Dow Jones shareholder sees $60 bid attractive - FT

(Reuters) - "The offer to purchase Dow Jones at $60 in our view represents a fairly attractive transaction price. I find it hard to believe the company itself has a plan to get the shares to $60," the Financial Times quoted Brian Rogers, the chairman and chief investment officer of T. Rowe Price saying. The firm holds about 15 percent of Dow Jones according to Reuters data.




A spokesman for T. Rowe told Reuters: "We've said all along that as long-term investors in Dow Jones stock we're gratified that other investors have recognized the value that we always thought was there. We think it is a reasonable offer to take under consideration."


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

US STOCKS-S&P 500 hits record finish as Wall St rallies

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, May 30 - The Standard & Poor's 500
closed at its first record high in seven years on Wednesday
after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting
reassured investors about the economy's health.




Amid a broad-based rally in the U.S. stock market, the Dow
industrials set another record high, too, bringing a
resounding end to a global equities sell-off sparked by a
plunge in China's benchmark share index.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

US says Bristol to pay $1 mln fine in Plavix case

(Reuters) - The fine resolves a two-count criminal charge filed by the department in federal court, which alleges that Bristol-Myers illegally concealed a patent settlement deal it had reached with Canadian drug maker Apotex Inc.



The patent settlement at issue would have delayed generic competition to Plavix, but it collapsed.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

UPDATE 1-Chico's 1st-quarter profit tops view

(Reuters) - The operator of the Chico's and White House Black Market
chains said net income for the first quarter was $47.2 million,
or 27 cents per share, compared with $52.5 million, or 29 cents
per share, a year ago.




Income from continuing operations was 28 cents per share.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Grupo Mexico shares $129 mln profits with workers

(Reuters) - "Our workers are receiving in some cases profits equivalent
to more than 3 years of work," Garcia said in a statement.




Workers at Cananea received more than $30,000 each and
workers at La Caridad mine received more than $10,000 each.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Treasuries Are Little Changed as Stock Indexes Reverse Losses in the U.S.

(Bloomberg) -- Treasuries were little changed,
erasing gains, as U.S. stock indexes reversed declines and
increased.

The benchmark 10-year note rose earlier when investors
sought the relative safety of government debt. A slump in Asian
and European stocks was triggered when China tripled a tax on
securities transactions to help slow investment.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Joy Global, Pennsylvania REIT, Portfolio, Biogen Idec: U.S. Equity 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 2:40 p.m. New York time.

Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB US) rose $2.80, or 5.7 percent, to
$52.01 and traded as high as $52.26. The maker of the multiple
sclerosis drug Tysabri began accepting bids in a buyback of as
much as $3 billion in shares. The buyback, which will give Biogen
an additional 16 percent of its 342.6 million shares outstanding,
will be funded by cash and borrowings, Biogen said. The company
will pay stockholders between $47 and $53 a share in the so-
called Dutch Auction.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Perrigo gets FDA approval to market coated fruit nicotine gum

(Reuters) - Perrigo said the product will be marketed under store brand
labels and is comparable to GlaxoSmithKline's Nicorette Fruit
Chill coated gum.





Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

U.S. Stocks Rise on Buyout Speculation; Simon Property, Exxon Lead Advance

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks advanced for a third day
on buyout speculation in the real-estate industry and a jump in
oil prices that lifted shares of energy producers.

Simon Property Group, the largest U.S. real estate
investment trust, climbed after Deutsche Bank AG upgraded its
shares and seven other companies in the industry following the
$13.5 billion buyout of Archstone-Smith Trust. Energy shares,
led by Exxon Mobil Corp., contributed the most to the gain in
the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Mexico's Peso, 10-Year Bonds Advance on Inflation, Anticipated Tax Reform

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico's 10-year bond rose, pushing
yields to a one-month low, and the currency strengthened as
expectations of slower inflation boosted the attractiveness of
peso-denominated assets.

Yields on the bond due in December 2016 have declined 25
basis points, or 0.25 percentage point, in the past four trading
days following a report that showed a bigger-than-expected drop
in consumer prices in the first half of May. Expectations
President Felipe Calderon will send to Congress a plan to re-
write the country's tax code in the coming days also aided
Mexican assets.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Wheat Surges as Great Plains Rain Hurt U.S. Crops and Slowed the Harvest

(Bloomberg) -- Wheat prices in Chicago and Kansas
City rose after a government report showed rains in the Great
Plains damaged crops and slowed harvesting.

About 57 percent of the winter-wheat crop was rated good or
excellent as of May 27, compared with 59 percent a week earlier,
the Department of Agriculture said yesterday. Fields from Texas
to Nebraska got as much as four times the normal amount of rain
in the past 30 days, causing plants to fall and making soil too
wet for heavy machinery.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Four People Perish in Fire Aboard Oil-Product Tanker Off Coast of Nigeria

(Bloomberg) -- Four people died and three others are
missing after a fire aboard a tanker carrying refined oils off
the coast of Nigeria, the U.K. coastguard said.

The bodies of the dead were recovered from the vessel and
22 crew rescued following the incident yesterday, the U.K.
Maritime and Coastguard Agency said on its Web site today.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Home loan demand off as rates hit 7-month high

(Reuters) - The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes requests for both refinancing and purchasing loans, for the week ended May 25 dropped 7.3 percent to 636.4.




Applications, however, were 17.4 percent above a year ago. The four-week moving average of mortgage applications, which smooths the volatile weekly figures, was down 0.8 percent.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Barclays settles insider trading charges

(Reuters) - In court documents filed in New York, the SEC alleged that Barclays and Steven Landzberg, the former head proprietary trader for Barclays' U.S. distressed debt desk, illegally traded millions of dollars of bond securities between March 2002 and September 2003, based on material, nonpublic information received through bankruptcy creditor committees.




Barclays and Landzberg agreed to the settlements without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

UPDATE 2-Energy prices boost Canada Q1 current acct surplus

(Reuters) - OTTAWA, May 30 - High prices for energy exports
helped boost Canada's current account surplus in the first
quarter to its highest level in a year, another sign that the
economy is expanding faster than expected.




The current account surplus -- which encompasses trade in
goods and services as well as transfers and investment income
-- bulged to C$6.49 billion in the first
quarter from C$4.62 billion in the fourth quarter, according to
revised figures released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Bonn-Berlin `Traveling Circus' May Run Out of Steam as Germany Cuts Costs

(Bloomberg) -- If Horst Mertens is ever overwhelmed
by the pressures of the 300-mile commute from his home in Bonn to
a government job in Berlin, taxpayers will cover the therapy.

Mertens, a scientist at Germany's Health Ministry, is one of
about 5,000 state employees who still flit between the two
cities, eight years after the capital moved to Berlin. To soften
the blow, workers can get housing and travel subsidies, as well
as counseling, under what Mertens describes as ``a traveling
circus for civil servants.''


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Japan life insurers cut foreign debt holdings in 06/07

(Reuters) - At the same time, many of the insurers raised their yen bond
holdings in the 12 months to March, earnings statements showed,
even as Japanese government bond yields stayed low despite two
rate rises by the Bank of Japan to 0.5 percent.




Japan's top nine insurers held a total of around 14.5
trillion yen in foreign bonds at the end of
March this year, down a bit from 15.2 trillion yen in March last
year.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Freddie Mac sells $1.0 billion in bills

(Reuters) - Settlement is May 31.




The sale was part of Freddie Mac's weekly bill auction. On
Tuesday, Freddie Mac sold $2.0 billion of three-month bills due
Aug. 27, 2007, $2.0 billion of six-month bills due Nov. 26,
2007 and $1.0 billion of 12-month bills due May 27, 2008.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Japan's Shares Fall on Concern China Slump Will Spread; Toyota Leads Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks fell on concern a
plunge by Chinese stocks, triggered by a tripling of the tax on
securities transactions on the mainland, will spread to equities
throughout Asia.

Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. fell the most since January 2003
after saying the price of its cancer drug will be about 40
percent less in Japan than the U.S. Toyota Motor Corp. declined
for the first time in three days.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Canadian Stocks Rise, Led by Energy and Material Producers; Talisman Gains

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian stocks rose as energy producers
climbed with oil and natural gas prices on speculation that an
expected increase in gasoline stockpiles won't be large enough to
reduce a supply deficit.

Talisman Energy Inc., an oil and natural gas producer, led a
gauge of energy companies, adding 40 cents to C$21.84. EnCana
Corp., the country's biggest gas producer, rose 99 cents to
C$65.48.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Kenya Airways 2006/07 profit falls 15 pct

(Reuters) - Net profits at Kenya Airways fell 14.6 percent to 4.1 billion shillings last year because of high fuel prices and a strong local currency, the company said on Wednesday.

The airline, which lost a Boeing 737-800 in Cameroon in early May, when it crashed into a swamp and killed 114 people on board, said revenues rose 11.3 percent to 58.8 billion shillings in the year ended March 31 from 52.8 billion in the previous year.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Oil above $68 after new attack in Nigeria

(Reuters) - Oil was steady above $68 on Wednesday after a new attack on a Nigerian pipeline illustrated the uphill task the new president faces to restore lost output in the world's eighth biggest crude exporter.

Energy appeared immune to a 6.5 percent drop in China's main stock index that buffeted other Asian and European markets.


Read more at Reuters Africa

S.Africa public servants set to strike June 1

(Reuters) - South Africa's COSATU labour federation said on Wednesday it was ready to lead a national public servants strike, as the government announced it had made a "major breakthrough" with a new wage offer.

COSATU, which represents about 60 percent of the nation's nearly one million public servants, said it had made no progress in last-minute talks with the government over a new wage deal and was preparing for a massive strike on June 1.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Dollar Tree reports higher first-quarter profit

(Reuters) - The retailer earned $38.1 million, or 38 cents per share, for its fiscal first quarter ended May 5, up from $32.9 million, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier.



) Keywords: DOLLARTREE RESULTS/


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Polish Zloty Falls to Six-Week Low Against Euro on Slide in Global Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- The Polish zloty fell to the lowest in
more than six weeks against the euro as emerging-market stocks
declined around the world, and the country's central bank kept
interest rates at their current level.

Expectations the central bank will raise interest rates this
year to stem inflation helped the zloty advance to an almost five
month high on May 10. The currency is the third-worst performer
among 72 currencies tracked by Bloomberg this month as sentiment
towards emerging markets worsened and some policy makers,
including Jan Czekaj, said borrowing costs may stay on hold for
several months.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

UPDATE 1-SSAB to sell Ipsco tube unit after takeover -paper

(Reuters) - SSAB said it would not comment on the report.




"We don't comment on speculation. We have made a bid for the
whole of Ipsco, and that process is underway, and SSAB has the
intention of acquiring all of Ipsco," SSAB spokesman Tommy
Lofgren said.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

India Cancels Tender to Buy 1 Million Tons of Wheat, Citing High Prices

(Bloomberg) -- India, the world's second-biggest
wheat consumer, canceled a tender to import 1 million tons of
the grain because it judged prices offered by firms including
Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill Inc. to be high.

Toepfer International and Glencore International AG were
among seven firms that offered 1.3 million tons priced at $267 a
ton to $302 a ton, a government official said. Toepfer was the
lowest bidder. India paid an average $205.31 a ton last year.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Japan's 20-Year Bonds Rise as Investors Match Extension of Benchmark Index

(Bloomberg) -- Japan's 20-year government bonds rose,
posting their biggest gain in almost two weeks, on speculation
investors are buying the securities to match a change in a
benchmark index.

Nomura Securities Co., Japan's biggest brokerage, will add
debt including 10- and 20-year securities sold this month to its
Bond Performance Index for June and remove those due in a year
or less. Bonds also rallied after a government report today
showed industrial production unexpectedly fell in April for a
second month, giving the central bank less room to raise
interest rates.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

W.Bank revises 2007 China growth forecast to 10.4 pct

(Reuters) - It revised up its forecast of China's current account
surplus in 2007 to $340 billion, or 10.8 percent of GDP. In
February it had projected a ratio of 8.3 percent.




The bank now expects consumer price inflation to average
3.2 percent in 2007, up from the 2.5 percent level it had
forecast 3 months ago.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Viacom to sell music publishing unit: report

(Reuters) - Viacom and Sony/ATV Music could not be reached immediately.




Viacom said in February it was exploring the possible sale of the unit, which includes the music from contemporary hit artists Eminem and Shakira.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News