Media Digest (5/6/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

The drop in commodities may help rally the dollar (Reuters)

The moderating growth of jobs claims is seen as a threat to the recovery (Reuters)

A sharp drop in commodities prices hurt the stock market (Reuters)

Brent moved back above $111 after a 10% sell-off (Reuters)

Silver moved higher after a 12% drop (Reuters)

Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) insurance firms will cover some of the charges of a massive hack of its PS network (Reuters)

Investors pushed to get shares in Glencore (Reuters)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Facebook has each approached Skype for a buyout (Reuters)

The US has started to review trades by hedge fund king Steven Cohen of SAC (WSJ)

Sony CEO Howard Stringer added his apology about the PS data breach to those made by other company official (WSJ)

GM’s (NYSE: GM) prospected rose with new models but its future is threatened by oil prices (WSJ)

AIG (NYSE: AIG) made public its major goal before its sells a large number of shares into the market (WSJ)

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) will cut management to flatten its command structure (WSJ)

Current talks on future federal budgets will probably exclude plans for Medicare cuts (WSJ)

The ECB did not raise interest rates and is not likely to do so soon (WSJ)

Easter sales helped retail sales in April (WSJ)

CVS (NYSE: CVS) received government requests about data it gave out with 2009 earnings (WSJ)

Steel makers in developing nations sharply increased product to satisfy a surge in demand (WSJ)

Dividends and stock buybacks have returned as a way for companies to return cash to shareholders. The actions are still below 2007 levels (WSJ)

Kraft (NYSE: KFT) was able to use higher prices to largely offset commodities prices (WSJ)

US regulators cannot agree on which financial firms are “systematically important” (WSJ)

New mining of rare earths could push prices down by 2013 (WSJ)

The Food and Agriculture Organization said food prices stayed high last month (WSJ)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s future is in trouble as Republicans try to mute its powers (NYT)

Portugal’s government said it is concerned about a recession just as it received bailout funds from the EU and IMF (NYT)

Brazilian imports of US ethanol are higher (FT)

Insurance losses from natural disasters hurt AIG results (FT)

China said it was watching the US deficit debate closely (Bloomberg)

Officials at Lexus have become alarmed about its loss of US market share to BMW (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre