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

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

TREASURIES-Bond prices surge on stock market plunge

(Reuters) - The bond market rally drove the benchmark 10-year note's
yield to a two-month low and pushed yields on two-year notes to
their biggest drop since 2004. Treasuries were little moved by
the auction of $13 billion worth of five-year paper, which
traders described as poor.




"Flight-to-quality is what we are seeing right now. For the
first couple of days went to gold and right now
it is moving to Treasury bonds and particularly to the shorter
maturities," said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist with
Channel Capital Research in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Mboweni:Zimbabwe far from joining rand union - report

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe is a long way from being ready to join southern Africa's rand monetary union, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni was quoted as saying on Monday.

"A very high degree of macro-economic convergence is necessary. They have a very long way to go," he told South African news agency I-Net Bridge.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Apple, DTE Energy, Lions Gate, Seaspan, Theravance: U.S. Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares may have unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges
tomorrow. This preview includes news that broke after exchanges
closed. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Apple Inc. (AAPL US) shares rose as much as $1.62, or 1.3
percent, to $123.66 in extended trading. The U.S. debut of the
iPhone drew thousands of shoppers over the weekend, emptying most
of AT&T Inc.'s inventory and causing network glitches as the
flood of customers began activating the device. Shoppers snapped
up as many as 200,000 iPhones the first day after the device went
on sale June 29, according to Global Equities Research.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

UPDATE 2-Blackstone up 15 percent in NYSE debut

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, June 22 - Blackstone Group LP units
rose 15 percent in their first day of trading on Friday, as the
first major U.S. private-equity firm went public and minted
billions of dollars of new wealth for its founders.




The highly anticipated issue shot up as much as 23 percent to
$38.00 in early trade on the New York Stock Exchange. But the
units then fell from the high and dipped below the opening price,
indicating some investors sold on concerns of higher U.S. taxes or
worries whether the ideal conditions of recent years would
persist.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-Johns Hopkins to pay to settle student-loan probe

(Reuters) - The settlement is the latest in a nationwide probe of
conflicts of interest in the $85 billion student loan industry.
Twenty-six schools and seven lenders, including Sallie Mae
, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America ,
have reached agreements with New York Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo.




The latest agreement resulted from Cuomo's findings that
Ellen Frishberg, the director of student financial services at
Johns Hopkins, was improperly promoting a lender, Student Loan
Xpress, after the company paid her more than $65,000 in
consulting fees and other payments, the AG's office said.
Student Loan Xpress is now a unit of CIT Group Inc. .


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Russian Stocks Advance, Led by Gazprom, Rosneft: World's Biggest Mover

(Bloomberg) -- Russian stocks climbed, paced by OAO
Gazprom, OAO Rosneft and OAO Lukoil after oil futures gained in
New York.

The ruble-denominated Micex Index rose 3.2 percent to
1662.71, posting the biggest move among equity markets included
in global benchmarks. Twenty-six stocks advanced and four
retreated. The dollar-denominated RTS Index added 3.5 percent to
1870.11.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

UPDATE 1-James River to be acquired by DE Shaw for $575 mln

(Reuters) - The terms value James River at $34.50 per share, a 1.9
percent discount to its Friday closing price of $35.18 on the
Nasdaq, but 92 percent above the $18 per share that the company
was worth when it went public in August 2005. Forty-five
percent of stockholders have agreed to back the transaction.




James River, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, will
have until Aug. 5 to solicit a superior offer, under what is
known as a "go-shop" provision. If it finds a superior offer,
D.E. Shaw would get a $7.2 million termination fee. James River
intends to keep paying dividends until merger is completed. The
transaction is not subject to a financing condition.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Stocks suggest modest Wall St open on M&A

(Reuters) - Lingering worries about possible increases in interest rates, however, with most of the U.S. treasury yield curve above 5 percent, could limit upside momentum, analysts said.




Owens-Illinois Inc. said on Monday it will sell its plastics packaging business to Britain's Rexam Plc , the world's biggest can maker, for about $1.83 billion.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

UPDATE 1-No impact seen from China stock slide -IMF official

(Reuters) - "There is no reason to believe ... it will have a
significant effect on China's economy or on the international
economy or world financial markets," IMF spokesman David Hawley
told a regular briefing for reporters.




The Shanghai benchmark stock index plunged 21
percent in the last five trading days through Tuesday, as small
investors dumped stocks after Beijing, worried that the market
was boiling over, increased the tax on stock trades. The tax
hike went into effect last Wednesday.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Rand pares losses on rate rise

(Reuters) - The South African rand pared losses after the central bank raised benchmark interest rates on Thursday by half a point to 9.50 percent.

The rand which was starting to strengthen from session lows on hawkish comments from Central Bank Governor Tito Mboweni strengthened even further after monetary policy was tightened. The move was expected by the financial markets.


Read more at Reuters Africa

TREASURIES-Most prices stay in plus column after auction

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, May 30 - U.S. government bond prices
remained higher on Wednesday after the Treasury's $13.0 billion
five-year note auction went as foreseen and traders bid up the
market in anticipation of month-end buying.




In a reflection of demand, the latest five-year note
auction fetched a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.60, higher than the
2.29 ratio at the April auction and the 2006 average.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Cicada Invasion Threatens to Swarm Chicago in 30-Day Bug-Breeding Frenzy

(Bloomberg) -- In the past 17 years, ``Friends''
came and went on television, another George Bush was elected
president and the Hubble telescope was launched. Seven billion
cicadas missed it all.

Now the cicadas are ready to emerge from their 17-year
sojourn underground and invade the Chicago area.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News