN03300207]


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Nomura subprime bond "failed" 6 months after sale

(Reuters) - Bond collateral "performance generally should not be
expected to begin changing the baseline cashflow distributions
this soon," said Christopher Sullivan, chief investment officer
for pension funds at the United Nations in New York. Worse
performance in older ABX indexes makes this move less
surprising, however, he said.




The issue is one of 20 in the benchmark ABX-HE 07-2 index
that was launched last month. The ABX indexes have become
widely watched since they are the most transparent way of
gauging prices on the securities and can be used by investors
to hedge their holdings of debt backed by risky mortgages.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Health insurers' subprime exposure limited: analyst

(Reuters) - Several health insurers report holding more than 20 percent of their portfolios in mortgage loans, but most companies have almost no exposure to subprime loans, CIBC analyst Carl McDonald said in an analysis published on Friday.




"Our work in the past couple days suggests that the recent issues in the mortgage market will have very little impact on the investment portfolios held by managed care plans," McDonald said in his report.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 2-US regulator seeks comments on 'unfair' lending

(Reuters) - WASHINGTON, Aug 3 - The U.S. Office of Thrift
Supervision on Friday asked for comment on how to address
"unfair and deceptive acts or practices" associated with
lending products.




The proposal comes at a time when U.S. banking authorities,
including the Federal Reserve, have been criticized for
responding too late to problems in home loans made to borrowers
with poor credit histories, so-called subprime loans.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Stocks set for steady start ahead of jobs data

(Reuters) - By 6:05 a.m. EDT S&P and Dow futures were flat, while Nasdaq futures eased 0.1 percent. European stocks were steady but dipped from early highs.




Citigroup chief executive Charles Prince said the recent market pullback "feels sharp," but he was bullish on the bank's growth, the New York Times said on its Web site.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Bond prices rise on subprime worries

(Reuters) - Signs of weakness in the economic data prompted investors to increase bets that the Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates before the end of the year.




Investors also scurried for shelter in Treasuries due to a sell-off in stock markets on worries about banks' exposure to upheaval in the credit markets after a ratings agency gave investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. a negative outlook.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Bear Stearns says S&P outlook change unwarranted

(Reuters) - "S&P's specific concerns over issues relating to certain hedge funds managed by are unwarranted as these were isolated incidents and are by no means an indication of broader issues at Bear Stearns," the company said.




S&P earlier on Friday changed its outlook on Bear's debt to "negative" from "stable," which means it is more likely to cut Bear's ratings over the next year or two.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Miner Anglo to sell Tarmac; lifts profit, buyback

(Reuters) - Miner Anglo American unveiled plans to sell Tarmac, its UK-based road building unit, as it met forecasts with a 22 percent rise in first-half earnings and announced a further $4 billion share buyback.

The sale, which analysts believe could raise around $6 billion, is the latest move by Anglo aimed at focusing on its core mining business following bouts of underperformance against its peers and speculation it might attract a break-up bid.


Read more at Reuters Africa

IFC invests $32.5 mln in African cable project

(Reuters) - The World Bank's International Finance Corp. on Thursday said it was investing $32.5 million in a fiber-optic cable project that will provide Internet and international communication services for 21 African countries.

IFC, the private-sector arm of the World Bank that focuses on investing in emerging-market economies, said the cable project should improve telecommunications access for 250 million Africans and cut costs for individuals and businesses.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Highveld says H1 headline EPS at 648.2 cts

(Reuters) - South Africa's Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation's first half headline earnings per share increased to 648.2 cents from 404.9 cents a year ago, the firm said on Friday.

Highveld said headline earnings rose to 643 million rand, from 401 million rand.


Read more at Reuters Africa

S.Africa's c.bank governor says household debt costs to bite

(Reuters) - South Africa's central bank Governor Tito Mboweni warned on Friday that rising debt services costs were going to bite, and repeated calls for consumers to be careful about acquiring credit.

Official data last week showed growth in demand for credit by South Africa's private sector quicked to 24.92 percent year-on-year in June from 24.84 percent, hardening the case for higher interest rates later this month.


Read more at Reuters Africa

S.Africa 3-mth T-bill discount rate down at 8.84 pct

(Reuters) - The average discount rate for South African three-month Treasury Bills decreased to 8.84 percent on Friday from 8.86 percent last week, the Reserve Bank said.

The average yield was also down at 9.04 percent from 9.06 percent and applications for the 2.3 billion rand of bills on offer totalled 5.02 billion rand.


Read more at Reuters Africa

US jobs data hit stocks, dollar, boost bonds

(Reuters) - Stocks and the dollar fell while safe-haven government bonds rallied on Friday after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data fanned concerns about a U.S. economy already struggling with credit liquidity fears.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a weaker open on Wall Street while European stocks moved deeper in negative territory after data showed U.S. employers boosted payrolls in July at the slowest pace since February, adding 92,000 jobs.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Angola sees sustained economic boom, inflation cut

(Reuters) - Angola's prime minister said on Friday that his government would cut inflation despite an economic boom, whose benefits he insisted ordinary people would feel in a country still recovering from a devastating civil war.

"We are working very hard now and very soon we will bring it to a sustainable rate of a single digit, we are talking of about eight percent before the end of this year," Fernando da Piedade Dias Dos Santos told Reuters in an interview.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Pfizer seeks to quash Nigerian drug test report

(Reuters) - Pfizer has asked a Nigerian court to disregard an experts' report into drug tests it conducted on Nigerian children in 1996 and which are now the subject of four court cases, the company said on Friday.

The Nigerian federal government and the northern state of Kano are suing Pfizer for a total of about $8.5 billion in damages and also pressing criminal charges over what they say was unethical testing of Trovan, an antibiotic drug.


Read more at Reuters Africa

S.Africa artisans' union gets coal strike permission

(Reuters) - South African union Solidarity has received a certificate that allows it to launch a strike in the coal mining industry, the union said on Friday.

South African coal industry sources said that because Solidarity represents artisans or skilled workers, a strike by Solidarity would be likely to have more impact on coal production than that by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) which represents mostly unskilled workers.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Crude Oil Falls on Concern U.S. Economic Growth, Energy Demand Will Slow

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell more than $1 a barrel
after a government employment report prompted concern that U.S.
economic growth will slow, reducing demand for gasoline and other
fuels.

Job growth slowed to 92,000 in July from 126,000 the prior
month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless
rate rose to 4.6 percent. Economic growth in the U.S. and China
has helped spur the rise in energy demand and fuel prices.
Gasoline, diesel and heating-oil inventories rose last week, a
government report showed on Aug. 1.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

U.S. jobs data hits stocks, dollar, ups bonds

(Reuters) - U.S. employers boosted payrolls in July at the slowest pace since February, adding 92,000 jobs as the national unemployment rate rose to a level last seen in January, the Labor Department reported.




The FTSEurofirst 300 was down 0.4 percent after the report and the euro rose to $1.3714 .


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

UPDATE 1-US services growth eased considerably in July

(Reuters) - The Institute for Supply Management's services index
tumbled to 55.8 last month from 60.7 in June, well below
economists' median forecast for a drop to 59.0.




A number above 50 indicates the sector is still growing,
but the sharp pullback shows activity is much more subdued,
even as separate data point to a sluggish labor market.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

U.S. staffing stocks fall after July jobs report

(Reuters) - The U.S. economy added 92,000 nonfarm jobs in July, below the
130,000 expected, and jobs growth in May and June was revised down
slightly. The jobless rate moved up to 4.6 percent, the Labor
Department said.




Jonas Prising, who heads North American operations at Manpower
Inc. , said Manpower's clients are cautious in their
outlook, but they remain optimistic.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Citigroup Says Asia Bond Investors Are Showing Growing Aversion to Risk

(Bloomberg) -- Asia's largest institutional fixed-
income investors are displaying increased risk aversion,
especially toward high-yield and longer-maturity debt, according
to a Citigroup Inc. survey.

The investors are positive on the outlook for the euro and
British pound while becoming even more negative on the U.S.
dollar, according to the quarterly survey.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Union Investment Halts Bond Fund Withdrawals After $137 Million Pulled

(Bloomberg) -- Union Investment Asset Management
Holding AG, Germany's third-largest mutual fund manager, halted
redemptions from a fund holding subprime mortgages after clients
withdrew about 10 percent of the assets in the past month.

Investors redeemed 100 million euros ($137 million) from the
950 million-euro ABS-Invest Fund, spokesman Markus Temme said
today. The fund, sold to institutional investors across Europe,
has about 6 percent of its assets in securities related to
subprime mortgage loans, Temme said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Bear Stearns Debt Rating Outlook Is Cut by S&P Amid Mortgage Market Rout

(Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos., the manager of two
hedge funds that collapsed last month, had its credit-rating
outlook cut to negative by Standard & Poor's on concern declining
prices for mortgage-backed securities will reduce earnings.

The rating, which was raised one level in October, could be
lowered if the New York-based company incurs large losses, S&P
said today in a statement. Bear Stearns's debt is rated A+, the
fifth highest on the investment-grade scale.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Aug 3

(Reuters) - * China's high-profile investment in the Blackstone Group
LP has produced an unusual backlash within China as
shares in the equity firm have dropped steeply since it went
public in June.




* Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. , the video
game publisher, said on Thursday that it was postponing the
release of the latest game in its wildly popular Grand Theft
Auto series. The delay is likely to have ripple effects on the
broader video game industry during its crucial holiday selling
season.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

RBS says Corporate Mkts up in July despite turmoil

(Reuters) - Johnny Cameron, head of RBS's Corporate Markets division,
said it was difficult to predict when markets would return to
normal but said "by the end of this quarter I expect to see the
market back in business".




Goodwin also said he expected the cost of insurance claims
related to floods in Britain in July to be similar to the 125
million pounds of claims it suffered in June.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

BA profit rise beats forecasts, warns on revenues

(Reuters) - LONDON, Aug 3 - British Airways posted a 28 percent rise in quarterly operating profit on Friday to beat analysts' forecasts, but warned a weak dollar and soaring fuel prices would slow full-year revenue growth and raise costs.



Earnings before interest and taxes for the three months to end-June rose to 263 million pounds , BA said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

IBM to buy data management solutions provider

(Reuters) - Princeton Softech, which provides data archiving, test data management, data classification and discovery software, has about 240 employees and more than 2,200 companies rely on its solutions, IBM said in a statement.







Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Italy's UniCredit seals Polish deal with GE Money

(Reuters) - UniCredit is to merge the remaining assets of BPH into its
other Polish unit Bank Pekao.




Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UniCredit Q2 net profit up 6.8 pct, tops forecast

(Reuters) - By Lisa Jucca



MILAN, Aug 3 - Italian bank UniCredit increased its second-quarter net profit by 6.8 percent to 1.827 billion euros, beating all analysts' forecasts, as it slashed costs while pushing volumes up across its business divisions.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Abe's Vision for `Beautiful Japan' Turns Ugly After Parliamentary Losses

(Bloomberg) -- Shinzo Abe's vision for a ``Beautiful
Japan'' has turned into a potentially ugly scenario for his
political future.

After losing control of the upper house of parliament in
elections July 29, Abe, 52, must ditch his plan to turn Japan
into a nation that's more assertive in international affairs,
proud of its traditions and loved by other countries, analysts
said. Now he must focus on the economy to ward off a move for an
early general election from the opposition Democratic Party of
Japan.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Hedge Funds Pluck Money From Air in $19 Billion Weather Derivatives Gamble

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group trader Patrick
Ayash rarely reads earnings estimates and just skims news about
inflation. One thing he never misses: the daily weather report.

Ayash, 31, is part of an army of mathematicians, hedge-fund
whizzes and programmers pouring into the $19 billion market for
weather futures, financial instruments tied to everything from
storms over Kansas, an early frost in the Netherlands, or a
frigid spring in New York.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Taser Settled 10 of 52 Cases It Told Investors Were Dismissed by Courts

(Bloomberg) -- Taser International Inc., the world's
largest maker of stun guns, talks tough when the subject turns to
people who've sued the company for injuries or deaths allegedly
inflicted by electric shocks from its weapons.

``The word has gotten out: Taser doesn't settle,'' Taser
General Counsel Doug Klint said in an April interview. ``Anyone
who sues us is in for a fight.''


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Merkel Plan Gives Germans Rare Sense of Economic Optimism, Promotes Growth

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel has helped
kick-start the German economy, not to mention her own political
prospects, by pulling off the equivalent of a conjuring trick:
banishing Germans' pessimism and convincing them the glass is
half full.

Merkel has restored a rare sense of economic optimism, a
prerequisite for corporate investment, hiring and consumer
spending, economists and psychologists say. It's not so much what
she's done that's important as what she hasn't done: Merkel has
deliberately discontinued the unpopular economic-policy changes
pioneered by her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder. That's propelled
her personal-approval rating to a record, to the consternation of
her coalition partners.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Telus to abandon BCE pursuit: report

(Reuters) - BCE, which is Canada's largest telecommunications group, has accepted an offer worth C$34.8 billion from a group including the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.




Since pulling out of bidding, Telus had been lobbying regulators and meeting the Canadian Competition Bureau, hoping to get some guidance before BCE held its shareholder vote, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

UPDATE 1-CCS Medical sees $14-$16/shr price range for IPO

(Reuters) - Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs & Co., Wachovia Securities
and Raymond James were underwriting the IPO, the medical supply
management company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission.




The company, which has applied for a Nasdaq listing under
the symbol "CCSM," has given the underwriters an option to buy
up to an additional 1.5 million shares to cover allotments.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

IKB subprime shockwaves continue to rock Germany

(Reuters) - German commercial property financier Hypo Real Estate struggled to calm jittery investors by insisting it would be unaffected by the U.S. subprime fallout. Its shares still skidded more than 5 percent while Commerzbank -- which owns a property financier -- saw its stock fall 4 percent.




Investor confidence was further dented as it emerged that French insurer Axa had also temporarily closed two subprime funds after sudden losses.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

South African Rand Poised for Weekly Gain; Investors Resume Carry Trades

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa's rand is headed for a
weekly gain against the dollar as a rebound in global stocks
prompted investors to resume buying emerging-market assets.

The rand also advanced against the Swiss franc and Japanese
yen as traders borrowed funds in those currencies to invest in
higher yielding stocks and bonds in South Africa, a strategy
known as the carry trade. The rand extended gains after central
bank Governor Tito Mboweni said he was concerned about inflation
in Africa's largest economy.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Fidelity Says Its U.S., Asia High-Yield Funds Have No Subprime Debt, CDOs

(Bloomberg) -- Fidelity International Ltd. said its
U.S. and Asian high-yield funds have no U.S. subprime mortgage
investments or collateralized debt obligations.

Fidelity International, a unit of Boston-based Fidelity
Investments, the world's largest mutual-fund company, sees buying
opportunities in U.S. and Asian high-yield markets, portfolio
managers Harley Lank and Andrew Wells said in a market update
late yesterday titled ``Sub-prime or a prime opportunity?''


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Toyota says upward trend in U.S. sales intact

(Reuters) - The highest was July 2006, when industry volumes grew on back of big incentives being offered led by Detroit brands.




He also said U.S. sales incentives on the Tundra pick-up truck were on track to decline.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Samsung Electronics chip output hit by power cut

(Reuters) - The company said it did not expect the overall losses from the outage to exceed 50 billion won .




Analysts, however, put the potential losses much higher.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

LBO exposure may hit Bear Stearns, Lehman

(Reuters) - Large commercial banks such as Citigroup Inc. are on the hook for loads of leveraged buyout debt they hoped to sell to investors, but with a $230 billion market capitalization, Citi is seen as having the balance sheet to absorb any losses without much of a headache.




Large commercial banks like Citi and JPMorgan Chase & Co. also benefit from more diversified businesses including revenue from consumer banking and broad international operations.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Futures turn negative on employment report

(Reuters) - Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 27 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 3.75 points.




Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Cocoa Gains on Speculation Adverse Weather Will Hurt Indonesia's Harvest

(Bloomberg) -- Cocoa gained for the first time in three
days in London on speculation adverse weather in Indonesia, the
world's third-biggest producer, will lead to a smaller harvest.

Production in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province may fall
``more than 10 percent'' this year after floods and landslides
last month damaged plantations and cut off distribution, Herman
Agan, head of the local chapter of the Indonesian Cocoa
Association, said in a telephone interview yesterday.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Crude Oil Rises on Report Gunmen Attack Boats Near Nigerian Oil Terminal

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose after a reported that
Nigerian gunmen attacked two boats near an offshore terminal in
the Niger delta.

At least three men were killed during the attack, the
British Broadcasting Corp. reported, citing unidentified
security officials. Since last year, about a quarter of oil
output in Nigeria, Africa's largest producer, has been halted by
militant attacks.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News