WALL STREET JOURNAL

People familiar with the issue said that European regulators are gearing up to file new antitrust charges against Intel (INTC). The charges, the Wall Street Journal reported, would allege Intel gave major European retailers an incentive not to sell Computers that use Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips…NEW YORK TIMES: The New York Times reported that News Corp’s (NWS) New York Post and The Daily News, owned by Mortimer Zuckerman, are exploring a print pact and have been in talks to find ways to combine some business functions of the papers, according to people briefed on the matter…SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES: According to sources, the San Francisco Business times reported that Washington Mutual (WM) may be planning more layoffs in September. It is unclear how many employees will be affected and from which departments…BLOOMBERG: In an effort to preserve capital, data compiled by Bloomberg showed that troubled mortgage companies Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) may cut dividends after more than $11B in combined losses since last year…Three people familiar with the matter said that the SEC subpoenaed Wall Street investment banks including Goldman Sachs (GS), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Merrill Lynch (MER) in its hunt and crack down on suspected manipulation of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers (LEH) shares. Bloomberg reported that two of the people said the SEC, which yesterday curtailed short selling in financial stocks, is looking for e-mails and trading records and is also examining whether securities firms have “adequate controls” to deal properly with misconduct…

Wall Street firms subpoenaed by SEC-Bloomberg

Three people familiar with the matter said that the SEC subpoenaed Wall Street investment banks including Goldman Sachs (GS), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Merrill Lynch (MER) in its hunt and crack down on suspected manipulation of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers (LEH) shares. Bloomberg reports that two of the people said the SEC, which yesterday curtailed short selling in financial stocks, is looking for e-mails and trading records and is also examining whether securities firms have “adequate controls” to deal properly with misconduct.

Awarding tanker contract to Boeing could hurt America, Northrop CEO warns-FT

There will be “dire consequences” to America’s alliance with Western Europe if the U.S. decides for political reasons not to award a $35B Air Force tanker project to Northrop Grumman (NOC) and its European partner EADS, Northrop Grumman’s CEO warned. Northrop and EADS (EADSF), which are competing with Boeing (BA) for the contract, originally won the deal. However, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to reopen the competition for the deal, after flaws were found in the process used to award the contract to Northrop and EADS.
I say BS to this, that they are spewing, how can using US taxpayer money to create more US jobs be wrong.
NOC is a short idea on a break of $64.46 pivot line.

Toyota to lower its 2008 sales target-NHK
Toyota (TM) said it will reduce its 2008 global sales target by 3.6%, due to high gasoline prices and the weak U.S. economy. The company now hopes to sell 9.5M vehicles this year, compared with its prior target of 9.85M.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could terminate their dividends-Bloomberg
Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) may eliminate their dividends, Bloomberg predicted after examining data from the companies.

Did Goldman pressure the shares of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns?-WSJ
Alan Schwartz, former head of Bear Stearns, and Richard Fuld Jr., who runs Lehman Brothers (LEH), want to know if Goldman Sachs Group (GS) had anything to do with the manipulation of their shares, reports the Wall Street Journal. “You’re not going to like this conversation,” Mr. Fuld apparently told Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Then he proceeded to say that their was “noise” that Goldman traders spread negative rumors about Lehman. If true, and it affected Lehman share price, it’s illegal..Schwartz supposedly made a similar call. Blankfield denied having any knowledge of alleged manipulation.

Is Lehman Brothers likely to go private?-WSJ
Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH) shares have been taking a beating but yesterday they were up over 6%. Is the firm going private? Not only is that not likely but a larger bank probably won’t help them out either, according to the Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street”, which gives an admittedly pessimistic look at what either route would take to work. Lehman’s severe problems, especially real estate losses and a possible recapitalization of the firm, make any potential option a difficult move.

Apple iPhone 3G teardown shows production cost at $174.33-iSuppli
According to a teardown analysis as well as examinations by analysts, iSuppli’s preliminary estimate for production costs of Apple’s (AAPL) 8 GB iPhone 3G is $174.33. This is nearly identical to iSuppli’s $173 BOM predicted in its virtual teardown in late June.

Amazon to release Kindle 2.0 this fall-TechCrunch.com
Kindle, an e-reader from Amazon.com (AMZN), will release new, updated models this fall. The e-reader allows easy access to electronic books that can be downloaded and read on a Kindle.

COF: Estimates and target to be updated after 7/17 EPS results@FBRC
The firm believes the company does not have a positive catalyst for credit quality in the N-T to generate any share price appreciation. Despite the stock trading at historically low multiples, credit costs are projected to increase in the 2H08 with further increases in 2009. Target price $38 with Underperform rating reiterated.

MI reports Q2 EPS ($1.52) vs. consensus of ($1.56)

U.S. equity futures continue to point to a lower open; CPI released

U.S. equity futures continue to point to a lower open. The earnings reports that have been released so far have been encouraging but investors remain concerned about the slowdown of the economy and inflation. The consumer price index which was released and showed that prices increased 1.1% during the month of June versus an expected 0.7% gain.