Congress recesses amid Democratic achievements

(Reuters) - Their top priority -- ending the Iraq war -- remains frustratingly unfulfilled. But the Democrats who took over in January were able to go home early on Sunday for a monthlong break having won more support in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for bringing combat troops home by early next year, marking a significant turnaround from last year.




Democrats also will be able to batter President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans for sticking with a war policy that droves of Americans increasingly oppose.


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MBK Offers to Buy C&M for $3.2 Billion in Korea's Biggest LBO, Bankers Say

(Bloomberg) -- MBK Partners Ltd., the South Korean
private equity group founded by former Carlyle Group executives,
offered 3 trillion won ($3.2 billion) for cable-TV operator C&M,
said two bankers who were asked to provide financing.

The Seoul-based buyout company wants to borrow as much as 2
trillion won to pay for closely held C&M, South Korea's second-
biggest cable-TV operator, said the bankers, who declined to be
identified because the bid hasn't been disclosed. The purchase
would include New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s 30.5
percent stake, they said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Venezuelan Bolivar Falls to Lowest in Five Months on Bond-Sale Speculation

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's currency fell to the
lowest in almost five months in unregulated trading on
speculation a government dollar-denominated bond sale to local
banks won't be large enough to meet demand for foreign currency.

Venezuela and Argentina plan to sell a dollar bond together
by the end of August, said Ricardo Sanguino, president of the
Venezuelan congressional finance commission, after markets closed
July 27, without revealing how much they would sell. Venezuela's
Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said in May the countries
planned to sell up to $1 billion of dollar and bolivar bonds to
Venezuelan investors by the end of the year.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

REFILE-Japan PM defeat casts cloud over fiscal,tax reform

(Reuters) - TOKYO, July 30 - The crushing defeat that Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling camp suffered in Sunday's
election could stall debate on fiscal and tax reforms needed to
address the country's huge public debt, economists said.




The Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition party
that won the most seats in the upper house of parliament,
opposes raising the 5 percent consumption tax. The party is also
seen as more open to new spending, such as programmes to provide
child care and help struggling farmers.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Asian Currencies Weaken as Overseas Investors Shun Region's Riskier Assets

(Bloomberg) -- Asian currencies fell on speculation
global investors cut holdings in riskier assets as stock markets
across the region dropped.

The Indonesian rupiah declined to the weakest in almost five
months and the Malaysian ringgit and South Korean won slipped to
their lowest in July. Bank Indonesia said last week it isn't
worried by the currency's decline, while South Korea's central
bank said the won is set to drop as the current-account surplus
narrows.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

New Zealand Dollar is Overvalued and Will Fall, Agricultural Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- The New Zealand dollar, the best
performer of 16 major currencies against the dollar in the past
year, is over-valued and will eventually decline, Agriculture
Minister Jim Anderton said today.

``There is no question it is overvalued,'' Anderton said in
e-mailed notes for a speech in Christchurch. ``A lot of the hot
money coming in here thinking it won't decline, will eventually
get burned because the dollar will, sooner or later, return to
more normal levels.''


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

ConocoPhillips Q2 profit falls on Venezuela charge

(Reuters) - Excluding a huge charge related to Venezuela's move to take over ConocoPhillips operations in the country, the third-largest U.S. oil company posted earnings of $2.90 a share -- well ahead of Wall Street's average forecast of $2.68 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.




"Their refining and marketing operations did wonders for the quarter, and oil and gas prices stayed pretty high, too," said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

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.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Turkish Stocks, Bonds, Lira Rise After Erdogan's Justice Party Re-elected

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish stocks, bonds and the lira
gained after voters re-elected Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, giving him a mandate to extend policies that won European
Union membership talks and helped bring 21 quarters of growth.

The ISE National 100 Index rose 3.8 percent to 54,966.6 as of
9:56 a.m. The lira rose 1.58 percent, trading at 1.253 to the
dollar. Yields on lira-denominated bonds fell 27 basis points to
17.19 percent, their lowest in 13 months, according to ABN Amro
benchmark prices. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

UAW's Gettelfinger Stuck Between Reuther's Legacy, `Crashing' Car Industr

(Bloomberg) -- Ron Gettelfinger, chief of the United
Auto Workers, will sit at the bargaining table with the Big
Three automakers while holding one of the weakest hands in the
72-year-old union's history. He'll also have the shadow of union
icon Walter Reuther looming over him.

Gettelfinger starts negotiating today with companies that
lost a combined $15 billion last year -- a far cry from the era
when Reuther won health insurance and pensions for the rank-and-
file during two decades running the UAW until his death in 1970.
General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler now are
looking to roll back those so-called legacy costs, which include
retiree health-care liabilities of $114 billion.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Ghost of Franco Haunts Spain as Families Open Civil War-Era Mass Graves

(Bloomberg) -- Next to a mass grave in Malaga,
Spain, Juliana Sanchez watches an archeologist scrape dirt from a
broken skull and wonders if this might be her father.

``I can't leave,'' she says of the site, where investigators
found the remains of children and babies among 220 bodies crammed
into a pit by fascist dictator Francisco Franco's death squads.
``I'm too anxious to know if some paper, some trace could be
found to show that one of them is my father.''


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico: Latin America Local Bond Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic
reports may influence trading in Latin American local bonds
today. Bond yields are from the previous session.

Argentina: The country's economic expansion won't be hurt
by natural gas shortages, Planning Minister Julio de Vido said
in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on July 13. The current shortages are a
result of the country's high rates of economic growth, De Vido
said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Armor, Stillwater Mining, Coach, Terex, Tyson Foods: 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.

Armor Holdings Inc. (AH US): The military-truck maker won a
$518.5 million order from the U.S. Marine Corps to build blast-
resistant vehicles as the Pentagon speeds their delivery to
protect forces in Iraq. Armor Holdings will make 1,170 of the
trucks under the award, the U.S. Defense Department said in a
statement. The stock was unchanged at $87.38 in regular trading.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

US certifies Virgin America Airlines for service

(Reuters) - Virgin America won regulatory approval of its business plan
in May after agreeing to restructure its financing and agreeing
to change its executive leadership to satisfy a U.S. law that
limits overseas influence in domestic airlines.




Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Gander Mountain shares rise as decks cleared for online foray

(Reuters) - Gander Mountain was unable to sell anything, be it through catalogs or on their Web sites, as Cabela's had gained ownership of their trademark over a decade ago, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Jeffrey Sonnek said by phone.




"Now that they have won the trademark back, you can expect them to get moving with an online presence in the near term," Sonnek added.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

US GAO still researching protested $15 bln 'copter

(Reuters) - Government Accountability Office spokesman Michael Golden
said it was premature to forecast an exact date, but the Air
Force said it expected a decision 60 days after the second
round of protests came in -- or around early August.




Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp.
, and Lockheed Martin Corp. last month protested
the Air Force's revised terms of the competition, which Boeing
Co. initially won last November.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Uncertainty as Arizona immigrants await crackdown

(Reuters) - She has 15 years experience scrubbing and vacuuming offices
and private homes in and around Phoenix and hopes that having
her own firm will get herself and her clients out of a bind.




"This way I will be able to work for myself and the
patrones won't get into trouble under the new law,"
she told Reuters. "It's a good solution for everyone."


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Acuity profit up, but shares fall on housing woes

(Reuters) - Investors are worried that the slowdown in residential construction is starting to reduce demand for the accompanying "light commercial construction," which is an important market for Acuity, said analyst Zahid Siddique of Gabelli & Co.




"If there are less communities, people won't build shopping centers and medical facilities, so I think that's what's causing the stock to fall," Siddique said.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Orange Juice Falls in New York on Florida Rain, Decreased Hurricane Threat

(Bloomberg) -- Orange-juice futures dropped as rain
fell and the threat of damaging hurricanes diminished in Florida,
the world's second-biggest grower.

Rain in Florida's growing regions is aiding fruit growth
even as more moisture is needed, according to Meteorlogix LLC of
Woburn, Massachusetts. Weather conditions won't be ideal for
hurricane development for at least two weeks, said James Cordier,
president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Gilead shares could head higher - Barron's

(Reuters) - "For the past 20 years, I have been asked every year if the
growth now will slow," Barron's quotes Chief Executive John
Martin as saying. "It hasn't and won't. I continue to see
developing value for stockholders. I continue to see a very
exciting future for this company."




Gilead, which could be a potential takeover target, is
eyeing acquisition as well as stock buybacks, Barron's
reported.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News