South Korean Department Store Sales Fall for Second Month on Lending Clamp

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's department store sales
declined for a second month in May as a clampdown on the housing
market reduced home sales and sapped demand for home appliances
and furniture.

Sales at the nation's three biggest department store chains
dropped 0.1 percent from a year earlier after shedding 2.3
percent in April, the Commerce Ministry said today in Gwacheon,
South Korea.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Chipmakers, Exporters, Lotte, Samsung Corp.: South Korea Stock Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following shares may rise or fall
in South Korea. Prices refer to the June 15 close. This preview
includes news announced after markets shut. Stock symbols are in
brackets after the company names.

The Kospi index added 0.2 percent to a record 1772.26. The
Kosdaq climbed 2.3 percent to 800.61. Kospi 200 futures expiring
in September advanced 0.2 percent to 225.90, while the underlying
index gained 0.1 percent to 224.61.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

BHP Billiton to Spend $300 Million to Reduce Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions

(Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's
largest mining company, will spend $300 million over five years
developing technology and projects to reduce its greenhouse gas
emissions.

Accelerated action is needed to stabilize greenhouse gas
concentrations in the atmosphere at levels guided by United
Nations' research, the Melbourne-based company said today in a
climate change policy presented in a statement to the Australian
Stock Exchange.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Housewives Outmaneuver UBS, Deutsche Bank as Yen Trading Captivates Japan

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese businessmen, housewives and
pensioners betting against the yen in their spare time are
wrecking the forecasts of the world's biggest currency traders.

The yen has slumped 4.6 percent to a 4 1/2-year low against
the dollar this quarter, making it the worst performer among 72
major currencies and confounding predictions by strategists at
Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG for gains of about 1 percent.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Delek US Holdings Releases Sour Gas Vapor at Its Refinery in Tyler, Texas

(Bloomberg) -- Delek US Holdings Inc., a U.S. oil
refiner, released sour gas vapor yesterday from its refinery in
Tyler, Texas.

The company reported the incident to the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality. Franklin, Tennessee-based Delek is a unit
of Israel's Delek Group Ltd.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

UPDATE 1-Dow Jones rival bid plan may include family-papers

(Reuters) - One option for GE and Pearson would be to allow the
Bancroft family to keep a 20 percent stake in the company,
reported the Financial Times, which is published by Pearson.




Selling Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, to
GE and Pearson, would be a better journalistic fit than News
Corp., but there is "no rush" to examine the plan, an
unidentified Bancroft family member told the Financial Times.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Lehman Brothers rising as banking power: Barron's

(Reuters) - This offers investors who are comfortable with going against the crowd or moving ahead of it the chance to buy the weak stock of a firm with a stable franchise that is on the rise, Barron's said.




One complaint about Lehman, however, is that at $600 billion, its balance sheet is not big enough to do many big deals, the paper reported. Goldman's balance sheet is $912 billion, while Morgan Stanley's is more than $1.2 trillion, Barron's said. Citigroup's is about $2 trillion and JPMorgan's is about $1.4 trillion, it said.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News