At American Home, it's one last day at the office

(Reuters) - By Lynn Adler



MELVILLE, New York, Aug 3 - In some respects it was a normal summer Friday in this Long Island hamlet roughly 50 miles east of Wall Street. The weather was hot, a bit steamy. The weekend approached, and employees of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. awaited their paychecks.


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Fidelity Inflation Bond Fund Trails Vanguard After Subprime Mortgage Rout

(Bloomberg) -- Fidelity Investments' Inflation-
Protected Bond Fund is lagging behind its biggest competitor,
Vanguard Group, after losses in subprime mortgages, this year's
worst-performing debt market.

The $1.3 billion mutual fund, run by William Irving in
Merrimack, New Hampshire, rose 3.3 percent this year, trailing
the 4 percent gain of the Vanguard Inflation-Protected
Securities Fund, which holds no mortgage bonds. The Fidelity
fund advanced at an annual rate of 5.6 percent during the past
five years, compared with the 6 percent return of the $10.2
billion Vanguard fund, data compiled by Bloomberg show.


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U.S. Stocks Retreat on Subprime Concern; American Home Mortgage Plummets

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks declined, erasing a
rally, on concern losses from subprime mortgages are worsening.

Banking shares fell after American Home Mortgage
Investment Corp. said it's unable to fund loans and may have to
liquidate assets. MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group Inc.
tumbled after the two home-loan insurers said their combined
stakes of more than $1 billion in a subprime mortgage company
may be worthless.


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Pimco's Gross, a Bear on Company Debt, Buys Shares of Pimco Corporate Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, manager of the world's
largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., invested
$1.5 million in a Pimco corporate debt fund after the shares fell
to the lowest since its inception five years ago.

Gross bought 4,900 shares in the Pimco Corporate Opportunity
Fund at $13.80, 50,000 shares at $13.85 and another 50,000 at
$13.90 on July 25, according to a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.


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CNA, Dow Jones, MC Shipping, RadioShack, Southwest Gas: U.S. Equity Movers

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares are having unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges.
Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names. Share
prices are as of 1:10 p.m. in New York.

Some mortgage lenders fell after American Home Mortgage
Investment Corp. (AHM US) delayed its quarterly dividend and
raised doubts about whether it has enough cash to stay in
business. Shares of American Home were halted.


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CNA, Ingersoll-Rand, RadioShack, ValueClick, Vivus: U.S. Equity Movers

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares are having unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges.
Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names. Share
prices are as of 11:40 a.m. in New York.

Some mortgage lenders fell after American Home Mortgage
Investment Corp. (AHM US) delayed its quarterly dividend and
raised doubts about whether it has enough cash to stay in
business. Shares of American Home were halted.


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Credit Suisse Fees Are Likely to Fall Most as LBO Market Slows, S&P Says

(Bloomberg) -- Investment banking fees are likely to
fall or stop growing as buyout firms purchase fewer companies,
and Credit Suisse Group would probably be the most affected
Standard & Poor's said in a report published today.

Group revenue at Switzerland's second-largest bank could
fall by 3.8 percent were leveraged buyout fees to fall by half,
S&P said. Earnings at Credit Suisse and UBS AG could plunge up to
19 percent as buyouts slow, Deutsche Bank AG analyst Matt Spick
said on July 26.


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Credit Suisse Fees to Fall the Most as LBOs Slow, Standard & Poor's Says

(Bloomberg) -- Investment banking fees are likely to
fall or stop growing as buyout firms purchase fewer companies,
and Credit Suisse Group would probably be the most affected
Standard & Poor's said in a report published today.

Group revenue at Switzerland's second-largest bank could
fall by 3.8 percent were leveraged buyout fees to fall by half,
S&P said. Earnings at Credit Suisse and UBS AG could plunge up to
19 percent as buyouts slow, Deutsche Bank AG analyst Matt Spick
said on July 26.


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UPDATE 1-Thursday share buybacks most since 9/11-TrimTabs

(Reuters) - Over the past week, 54 buybacks totaling $20.1 billion were
announced, the 14th week of the past 15 that new stock buybacks
exceeded $10 billion, TrimTabs Investment Research of Santa
Rosa, California, said late on Thursday.




"Corporate America is sure not acting as if it sees trouble
ahead. Indeed, corporate America is doing what it has always
done when stocks sell-off: they start buying," said Charles
Biderman, chief executive of TrimTabs, in a statement.


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Egypt indexes inch up, Alexandria Real Estate gains

(Reuters) - Egyptian stock indexes rose slightly on Thursday supported by major real estate shares including Alexandria Real Estate Investment, which jumped after an acquisition offer, brokers said.

Talaat Mustafa Group said it had made an offer to buy Alexandria Real Estate, its partly-owned subsidiary, for 394 Egyptian pounds per share in an equity swap as part of wider expansion plans.


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UPDATE 1-Calpers reports 19.1 pct return, assets of $247.7 bln

(Reuters) - The Sacramento, California-based pension fund, best known
as Calpers, said in a statement that over the 12 months ended
in June its assets increased by $36.5 billion to $247.7
billion.




"This is good news for our members because these gains will
carry many Calpers plans to 100 percent full funding of our
retirement obligations as of June 30, 2007," Charles Valdes,
chair of the Calpers Investment Committee said in a statement.


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UPDATE 1-Barclays gets nod to buy stake in China trust firm

(Reuters) - SHANGHAI/BEIJING, July 23 - Barclays has
won regulatory approval to buy into a Chinese trust company,
securing a foothold in the country's fast-growing asset
management sector, two sources familiar with the situation said
on Monday.




London-based Barclays Bank Plc will be allowed to buy a
nearly 20 percent stake in New China Trust & Investment Co., one
of the country's oldest trust firms, after negotiations for more
than one year between the two companies, the sources said.


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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.




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UPDATE 1-Chile's Quinenco agrees to alliance with Citigroup

(Reuters) - Manufacturing conglomerate Quinenco , which
controls Banco de Chile, said in a statement to the Chilean
stock exchange that Citigroup would have a 32.96 percent stake
in Banco de Chile's parent company, which could rise to 50
percent.




Quinenco said it would retain control of the parent
company, LQ Financial Investments.


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Apollo mulling private exchange listing: report

(Reuters) - Apollo, founded by former investment banker Leon Black, may take this route to bypass the scrutiny of being a public company.




As it would in an initial public offering, Apollo will be able to raise permanent capital with its Goldman Sachs exchange listing, and give its founders a way to cash out, the report said. But it will not exactly go public, as rival private equity firm Blackstone Group LP and hedge fund Fortress Investment Group LLC have done through listings on the New York Stock Exchange in recent months.


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Alexandria Real Estate says H1 profit up 220 pct

(Reuters) - Egypt's Alexandria Real Estate Investment's net profit in the first half of 2007 is up 220 percent at 105.4 million Egyptian pounds, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

However, trading in the shares on the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) was suspended on Tuesday until the company responds to CASE inquiries on the results, the bourse said in a statement.


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Massachusetts fund to sell stocks of Sudan-related firms

(Reuters) - Massachusetts' state pension fund, one of America's biggest and most successful, plans to sell some $80 million in holdings of companies that invest in Sudan, becoming the latest investor to protest violence there.

"Money managers who invest for us and own stocks like Schlumberger (Ltd.) and PetroChina (Co. Ltd.) will be selling those holdings," Michael Travaglini, executive director of the $50.3 billion Massachusetts' Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (PRIM) fund, told Reuters. "In total we expect it will be about $80 million," he said.


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House sends foreign investment overhaul to Bush

(Reuters) - The business-backed measure would tighten the oversight of deals by the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States' . It has already been approved by the Senate.




The House's 370-45 vote represents Congress' final response to last year's controversy over CFIUS approval of the purchase of some key U.S. port operations by state-owned Dubai Ports World.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Corporate Bond Risk in U.S., Europe Soars on S&P Subprime Mortgage Warning

(Bloomberg) -- Corporate bond risk soared today to
the highest in 13 months after Standard & Poor's raised the
possibility of downgrading $12 billion of subprime mortgage
securities, stoking concerns that the flow of money in other
markets may be curbed, according to credit-default swap traders.

The CDX North America Investment-Grade Index of credit-
default swaps on 125 companies increased $3,500 to $46,500 at
2:35 p.m. in New York, according to broker Phoenix Partners
Group, the highest since January 2006. In Europe, the iTraxx
Crossover Series 7 Index of 50 companies jumped as much as
24,500 euros to 271,000 euros, the biggest daily move in more
than two years, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Sawiris Faces Opposition From Hedge Fund Arx on Wind Debt Refinancing Plan

(Bloomberg) -- Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris
faces opposition from hedge fund Arx Investment Management to his
plan to refinance about 8 billion euros ($11 billion) of debt at
Wind Telecommunicazioni SpA.

Arx is protesting because Wind, Italy's third-biggest mobile
phone company, is increasing the amount of senior loans that rank
before bonds for repayment. Rome-based Wind said it will
compensate bondholders by paying them 4 percent of their
investment, an offer that will be cut to 2 percent after July 10.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News