Mobile-8 Telecom, Vietnam, Shinhan Card, Hyundai Capital: Asia Bond Alert

(Bloomberg) -- PT Mobile-8 Telecom, an Indonesian
mobile-phone operator that counts Qualcomm Inc. as an investor,
and Vietnam are among borrowers seeking to sell at least $7
billion of bonds in Asia, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.

Governments and companies in Asia sold $43.6 billion of
debt denominated in dollars, euros and yen this year, up from
$37.5 billion a year earlier, Bloomberg data show. Sales of
Samurai bonds, yen debt sold by foreign entities in Japan, rose
to 1.4 trillion yen ($11.6 billion), from 741 billion yen in the
whole of 2006.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

U.S. Stocks Advance as Banks, Homebuilders Help Spark a Rebound

U.S. banks and homebuilders carried stocks to their second gain this week after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said bad home loans won't curtail earnings, helping erase a 136-point tumble in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, posted its first advance in five days as investors gained confidence mortgage delinquencies pose less of a risk to the financial system than previously thought. All 16 homebuilders in Standard & Poor's 500 indexes advanced.

Lehman's assessment pared a decline in its shares and helped ease concern mounting defaults among the riskiest borrowers will slow economic growth. Energy and technology companies also helped the Dow and S&P 500 recover today from earlier declines of more than 1 percent after oil prices climbed and JPMorgan upgraded Qualcomm Inc.

Read more at Bloomberg.com