FACTBOX: Why oil prices are at a record high

(Reuters) - FUNDS




Investment flows from pension and hedge funds into commodities including oil have resumed in recent months after a hiatus earlier in the year due to concerns about how the global economy was moving.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Futures turn negative on employment report

(Reuters) - Investors were bracing for data on the vast U.S. services sector at 10 a.m. ET.




Financial companies' shares were dragging after American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. said it plans to close most operations on Friday and lay off nearly 7,000 employees.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Japan Stocks Decline on U.S. Concerns, Strong Yen; Sony and Mizuho Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks fell after American
Home Mortgage Investment Corp. said it lacks cash to fund new
loans, sending U.S. shares lower and reigniting concerns subprime
problems will curb growth in the world's largest economy.

Exporters including Sony Corp. declined after the yen
strengthened, cutting the value of their overseas sales in the
local currency. The U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 Index posted its
biggest monthly drop in three years.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Credit worries return, driving Wall St. lower

(Reuters) - Stocks had risen Monday and the first half of Tuesday's session, but the relief rally was cut short when American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. said it may have to liquidate assets. Shares of the mortgage lender fell 90 percent.




Investors remain sensitive to news about worsening lending conditions, which pummeled global equity markets last week. Credit market concerns pushed the S&P down 3.2 percent in July, its worst performance in three years.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Corporate Bond Risk Soars on Concerns About Losses From Subprime Mortgages

(Bloomberg) -- The risk of owning U.S. corporate
bonds soared, erasing the biggest drop in at least three years,
as investors signaled that worries about widening losses from
subprime mortgages aren't over.

Credit-default swaps based on $10 million of bonds in the
benchmark CDX North American Investment-Grade Index jumped
$9,000 to about $81,000 at 4:03 p.m. in New York after dropping
earlier by as much as $9,000 to $63,000, according to Deutsche
Bank AG. During the past four days, the index, used to speculate
on corporate creditworthiness, has recorded its two worst and
two best days since it started trading more than three years
ago, according to data from Credit Suisse Group.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

UPDATE 2-American Home can't fund loans, may liquidate assets

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 31 - American Home Mortgage Investment Corp , a struggling mortgage lender, said on Tuesday it can no longer provide funding for home loans and has hired advisers to explore options, including a possible "orderly liquidation of its assets."



The Melville, New York-based real estate investment trust is one of the largest U.S. lenders to struggle with a U.S. housing slump that has caused home prices to stall, borrowing costs to rise and defaults to soar.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

MGIC, Radian's C-Bass Subprime Venture Is in Talks to Secure More Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Credit-Based Asset Servicing and
Securitization LLC, a New York-based subprime loan company, said
it's in talks with investors to ensure it has sufficient funds
after turmoil in the market for high-risk borrowers.

Mortgage insurers MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group
Inc. yesterday said their C-Bass joint venture may be worthless,
requiring more than $1 billion in writedowns. MGIC, the largest
U.S. insurer of home loans, and Radian, the rival it's buying,
said ``unprecedented'' volatility in mid-July may have destroyed
their stakes, each valued at more than $500 million on June 30.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Taiwan's Stocks Gain for First Time in Five Days; Cathay Financial Climbs

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan's stocks rose for the first day
in five as investors judged recent declines excessive and a
newspaper reported the island's mutual funds may invest more.
Cathay Financial Holding Co. led gains.

``Investors have regained their composure after being knocked
around in the global stock market turmoil,'' said Vickie Hsieh,
who helps oversees $1.4 billion at President Investment Trust
Corp. ``Leading Taiwan companies offering good value will be the
most appealing.''


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

U.S. Stocks Rebound on Upgrades; KB Home, Nordstrom, Terex Shares Advance

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rebounded, pacing a
global advance, after Wall Street brokerages told investors to
buy shares that fell during last week's $2.1 trillion global
sell-off.

KB Home led homebuilders higher after Citi Investment
Resarch raised the shares to ``buy.'' Nordstrom Inc. posted its
steepest gain since August on a Goldman, Sachs & Co. upgrade.
Terex Corp., the maker of trucks and cranes, surged the most in
three weeks and led the Standard & Poor's 500 Index higher
after Goldman, Sachs & Co. advised clients to buy the shares.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

US STOCKS-Wall St. set to fall on credit jitters

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 30 - U.S. stock index futures
pointed to a weaker start for the market in choppy trading on
Monday after heavy losses last week on fear that a credit
crunch would slow or stop the pace of takeovers that have
boosted stocks.




In the latest sign of problems in the home lending market,
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. said its banks
were demanding that it put up more cash after the mortgage
lender was forced to write down the value of its mortgage and
security portfolios. The shares fell 25 percent before the
opening bell.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Asian Stocks Have Worst Week in a Year on Housing Concern; Samsung Drops

(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks had the biggest weekly
drop in a year as U.S. reports heightened concern that a housing
slump is spreading in the world's biggest economy. BHP Billiton
and Samsung Electronics Co. led the slide.

``You've got an economic impact from lower housing prices
and housing demand,'' said Simon Doyle, a strategist at Schroder
Investment Management Australia Ltd. in Sydney, which manages
the equivalent of $11.4 billion. ``If the U.S. is under question,
there might be a broader contagion.''


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Corporate Bond Risk Decreases as Investors Reduce Bets on Subprime Rout

(Bloomberg) -- The risk of owning corporate bonds
fell in Europe and the U.S. as investors pared bets that credit
quality will deteriorate further because of the subprime
mortgage rout, according to traders of credit-default swaps.

Contracts on 10 million euros ($13 million) of debt
included in the iTraxx Crossover Series 7 Index of 50 European
companies dropped 13,000 euros to 354,000 euros in London,
according to Deutsche Bank AG. The index was at 180,000 euros at
the start of June. The CDX North America Investment Grade Index
dropped $1,250 to $53,750 in New York, Deutsche Bank said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Honda, Riding `Buzz' From New Accord, May Win Investors as Toyota Stalls

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Toyota Motor Corp.
outperformed those of Honda Motor Co. in the first half of the
year on rising U.S. sales. Now it may be Honda's turn.

Japan's second-largest carmaker will reap bigger gains than
Toyota from a weaker-than-forecast yen and higher demand for
more fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S., said Jeffrey Scharf,
president of Scharf Investments, a $660 million fund in Santa
Cruz, California. Honda also predicts sales will rise with the
September release of a new Accord sedan, its top-selling model.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

UPDATE 2-Subprime mess spreads to junk bonds, LBOs -PIMCO

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 24 - Soaring defaults in the
subprime mortgage market are spreading into the U.S. credit
markets, producing a "sudden liquidity crisis" in the
high-yield bond sector, according to widely followed bond
manager Bill Gross.




A lack of confidence has shut down the markets for lending
and backed up new junk-bond offerings -- a major source of
funding for leveraged buyouts and may become a factor
ultimately impacting the U.S. economy, said Gross, manager of
the world's largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management
Co., or PIMCO. He made the comment in his August investment
outlook letter.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Norsk Hydro to build alumina refinery with CVRD

(Reuters) - "Investment cost in the first stage for the total
project is preliminary estimated at $1.5 billion," it said.




Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

U.S. Housing Slowdown Will Lead Fed to Cut Rates, Pimco's McCulley Says

(Bloomberg) -- A slowdown in the U.S. housing market
and losses in mortgage-linked bonds will lead the Federal Reserve
to cut interest rates, said Paul McCulley, a bond fund manager at
Pacific Investment Management Co.

``The recession we have in the housing market is going to be
a very long, protracted affair,'' McCulley said in an interview
from Pimco's office in Newport Beach, California. ``That's going
to lead the average consumer to recognize that he needs to save
more out of current income, which is going to weaken consumption
in the economy.''


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Canada names panel to review investment policy

(Reuters) - Two key laws -- the Competition Act and the Investment
Canada Act -- need updating, as trade agreements have opened up
markets and investing has become increasingly global, federal
officials said at a press conference.




The policies "have not been substantially changed in more
than two decades," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

REFILE-GLOBAL MARKETS-U.S. jobs data in focus, oil surges

(Reuters) - By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent




LONDON, July 6 - Financial markets focused on
Friday on upcoming U.S. jobs data for a guide to the path of
interest rates as European stocks climbed, the dollar clung on
to recent gains and bonds weakened.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

UPDATE 1-Chinese Estates says in buyout talks

(Reuters) - "The board confirms that it has received expressions of
interest in relation to the company from a number of third
parties. The board is in talks with some of these parties," it
said in a statement.




The South China Morning post reported on Tuesday that The
Children's Investment Fund Management , the company's second
largest shareholder, as well as Och-Ziff Capital Management
Group, and Marathon and Fortress Investment Group have looked at
ways to buy Chinese Estates through a joint bid.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Air Liquide, CRH, Prologis, Bancaja Plan to Sell Debt: European Bond Alert

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of bond sales
denominated in euros or pounds and expected in the coming days
and weeks.

Investment-Grade Sales


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News