Oil rises on thin US gasoline stocks, supply risks

(Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Monday to extend last week's rally as dealers worried about supplies from Nigeria and the Middle East at a time of peak summer gasoline demand in the United States.

London Brent crude for August delivery, currently seen as more representative of the global market, rose 23 cents to $71.70 a barrel by 0153 GMT, after gaining 11 cents on Friday when it hit a 10-month high.


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Coal Delivery by Rail to Australia's Newcastle Rise After Storm Last Week

(Bloomberg) -- Coal deliveries by rail to
Australia's Newcastle Port have reached between 50 percent and 70
percent of targeted capacity after a six-day halt last week due
to storms that brought heavy rain.

Deliveries are expected to reach 80 percent or more of
capacity ``towards the middle of this week,'' the Hunter Valley
Coal Chain Logistics Team, the coordinator of coal movements on
the railway between the mines and the port, the world's biggest
coal-export harbor, said today in a statement on its Web site.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

BHP Billiton revives Alcoa bid plans - paper

(Reuters) - Alcoa has itself made a $28.4 billion cash-and-stock hostile
takeover offer for Alcan Inc. .




BHP was not immediately available for comment.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

U.S. Q2 earnings forecasts rise - survey

(Reuters) - Technology and health care sectors are expected to post double-digit profit growth this quarter, while earnings are seen weakest in the cyclical consumer goods and energy sectors, according to Reuters calculations.




Among all publicly-traded U.S. companies more companies have issued negative earnings pre-announcements so far in June than positive ones, putting a ratio of such announcements at its lowest level since March.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

BC Partners in lead to buy Intelsat-WSJ

(Reuters) - None of the companies mentioned in the report was
immediately available to comment.




Intelsat assets are in demand amid a renaissance in the
commercial satellite market that is spurred by demand for
high-definition television and faster Internet services.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Sampoerna Agro's Shares Surge on Debut on Investors' Interest in Palm Oil

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of PT Sampoerna Agro, an
Indonesian oil palm grower controlled by billionaire Putera
Sampoerna, surged as much as 43 percent on their debut in
Jakarta amid rising investor interest in the commodity.

The company, based in Palembang, south Sumatra, raised 1.08
trillion rupiah ($120 million) selling 461.35 million new shares,
equivalent to a 24.4 percent stake, earlier this month, the
Jakarta Stock Exchange said in a statement. Sampoerna Agro has
said it plans to use the proceeds for expansion and cutting debt.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Microsoft Will Acquire Stake in China Television Maker Sichuan Changhong

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy 0.8
percent of Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., China's second-biggest
television maker, in a project that can connect computers and
televisions to the Internet, the Chinese company said.

Microsoft will pay 94 million yuan ($12 million) for 15
million new Changhong shares at 6.27 yuan each, according to a
statement today by the Chinese company, based in southwestern
China's Mianyang city. Changhong shares soared to 9.93 yuan on
June 14 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Fiat May Find Ferrari-Sized Performance for Shareholders With `500' Sales

(Bloomberg) -- Fiat SpA's Chief Executive Officer
Sergio Marchionne cut costs and overhauled management since
becoming CEO in 2004, ending losses of more than $2 billion a
year and tripling the carmaker's share value.

His next challenge is to catch up with rival European
automakers Volkswagen AG and Renault SA. He's banking on bringing
back a 1950s-era Italian ``people's car'' -- revamped by the man
responsible for Ferrari's F430 -- to help drive earnings and
shares even higher.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

UBS cuts earnings forecasts for S.Korean chip makers

(Reuters) - The investment bank said it would lower its 2007 net income
forecast for Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. by 6.9
percent to 8.3 trillion won and its 2008
estimate by 4.6 percent to 10.4 trillion won.




UBS also cut its share target price on Samsung to 670,000
won from 690,000 won. Shares in the world's biggest maker of
memory chips were up 0.7 percent to 578,000 won by 0047 GMT,
following tame U.S. inflation data.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Airbus Struggles to Sell New A350, End Nosedive Triggered by Superjumbo

(Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS is running out of time.

Six months after unveiling its latest long-range 300-seat
jetliner -- the most lucrative part of the commercial plane
market -- the company has received only 13 firm orders for the
A350 XWB. Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner has 584.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Australian Dollar Gains Versus Yen on `Strong Demand' for Carry Trades

(Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar climbed to a 15
1/2-year high against the yen on speculation investors are buying
the nation's higher-yielding assets with money borrowed in Japan.

The so-called carry trade, where investors take advantage of
Australia's 6.25 percent overnight cash rate target compared with
Japan's 0.5 percent key borrowing cost, also pushed the currency
toward an 18-year high against the U.S. dollar reached earlier
this month. Australia's dollar is the third-best performer of the
16 most-traded currencies in the past month.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Oil Trades Near Nine-Month High on Concern U.S. Fuel Stocks Are Inadequate

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed in New
York after rising to a nine-month high on concern gasoline
supplies are inadequate to meet peak summer demand.

Oil rose to the highest since September on July 15 after
Valero Energy Corp. shut a unit at its Corpus Christi,
Texas, refinery, paring gasoline production for the peak-demand
driving season. U.S. refineries reduced operating rates the past
three weeks, an Energy Department report on June 13 showed.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Treasury Market Rout Is Muffled by Reserves, Tame Inflation, Derivatives

(Bloomberg) -- The steepest decline in Treasuries
since 2004 is convincing even the most bullish investors that
U.S. government bonds are now in a bear market.

Bill Gross, the manager of the world's biggest bond fund at
Pacific Investment Management Co., and Dan Fuss, whose Loomis
Sayles Bond Fund has been the best performer among its peers the
last decade, are preparing for higher market rates after yields
on 10-year Treasuries, the benchmark for home mortgages and
corporate borrowing, rose to a five-year high last week.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Theories abound at Conrad Black fraud trial

(Reuters) - Those two approaches are available because Judge Amy St.
Eve of U.S. District Court in Chicago sided with prosecutors in
agreeing to give jurors what is referred to in legal circles as
the "ostrich instruction." That means a defendant can be found
guilty if he deliberately avoided learning about wrongdoing,
even if the jury thinks he did not hatch the scheme.




That "deliberate avoidance" jury instruction is common in
white-collar criminal cases, legal experts say.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News