Berkshire, Diebold, Jones Apparel, Rowan, Paychex: U.S. Stock Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares may have unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges
tomorrow. This preview includes news that broke after exchanges
closed. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A US): The investment company
run by billionaire investor Warren Buffett said second-quarter
profit from continuing operations increased to $1,625 a share,
helped by gains from insurance and investments. The result topped
the $1,436 estimate of Charles Gates, an analyst at Credit
Suisse. The stock fell $100 to $109,900 in regular trading.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Abandon Second Loan Offering for KKR Boots Buyout

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase &
Co. and UniCredit SpA canceled the sale of 1 billion pounds ($2
billion) of loans for Alliance Boots Plc after failing to find
investors, two people with direct knowledge of the deal said.

The underwriters withdrew the offer of second-lien loans,
debt that ranks after senior loans for repayment, said the
people, who declined to be identified because the discussions
are private. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.'s bankers, which last
month pulled 5 billion pounds of senior loans, will only
syndicate 750 million pounds of mezzanine debt that ranks last
for repayment and pays the highest interest.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

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

UPDATE 1-US credit default swaps open 20 bps wider- Barclays

(Reuters) - The main index of investment-grade credit default swaps was
20 basis points wider at 98 basis points, while the
high-volatility index was also 20 basis points wider at 210.




Subprime mortgage concerns last week caused the credit
default swap index to widen by 26 basis points, or about 50
percent, the biggest weekly percentage move in the history of
the index, research firm Credit Derivatives Research said on
Friday.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Australian Dollar Trades at 18-Year High on Speculation of Rate Increase

(Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar rose to an 18-
year high against the U.S. currency as some traders raised bets
the central bank will increase interest rates next month to slow
inflation. The currency dropped versus New Zealand's dollar.

Australia's dollar is the third-best performer this month
among the 16 most-active currencies as an index calculated by
Credit Suisse Group suggested speculators are increasing the odds
of higher borrowing costs. A report yesterday showed producer
prices gained more than expected in the second quarter and
figures tomorrow may show inflation accelerated.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

Enron creditors recover $149 mln in settlement

(Reuters) - The settlement with Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., which legally changed its name from Enron Corp. on March 1, resolves claims against roughly 80 defendants, court papers show. Enron accused the defendants of receiving preferential treatment and fraudulent transfers at the expense of other creditors.




Among the settling defendants are affiliates of Allstate Corp , Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , Merrill Lynch & Co , Northern Trust Co and Prudential Financial Inc , court papers show.


Read more at Reuters.com 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

Lend Lease May be Target of a Leveraged Buyout, Credit Defaults Swaps Show

(Bloomberg) -- Lend Lease Corp., Australia's biggest
property developer, may be the target of a leveraged buyout,
according to traders betting on the creditworthiness of companies.

Speculation that private equity firms are poised to bid has
increased the risk of holding Lend Lease debt to the highest
since August 2005. Credit-default swaps are financial instruments
based on corporate bonds and loans used to speculate on a
company's ability to repay debt.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

US credit derivatives backlog improvement praised

(Reuters) - "We look forward to additional progress and commend the joint regulatory action and industry response as a model for tackling similar problems in global markets," he said.




Credit derivatives are contracts, such as credit default swaps, reached between institutions to manage debt risk. The market for them at the end of 2006 was $34.5 trillion in notional value, up 33 percent from mid-year and double 2005's level.


Read more at Reuters.com 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

Corporate Bond Risk Soars Most in Three Years on Subprime Debt Downgrades

(Bloomberg) -- Corporate bond risk soared in Europe
by the most in at least three years as debt rating downgrades on
U.S. subprime securities triggered a worldwide selloff,
according to traders of credit-default swaps.

Credit-default swaps on 10 million euros ($13 million) of
debt sold by 50 companies from Italian automaker Fiat SpA to
betting group Ladbrokes Plc in London jumped 25,000 euros to
291,000 euros, according to prices on the iTraxx Crossover
Series 7 Index from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The increase is the
biggest on any day since the index started in 2004.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

UPDATE 1-China's E-House files for $150 mln U.S. IPO

(Reuters) - Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch & Co. are underwriting the
IPO, according to a preliminary filing with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission.




The company intends to list its ADSs on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol "EJ" .


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

India's Rupee May End Four-Week Rally on Central Bank Sales, Survey Shows

(Bloomberg) -- India's rupee may end a four-week
rally, a Bloomberg News survey showed, on speculation the
central bank will sell the currency to halt a fall in exports.

Capital flows into Asia's fourth-largest economy helped
push up the rupee 9.5 percent this year. Infosys Technologies
Ltd., India's second-largest computer-services provider, may
miss its local-currency sales forecast because of the stronger
rupee, which lowers the value of overseas revenue, Credit Suisse
said last week. Exports declined in the five months through May.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

UPDATE 1-Fast Retailing eyes Barneys to tap global markets

(Reuters) - The acquisition would be Fast Retailing's biggest to date and put to use a war chest of $1.3 billion that has been on hold since the company gave up on a bid for Hong Kong's Giordano International last year.




"Fast Retailing has vowed to expand abroad and they have plenty of cash to do it," said Dairo Murata, an industry analyst from Credit Suisse in Tokyo. "Even if this one falls through, they will just go on looking for something else."


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-UniCredit faces hurdles in Polish talks-sources

(Reuters) - MILAN, July 5 - Italian bank UniCredit
is having a rough time clinching a deal to sell 200 bank outlets
in Poland as its counterpart GE Money maintains a tough
negotiating line, sources close to the talks said on Thursday.
In April, UniCredit entered exclusive talks with GE Money,
the financial arm of U.S. giant General Electric , to sell
200 BPH bank branches along with the BPH brand and
said at the time that a deal could be sealed in May.
But more than two months after the start of negotiations, a
deal is not yet in sight, meaning UniCredit risks delaying the
planned merger of the remaining BPH outlets into its other
Polish unit Bank Pekao .




"The Americans are playing hard ball," a source told
Reuters. "They know UniCredit is in a difficult situation and
that it wants to close this deal soon."


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Corporate Bond Risk May Soar in Europe on Subprime Losses, UniCredit Says

(Bloomberg) -- Corporate bond risk may soar in
Europe as the fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage defaults
spread, according to UniCredit SpA, Italy's largest bank.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world's biggest securities
firm, yesterday said the value of its collateralized debt
obligations, securities backed by bonds and loans, dropped $1.56
billion, or 29 percent, to $3.79 billion in the second quarter.
Goldman's fixed-income revenue fell 24 percent because of home
loan delinquencies, the New York-based firm bank said in its
quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Credit Suisse Says Investors Should Buy Turkish Stocks, Especially Banks

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group advised investors
to increase holdings in Turkish equities, especially banks,
because of the country's political and interest-rate outlook.

Switzerland's second-largest bank said investors should
increase holdings of Turkish stocks to 10 percent above their
weighting in benchmarks, strategists Alexander Redman, Yavuz Uzay
and Berna Bayazitoglu wrote in a report dated July 3 and
distributed today.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

JGBs down, hit by weak Treasuries, 10-year sale

(Reuters) - Traders said they were looking at the U.S. bond market for
direction as JGB prices were expected to move in narrow ranges
ahead of next week's policy meeting by the Bank of Japan, having
digested key data, the auction and speeches by BOJ officials.




"Sluggish demand for the new 10-year issue has weighed on
sentiment, at least in that sector, as the paper is seen as
expensive relative to other maturities," said Kenro Kawano, a
fixed income strategist at Credit Suisse.
The 10-year JGB sale on Tuesday drew lower-than-expected
demand from dealers despite a 1.9 percent coupon, which was the
highest since August, because dealers had wanted a re-opening of
the No. 286 1.8 percent issue to ease their shortage in the repo
market.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

GLOBAL MARKETS-Security concerns weigh on shares, aid bonds

(Reuters) - Credit markets softened as worries lingered about the U.S.
high-risk mortgage sector. Concerns about rising borrowing costs
ahead of an expected interest rate hike in Britain this week also
weighed on investor risk appetite.




Britain has raised its security rating to its highest level
after failed car bombing attempts in London and an attack on a
Scottish airport over the weekend.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

European Stocks Decline; Allianz, Deutsche Bank, Thomas Cook Fall

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks declined for the first
time in three days. Allianz SE and Deutsche Bank AG led a drop by
insurers and banks.

Thomas Cook Group Plc, the travel operator created last
month by a merger, fell after Credit Suisse Group rated the
shares ``underperform'' in new coverage. Groupe Danone SA gained
after a report it might be in talks to sell its biscuit and
cereal products division to Kraft Foods Inc.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News