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WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Wall Street Journal reported that Cleveland -Cliffs (CLF) was set to buy Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) for $10B, but they didn’t get an okay from Phil Falcone’s Harbinger Capital, which holds 16% of Cleveland, and two days before the deal was to be announced he rejected it. Now Cleveland-Cliffs itself could be a target, and Harbinger has pushed the company to sell itself — it could sell for about $14B — and take advantage of the steel boom. Possible suitors could be ArcelorMittal (MT), Nucor Corp (NUE), or U.S. Steel Corp.(X)…Thanks to better stock prices, private equity firms and hedge funds are again looking at cash starved banks, the Wall Street Journal reported. BankUnited Financial (BKLNA) has attracted two firms. Downey Financial (DSL) has the attention of MatlinPatterson, the rescuer of Thornburg Mortgage (TMA). Earlier this week, Boston Private Financial Holdings (BPFH) received $75M from the Carlyle Group…FINANCIAL TIMES: The Financial Times reported that Wal-Mart (WMT) hammered out collective bargaining agreements with unions in two Chinese cities. Under the agreements, employees in the cities of Shenyang and Quanzhou will receive raises of about 8% in 2008 and 2009…TELEGRAPH: JPMorgan (JPM) has negotiated with several companies about launching a consortium to acquire the largest British mortgage lender, HBOS, according to the Telegraph. JPMorgan is believed to have held talks with a large Australian bank, thought to be National Australia Bank (NABZY), about the matter…

Blackrock-BLK could gain further upside momentum - BusinessWeek
Shares of BlackRock (BLK), the largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, have shown resilience after reporting better-than-expected Q2 results. It’s now at 222.57, up from 178 on July 16. Michael Hecht of Banc of America Securities says, “It may well have risen to a level from which BlackRock could gain further upside momentum.” Also at the time of the report, BlackRock disclosed that Merrill Lynch (MER), which owns 49% of the stock, agreed not to sell its stake. Had Merrill Lynch decided otherwise, BlackRock’s stock might have crashed. Hecht, who rates BlackRock a buy, says it is “the best stock in our coverage” and worth 225?based on the asset manager’s “best-in-class products and broad mix of assets under management.” Marc Irizarry of Goldman Sachs upgraded BlackRock to buy from neutral, noting that its fundamentals have improved further, with the inflow of funds accelerating.

Morgan Stanley is looking to hire some of Merrill’s brokers-CNBC
Morgan Stanley (MS) is trying to recruit brokers currently working at Merrill Lynch (MER). Because of Merrill’s recent struggles, brokers who previously never returned Morgan Stanley’s calls are now looking to move to Morgan.

Lack of confidence keeps financial sector down-WSJ
The rally in the financials was short-lived thanks to dismal sales of exiting homes. It’s tough to grasp what’s going on with banks’ balance sheets, according to the Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street”, which focuses on Bank of America’s (BAC) purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC). The sinking value of Countrywide’s loans points to what value other banks could expect to receive if they tried to sell their loans in the current market. The picture isn’t pretty and the loans plunge well below the banks stated book values.. “That is why you see so many banks trading at such a discount to book value,” says Craig Emrick at Moody’s Investors Service.

Apple to add more GPS features, beta testing iPhone 2.1 firmware-GearLive
GearLive has heard that Apple (AAPL) has released to developers a beta version of iPhone OS 2.1. With the OS 2.1, GearLive says, comes the addition of new Core Location features “that track the direction you are heading, and the speed you are traveling”.

Mechel Steel may be seen as takeover target after Putin comments-dealReporter
According to dealReporters investment banking and industry sources, Mechel Steel (MTL) may be seen as a takeover target by Evraz, Severstal and MMK after comments from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Puting. The sources said that it is unlikely a bid will be made over the summer for Mechel but a move towards a possible takeover could being as early as this Autumn.