Radian-Backed U.S. Municipal Bonds Face Possible Cut in Ratings by Fitch

(Bloomberg) -- Fitch Ratings put 934 municipal bond
issues insured by a Radian Asset Assurance Inc. under review for
a possible ratings cut following losses by its parent on an
investment in a subprime mortgage lender.

Radian Group Inc. and MGIC Investment Corp., which
announced plans in February to merge, yesterday said their
combined stakes of more than $1 billion in Credit-Based Asset
Servicing and Securitization may be worthless. Radian Asset
Assurance is rated AA, while Radian Group is ranked A.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

CanWest switches to bridge financing for Alliance

(Reuters) - CanWest's AA Acquisition Corp., which will acquire Alliance, has written commitments from its banking syndicate for bridge financing to complete the deal, the companies said in separate statements.




"The bridge financing replaces the originally contemplated high yield debt offering, which has for the time being been deferred due to recent turmoil in the North American debt markets," CanWest said.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

AAA CDO, Subprime-Bond Credit Rating `Sins' Not Same, Bear Stearns Says

(Bloomberg) -- Investors fleeing even top-rated
subprime-mortgage securities are wrong to worry they may
default, according to a Bear Stearns Cos. analyst.

Even if they're right to feel ratings firms mistakenly
provided AAA assessments to some bonds from collateralized debt
obligations that will lose principal, the mortgage-bond CDO
securities are ``more fragile'' than the AAA pieces of subprime-
mortgage deals, Gyan Sinha wrote in a report yesterday. The
securities also have more ``cushion'' against likely losses than
AAA bonds backed by home equity loans, he said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Bear Stearns Says There is `No Value Left' for Investors in Failed Funds

(Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. told investors in
its two failed hedge funds that they will get little if any money
back after ``unprecedented declines'' in the value of AAA rated
securities used to bet on subprime mortgages.

Estimates show there is ``effectively no value left'' in the
High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund
and ``very little value left'' in the High-Grade Structured
Credit Strategies Fund, Bear Stearns said in a two-page letter.
The second fund still has ``sufficient assets'' to cover the $1.4
billion it owes Bear Stearns, which as a creditor gets paid back
first, according to the letter, obtained yesterday by Bloomberg
News from a person involved in the matter.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Alcoa, Idenix, Lufkin Industries, Playtex and Shaw: 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 10:10 a.m. New York time.

Alcoa Inc. (AA US) rose $1.36, or 3 percent, to $46.65. The
world's second-biggest aluminum maker said yesterday it withdrew
its unsolicited takeover bid for aluminum producer Alcan Inc. (AL
US) after Rio Tinto Group (RIO AU) made a higher offer of $38.1
billion. Separately, Credit Suisse Group increased its share-
price estimate for Alcoa by 22 percent to $55, saying that
takeover speculation would support the stock. Alcan shares fell
$1.04 to $97.41.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

LBO Debt Proves Treacherous for Fidelity, Lehman Brothers, TIAA-CREF Funds

(Bloomberg) -- The world's biggest bondholders have
had their fill of leveraged buyouts, convinced that increasing
mortgage delinquencies will drag down the U.S. economy and drive
debt-laden companies into default.

TIAA-CREF, which oversees $414 billion in retirement funds
for teachers and college professors, is boycotting some debt
offerings used to finance LBOs. Fidelity International, a unit of
the world's largest mutual fund company, and Lehman Brothers
Asset Management LLC, the money-management arm of the third-
biggest bond underwriter, say they're avoiding debt from buyouts.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

S.Africa vehicle sales down 12.1 pct yr/yr in June

(Reuters) - South African new vehicle sales declined by 12.1 percent to 50,056 units in June compared to the same month last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (NAAMSA) said on Tuesday.

A number of recent negative economic developments have clouded the short term outlook for the new vehicle market, including higher interest rates and increasing car prices.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Oil Falls to Nine-Day Low on Forecasts for Rising U.S. Gasoline Supplies

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell to a nine-day low in New
York on forecasts U.S. gasoline supplies rose for an eighth
straight week.

An Energy Department report today will probably show U.S.
gasoline stockpiles gained 1 million barrels last week, according
to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. A record 41.1 million
Americans may travel next week for the Independence Day holiday,
the AAA said in a survey released yesterday.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Apple, Dyax, Netflix, Qwest, Taser, Valeant: U.S. Equity Movers Final

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares had unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges. Stock
symbols are in parentheses after company names. Share prices are
as of 4 p.m. New York time.

Apple Inc. (AAPL US) fell $4.30, or 3.5 percent, to $120.19.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced that he would not to
give developers a kit that would allow them to write specialized
programs for the iPhone. Instead he said they will be able to
write Web-based programs that iPhone users can access through
Apple's Safari browser. ``Some developers will be disappointed
that they won't be able to create specialized applications that
run on the iPhone,'' said Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray & Co.
analyst.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Fitch cuts IBM's credit rating on stock buybacks

(Reuters) - Fitch lowered IBM's "AA-minus" issuer default and senior
unsecured debt ratings one notch to "A-plus," the fifth highest
rating.




The downgrades "reflect IBM's shift in financial policies
to a more aggressive long-term capital structure with a higher
degree of core financial leverage," Fitch said in a release.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

New Zealand Dollar Falls First Time in Three Days as Investors Shun Risk

(Bloomberg) -- The New Zealand dollar fell the first
time in three sessions as a decrease in risk appetite prompted
investors to shun riskier currencies that benefit from higher
interest rates.

The local currency gained 16 percent in the past 12 months,
buoyed by a record 7.75 percent interest rate that is the highest
after Iceland's among AAA-rated countries. New Zealand's benchmark
stock index closed down for the first time in four days yesterday,
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined for a second
consecutive session, deterring riskier investments.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

UPDATE 1-NTT to issue Y100 bln of 10-year domestic bonds

(Reuters) - NTT, Japan's telephone giant, has set the coupon of its
domestic straight bonds at 1.77 percent, lead manager Nomura
Securities said on Tuesday.




On Monday, Standard & Poor's raised NTT's long-term credit
rating to "AA" from "AA-", citing improvement in its finances
amid consistent debt reduction.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

'AA won't be scrapped'

As long as imbalances of the past still persist, the government's affirmative action policy would not be scrapped, deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday.

Replying to a question by an MP in the national council of provinces who had asked her if the government had any intentions to do away with the policy, Mlambo-Ngcuka said affirmative action was a corrective measure that could only be disbanded once its objectives had been met.

Read more at FIN24.co.za