UPDATE 1-NorthWestern Energy seeks gas rate hike in S.D,, Neb.

(Reuters) - It also said the rate hike in South Dakota and Nebraska
would be the first in eight years.




"Current rates were last adjusted in 1999 based on 1998
costs and just about everything costs more today than it did
nine years ago," said Curt Pohl, vice president for retail
operations for NorthWestern.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Wall Street poses subprime obstacles

(Reuters) - NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, June 1 - The mortgage-backed securities market and Wall Street are becoming a roadblock for U.S. banks trying to dig out of the subprime mess.



The standard accounting practices and contractual terms used to create the securities leave little room for banks to modify portfolios with rising defaults and delinquencies.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Chicago Mercantile's Donohue Says Intercontinental's Plan Would Hurt CBOT

(Bloomberg) -- Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chief
Executive Officer Craig Donohue said that actions taken this week
by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., his rival in the bidding for
the Chicago Board of Trade, would hurt CBOT shareholders.

The comments were his first public response to the May 30
announcement by Atlanta-based Intercontinental that it had an
agreement to settle a dispute between CBOT and the Chicago Board
Options Exchange over ownership rights. The agreement would pay
CBOT members $655.5 million in exchange for their relinquishing
the so-called exercise rights.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Massachusetts bans foreclosure rescue schemes

(Reuters) - The state legislature would have to approve any permanent
ban.




For-profit lenders often develop "rescue" schemes where
they promise to assist homeowners struggling with mortgage
payments and facing foreclosure. Sometimes they take over the
homeowners' deeds.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

US STOCKS-Indexes inch up, but profit-taking caps gains

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, June 1 - U.S. stocks edged higher on
Friday as data reassured investors about the economy's health,
but with the major indexes at multiyear highs, some investors
chose to take profits before the weekend.




Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shares jumped nearly 4
percent after the world's biggest retailer announced plans for
a $15 billion stock buyback and more moderate expansion of
supercenter stores in an effort to improve sales. For details,
see [ID:nN01324918]


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-Iveco CEO looks for partners in Europe, N. America

(Reuters) - ST. GALLEN, Switzerland, June 1 - Italian truck
maker Iveco said on Friday it could consider forming a partial
partnership in 2008 in North America, a market where it has
been looking to expand.




"We may consider a partial alliance next year in North
America," Chief Executive Paolo Monferino told Reuters, adding
that he was in no hurry to ink a deal.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Mississippi coast aims to outshine Atlantic City

(Reuters) - Officials heading up the region's expansion effort told
Reuters on Friday that the warm climate, beautiful beaches and
southern hospitality give it an edge over Atlantic City, which
is trying to remake its image as well.




"Atlantic City is still a convenience market," said Stephen
Richer, executive director of the Mississippi Gulfcoast
Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We're trying to become the No.
2 pleasure destination with gaming."


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks gain on strong U.S. economic data

(Reuters) - European stocks also climbed to the highest level in more
than six years on merger news and the outlook for U.S. growth.
However, bonds fell, pushing benchmark yields to nine-month
highs, as Friday's economic figures all but obliterated
expectations of an interest rate cut this year from the Federal
Reserve.




Oil prices rose above $69 a barrel on reports of refinery
problems in the United States.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Corn Falls From Three-Week High as Rains to Bolster Crops in U.S. Midwest

(Bloomberg) -- Corn futures in Chicago fell
from a three-week high on expectations rains will relieve
dryness that threatened crops in the eastern Midwest.

As much as 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) of rain may
fall the next three days west of a line from St. Louis to
Chicago, with up to 1 inch to the east, covering at least
75 percent of the Midwest growing region, said John Dee,
president of Global Weather Monitoring in Mohawk, Michigan.
A second storm may bring as much as 1 inch of rain to most
of the area late next week.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Soybeans Rise as Stronger Brazilian Real May Spur Buying of U.S. Supplies

(Bloomberg) -- Soybean futures in Chicago rose,
extending a rally to a 35-month high, as the Brazilian real
strengthened, reducing incentives for farmers in that country to
plant more of the oilseed to make up for a smaller U.S. crop.

The real rose to a six-year high against the dollar today
and has gained 12 percent this year. That makes Brazil's soybeans
more expensive for foreign buyers and U.S. supplies more
attractive. Brazil is the second-biggest grower and exporter of
soybeans after the U.S.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Canadian Stocks Rise on Bullion, Oil Prices: Goldcorp, Petro-Canada Gain

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian stocks advanced as climbing oil
and metal prices lifted shares of commodity producers, such as
Petro-Canada and Goldcorp Inc.

``As gold goes up, it tends to drag everything up with it,''
said Irwin Michael, who helps manage C$1.17 billion at ABC Funds in
Toronto.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Gold Futures Climb After European Central Bank Caps Sales: Silver Gain

(Bloomberg) -- Gold rose in New York on speculation
that central banks will slow metal sales after the European
Central Bank said it has no plans to sell more bullion through
September. Silver also gained.

The ECB is one of 16 signatories of the so-called Central
Bank Gold Agreement, which allows members to sell no more than
500 metric tons of gold each year. The ECB said today it sold 60
tons since September. The metal fell 6.6 percent to $651.50 an
ounce on May 24 from an 11-month high of $698 on April 20. Some
European central banks sold gold worth $912 million last month.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

US STOCKS-Indexes gain as data lifts economic outlook

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, June 1 - U.S. stocks rose on Friday,
pushing the Dow industrials to an all-time high, as reports
pointing to a recovering economy, including
stronger-than-expected job growth, lifted optimism about the
outlook for profits.




The number of payroll jobs created by employers in May
outstripped Wall Street's forecasts. Data on U.S. manufacturing
and consumer sentiment also rose more than forecast.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-Turkey's Sabanci Holding Q1 net 210 mln lira

(Reuters) - Sabanci, which did not give a comparative figure for the
bottom line, said sales rose 15 percent to 4.4 billion lira.




It said its operating profit came in at 652 million lira,
but a full set of results has not yet been published.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Factory gauge climbs to highest in over a year

(Reuters) - The figures supported the view that performance in the sector, while not quite stellar, is not slowing either.




"Manufacturing is showing signs of the potential for a rebound," said John Miller, head of fund management at Nuveen Investments.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

N.Y. Gasoline Futures Increase as U.S. Taps Imports to Fill Low Supplies

(Bloomberg) -- Gasoline futures rose as companies
increased reliance on imports to bolster supplies at the start of
the summer driving season.

U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose 1.36 million barrels last week
to 198 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Department reported
yesterday. Refinery usage was unchanged at 91.1 percent of total
U.S. capacity. Imports rose 315,000 barrels to 1.61 million
barrels a day. Gasoline supplies last week were 6.7 percent below
the five-year average.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

ACF Enterprises, Dell, Luxottica, Immucor: U.S. Equity Market 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 9:35 a.m. New York time.

AFC Enterprises Inc. (AFCE US): The owner of Popeyes Chicken
& Biscuits lowered its fiscal 2007 profit outlook to 81 cents to
85 cents a share. The Atlanta-based company had previously
expected earnings of 87 cents to 91 cents a share. Shares fell
$1.35 to $18.12.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

TREASURIES-Bond prices fall on strong jobs report

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, June 1 - U.S. government debt prices
fell on Friday, sending benchmark yields to fresh nine-month
highs, after a robust jobs report all but dashed market
expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut this
year.




Trading was choppy, with the market initially posting small
gains as a muted core inflation reading briefly helped offset
the negative impact on bonds of higher-than-expected job
creation in the nonfarm payrolls report.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Glaxo, Top Consumer-Ad Spender, Didn't Publicize Diabetes Drug's Risks

(Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc was the drug
industry's top advertiser last year, promoting its asthma and
diabetes treatments to patients and doctors. Information the
company didn't make well known is now drawing more attention.

London-based Glaxo knew its Avandia diabetes pill posed a
risk for heart and circulatory complications as early as 1999,
when the medicine won U.S. approval. The cardiovascular concern
wasn't widely disseminated until May 21 when a Cleveland Clinic
Foundation analysis reported that Avandia may cause a 43 percent
higher risk of heart attacks than other drugs.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Banks Sell `Toxic Waste' CDOs to Calpers, Texas Teachers Pension Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-largest U.S.
securities firm, is hawking the riskiest portions of collateralized
debt obligations to public pension funds.

At a sales presentation of the bank's CDOs to 50 public
pension fund managers in a Las Vegas hotel ballroom, Jean
Fleischhacker, Bear Stearns senior managing director, tells fund
managers they can get a 20 percent annual return from the bottom
level of a CDO.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

US April income fell 0.1 pct,core prices up modestly

(Reuters) - Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting personal income
to rise 0.3 percent and core consumer prices - excluding
volatile food and energy costs - to gain 0.2 percent.




April consumer spending fell 0.1 percent, the first decline
since August 2005. Analysts were expecting a rise of 0.4
percent.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Thomson buys non-China bureaus of Xinhua Finance

(Reuters) - The deal covers XFN bureaus in Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney and Seoul. The companies also signed licensing agreements for the exchange of news services after the sale, Xinhua Finance said in a statement.




XFN will keep editorial operations in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei, while news operations of Xinhua Finance's other subsidiaries, including Market News International, will not change.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Dollar Trades Near Three-Month High Against Yen Before Employment Report

(Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded near its highest
against the yen in more than three months before a U.S. report
that's expected to show jobs growth accelerated in May.

The U.S. currency climbed the most last month versus the
euro since February 2006 as reports showed gains in consumer
confidence, housing and manufacturing. A pickup in hiring would
add to evidence the world's largest economy is reviving after
its slowest growth last quarter in more than four years.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Coffee Production Climbs in Central America, Fortis and VM Group Say

(Bloomberg) -- Coffee production is rising in
Central American countries to meet climbing demand, boosting
projections for global output, Fortis and VM Group said in a
report.

Worldwide production will be 121.2 million bags in the
current crop year, above a May 2 forecast of 119.9 million bags,
Brussels-based Fortis and London-based VM Group said.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Philippines to Relax Rules on Derivatives, Says Central Bank's Espenilla

(Bloomberg) -- The Philippine central bank may ease
policies on derivatives and other tools for hedging risks to
``encourage business activity,'' Deputy Governor Nestor
Espenilla said.

While this may encourage outward investment, it's not the
main intention, Espenilla said in a mobile phone message today
from Washington. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas aims to spur
business by ``giving maximum flexibility to manage risks,'' he
said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Canada's Stelco up for sale -report

(Reuters) - Toronto's Brookfield Asset Management Inc., which runs a
restructuring fund that is Stelco's largest shareholder, at
about 36 percent, and Appaloosa Management, a U.S. hedge fund
that owns 18 per cent, have let it be known that they are ready
to sell at a premium to the current market price for Stelco
stock, the Globe and Mail said.




Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Sales at Retailers in Germany Increase by the Most in Four Months in April

(Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in Germany, Europe's
largest economy, rose the most in four months in April.

Sales, adjusted for inflation and seasonal swings, rose 2.6
percent from March, when they fell 0.3 percent, the Federal
Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists forecast a
gain of 0.8 percent, the median of 31 estimates in a Bloomberg
News survey showed. From a year earlier, sales fell 0.6 percent.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Rand steady vs dollar, eyes US data

(Reuters) - The rand was little changed from overnight levels against the dollar early on Friday and should hold mostly steady while eyeing overseas trends, with little seen on the local front to move it much.

The rand was at 7.1220 versus the dollar at 0640 GMT after closing in New York on Thursday at 7.12, holding on to gains after South African inflation, credit, money supply and trade data boosted expectations of an interest rate rise next week.


Read more at Reuters Africa