Microsoft Seeks Deal Allies (WSJ)
Just end already! Seriously! The latest version of the MSFT-YHOO story, which changes on a daily basis, is that Microsoft is seeking partners to revisit some kind of deal. You can pick your poison on who those partners would be. News Corp. and Time Warner are the obvious ones. You could even throw in GE, Comcast and maybe a PE firm like Bain as long as you feel like playing the parlor game.
Starbucks to Shut More Stores (WSJ)
So Starbucks is actually shutting down stores. Not that many, mind you. It’s just 500, which is as many as they have in some medium-sized cities. Still, it’s an admission that they overbuilt, something the market realized a lot earlier. Hey, remember a couple summers ago, when Starbucks said it had weak earnings, because lines were too long. Here’s where we wrote about it, on August 4, 2006. That really was a total line of rubbish wasn’t it?
Moody’s Says Workers Rated Some Securities Incorrectly (NYT)
And they would have gotten away with it too, if it were for those darn market forces.
June car sales plummet; more declines expected (AP)
It’s never too early to look back on recent history. And in fact, early July — the beginning of q3 already — is the best time to do it. So yeah, June car sales were bad bad bad. Even Drudge had a screamer about them. But the good news for you pro-America types is that GM held of Toyota, extending its run probably by one more month, maybe too. It’s super obvious by this point, but the American automakers’ big-car strategy hasn’t helped: “Ford sold 41 percent fewer of its perennial best-seller, the F-series pickup truck, and it sold fewer than half the number of Explorer SUVs as it did in June 2007. George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst, said SUV sales are probably down for good.”

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Don’t Forget the Middle People (NYT)
Wherever you go, it’s always about the middle class. In the election, you rarely hear talk about the actual, real poor. Maybe you fight vaguely against poverty or something, but that’s about it. It’s all middle class all the time. Seems that even in Hollywood, where the actors are mulling a strike, they’re making their complaints about the industry’s “middle class”. And they got the NYT to explain how third tier actors are having a tough go of it these days, for all sorts of reasons. Some will sound really familiar: like outsourcing voiceover work overseas. Then there’s the attack on cheap, substitute goods: too much reality TV programming!
Falling Prices Grip Major Stock Markets Around the World (NYT)
Great news: world markets are just as bad as the US ones. That’s great in the sense that we shouldn’t feel too bad about slipping back into bear market territories after one of the worst June’s of all time. Also good news: June is almost over, so we can get back to starting to go up again.
Property Insurers Confront Rising Catastrophe Losses (WSJ)
All this flooding in the midwest: what’s it costing the insurers? Recent catastrophe claims are totaling $5 billion, and total for the year stand at 8.9 billion which is close to the entire loss for 2007. It could pretty much guarantee that the industry sees an underwriting loss for the year, though perhaps that not in the bag just yet.
Volatility Drops Most Since 2001 as Dollar Fall Slows (Bloomberg)
Everytime oil spikes another $5, you hear a lot of fretting about the continued decline in the dollar. But apparently that’s really slowing down. One index of currency volatility has dropped severely as the pace of the dollar’s declines have slowed. Anyway, the point this article is trying to make is that the deceleration of the dollar’s decline may avoid severe forms of intervention, such as government’s stepping in and buying or selling.

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Microsoft Seeks Path Beyond the Gates Legacy (NYT)
Today is Bill Gates last day as a full-time employee of Microsoft, so all week there’s been plenty of writing about what it means. We have no idea what it means. He’ll still be the Chairman of Microsoft, so realistically, expect to see the words “Bill Gates” and “Microsoft” together a lot, even if he doesn’t draw a bi-monthly salary. If we were gates, we’d start a web startup. That’d really shock the hell out of everyone You know, go out, hire a team, raise $500k in seed money. Get the fire back. He’s only in his 50s, so this whole retirement/philanthropy thing seems a little early, no?
Oil climbs to record above $141 in Asia (AP)
We’re still like $60 away from $200 oil, but it’s really in the bag, isn’t it? When is someone going to come out with that oil $300 note? And when is the economy going to grind to a standing stop as has been promised.
Global Oil-Supply Worries Fuel Debate in Saudi Arabia (WSJ)
After the clock hits 12:00 today, and you start going into slack mode for the weekend, you might want to check out this front pager in WSJ, about two Saudi oil execs on opposite sides of the peak oil debate. Seriously, so much of this debate has been cold, theoretical and, well, geological. Finally, a human face or two.
FriendFinder Networks IPO delayed as developers mutiny (ValleyWag)
This is some pure rumormongering from ValleyWag, which is fine, cause they put it in their ‘RumorMonger’ category, and besides, without rumors there wouldn’t be news. Anyway, we’ve been excited about the ‘FriendFinder’ IPO, cause it’s actually the Penthouse IPO. And we’ve been lusting after that S-1 since we first heard that it might get filed. What are their margins? We can’t wait to find out!?. Anyway, apparently things aren’t going great operationally, though ValleyWag extrapolates and predicts problems with the IPO, which looks like a bit of a leap, unless we’re missing something.
Oil costs force P&G to rethink supply network (FT)
Story we’ve been hearing more and more about: logistics operations getting redesigned to be less reliant on cross-global transport. Quick! Someone needs to write an “End of Globalization” book. Not that there aren’t already a million books that basically have that name.

Anheuser to Reject InBev Offer (NYT)
Not surprising: The great American, hero of a legend of a company Anheuser-Busch plans to formally reject a buyout offer from an invading, European company that wants to rob our beer making heritage. Seriously, let’s step back. Of all the buyouts to get huffy about, this has to be the silliest. C’mon: They’re a beer company. Beer is for getting people smashed and then they do stupid stuff. Not that we’re above that, but to get all red-white-and-blue over it really just plain silly. Plus, good news: the beer isn’t going away. They’re not going to keep it from us. Related: we recently had a Budweiser in a bottle shaped like a bowling pin. Awesome!?
Tribune Co. may sell buildings to pay off debt (Newsday)
As the business has deteriorated faster than he expected, Sam Zell, CEO and owner of Tribune, has been forced to shed assets faster than he might’ve liked. So far it’s mainly been papers, though he’s selling the Chicago Cubs, too. And he might sell the Tribune Tower next. It’s dicey. On the one hand, if he is making a bet on the future of newspapers (in some form) then he can’t keep selling off papers. On the other hand, assets like the Cubs and the headquarters are probably the company’s only assets that aren’t spiraling downard in value.
Adelphia founder and son’s prison terms cut (Reuters)
A small morsel of good news for the Rigases, the father and son pair from cable firm Adelphi spending years in the cooler. Both got a couple years shaved off their sentences after a conviction of one of their counts was overturned. But they’re both still looking at years in jail, so it’s small solace. Too bad they’re not alcoholics (as far as we know), since we’ve heard that you can get another year shaved off for entering a treatment program for that in prison.
He Drives This Game-Show Vehicle (WSJ)
! Like everyone else we know, we’re pretty much addicted to Cash Cab, the show where you get picked up by a cab and answer trivia questions for money along the ride. And like almost everyone we know, we haven’t ever had a chance to go on the show, but we want to. Anyway, WSJ takes a look at the show and its host, comedian Ben Bailey. One interesting factoid: Bailey actually has a taxi license. That’s cool. But we’re still a little skeptical of the show’s premise that riders have totally no idea what they’re about to get into. Yes, yes, it claims it, but the whole thing is too well staged to work out so perfectly. But we haven’t yet cracked the nut on that one, and this article offers us no help. Commenters?

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Illinois Plans to Sue Countrywide, CEO (WSJ)
This is just the beginning of the legal fun we’ll have… Illinois (where we might have gone to school K-8th grade) is suing Countrywide and its CEO, citing deceptive marketing practices in the sale of mortgages, ultimately wreaking havoc on the state. Just cause we’re board of making the same argument on this stuff over and over, we’re going to skip making a point altogether. That being said, this seems a little crazy: “Ms. Madigan says she is asking that all Countrywide loans originated using “unfair and deceptive” practices be rescinded or modified in some way, even if Countrywide has to repurchase the loans.” If that’s successful, it pretty much compels every other state to follow suit.
Barclays to Raise $8.9 Billion to Shore Up Capital (Bloomberg)
Add it to your spreadsheet. You’ll never guess that investors included Temasek (Singapore), Qatar, China and Japan.
Monet fetches record $80.5m (Reuters)
We’ll try to save the art market analysis for Felix Salmon, but it doesn’t look like he’s commented on this one yet. Anyway, some painting of water lilies took in over $80 million, almost double what had been expected. Altogether, Christies’ “meet the impressionists” night took in $284 million, over a quarter of a billion dollars. We don’t really know what any of this means, but just in general hard not to see it as a continued healthy sign. Tomorrow morning, we can find some more hard analysis other than what’s going on in our mind: “that’s, um, a lot of money.”
Approval Is Near for Bill to Help U.S. Homeowners (NYT)
Just in case Illinois can’t single-handedly turn the housing crisis around, have no fear. Congress is on it. Here’s the key chunk of what the bill looks like: “The centerpiece of the Senate package is a rescue-refinancing plan aimed at stemming the tide of more than 8,000 new foreclosures a day that lenders are filing across the country. The plan would allow distressed borrowers and their lenders to stem losses by allowing qualified owners to refinance into more affordable, 30-year fixed-rate loans with a federal guarantee. The legislation would also provide benefits for first-time buyers, who would receive a refundable tax credit of up to $8,000, or 10 percent of the value of a home, on purchases of unoccupied housing. ”

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GM Slates Sweeping Rebates As Toyota Closes In on No. 1 (WSJ)
A couple things to note here… first is that GM is still “on the verge” of no longer being #1. Hats off to ‘em. They’ve been “on the verge” of no longer being #1 forever, so that’s an accomplishment. Also, the company is going to start offering big rebates. Why not just slash the price directly? Remember how much coverage they got for their employee-pricing scheme? That was seen as a great boon, even though it was just a gimmick. They kept that up for a long time and cleared out some inventory, which was good. And then they went back to rebates. If you’ve been a longtime reader of the site, you know we talked about this a lot early days. Some things never change. Actually, that’s really true. Props to MarketBeat for a nice chart of GM since 1971. The stock has now returned to levels not seen since 1975. Sucks to lose 33 years.
Toyota May Cut Sales Goal as U.S. Truck Demand Slumps (Bloomberg)
Meanwhile it’s not like Toyota is somehow immune from the whole thing. In fact their woes (aging workforce, model, factories, maturity) has been well documented. And the company says it may cut expectations on weak US truck demand. You know the drill: consumers want those slight, fuel efficient cars that made Toyota so popular and desired to begin with.
NYSE Euronext beats LSE to Doha deal (FT)
NYSE is paying $250 million for a 25 percent stake in the Doha (Qatar) stock exchange. By our math that values the exchange at around $1 billion. Evidently, the NYSE was in a bidding war for the chunk, going up against LSE and the Deuche Borse, cause you know everyone wants a piece of that scene. With any luck, the Qatar government won’t bring up national security issues at the prospect of a foreign purchaser making such a big buy of one of their key financial institutions.
At Google, Slow Growth in News Site (NYT)
This sounds about right… Google News, once lauded as the future of online news, has grown stale, and traffic is pretty flat. We used to read it all the time, now we hardly go there anymore. It’s pretty ugly, and there’s something to be said for human editing. The robot only does so well. Not that it’s a huge deal either way, though it confirms something about Google, which is that they’re still looking for a big non-search moneymaker, or really any big non-search hit. Google News seemed like it was going to be big, but it hasn’t been. Perhaps because of skittishness and legal issues with the newspapers, they haven’t put as much time/money/effort into this as they’d have needed to to make it work.

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Citigroup to Cut 10% of Investment Banking Jobs (WSJ)
Readers: you’ll have to make sure we’re on it first if it’s true. The paper said last night that Citi would be cutting up to 10 percent of its 65,000 positions as early as today. It sounds like the bank basically confirmed the report to the paper, as a spokesman said: “Citi indicated earlier this year that it would be resizing this business in response to market conditions and as part of our ongoing re-engineering efforts.” It’s Vikram Pandit’s ‘bold steps’ no doubt. From the report: “Entire trading desks in New York and other cities are expected to be eliminated. And unlike Citigroup’s other recent reductions, this round will feature layoffs of dozens of senior managing directors, the people said.”
Bunge to Buy Corn Products In $4.4 Billion Food Merger (WSJ)
A big ag deal, though frankly we’re surprised that Corn Products is only a $4.4 billion company. Given its business and name and everything, we’d have expected it to be in the teens at least. Despite the boom in business for both companies, their shares had taken a dip due to the fierce Iowa flooding. Nonetheless, Bunge is increased its earnings forecast for the coming year. We don’t see any huge symbolism or meaning behind this deal (readers?) certainly it’s not as a big of a signal as that Russian fertilizer billionaire buying Donal Trump’s mansion.
Obama, McCain Channel Clinton, Bush Legacies on Economy, Taxes (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg says McCain and Obama are channeling the economic policies of Bush and Clinton. Why could this be? Perhaps because neither is that creative with respect to economic thinking, and both Clinton and Bush and McCain and Obama are pretty much conventional party pols with conventional dogma. Democrats: Yup, they favor higher taxes for the wealthy and subsidies for behaviors for the middle class which they like. Repubs: Lower taxes, maybe some lip service towards lower spending. Really, if they’re channeling, it’s mainly because they haven’t really thought of anything new.
Zimbabwe’s MDC Quits Runoff; Pressure on Africa Grows (Bloomberg)
In case your keeping tabs. This article pegs the latest inflation figure out of Zimbabwe at 350,000 percent.

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