S&P cuts Italy one notch and says its outlook is negative. (Reuters)

Head of UBS (NYSE: UBS) seeks a vote of confidence from his board. (Reuters)

Samsung may take legal action against Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) on the iPhone. (Reuters)

Broken China IPOs may get private equity money. (Reuters)

China to continue to buy U.S. debt. (People’s Daily)

The SEC looked into trades just before U.S. debt was downgraded. (WSJ)

Greece says conversations with EU and IMF leaders about a bailout were productive. (WSJ)

Merkel’s ally party says it opposes bailout investments. (WSJ)

Citigroup (NYSE: C) aggressively solicits credit card use. (WSJ)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) may expand its relationship with China car company SAIC to improve sales in the world’s most populous nation. (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS) may get EPA approval to drill in Arctic waters off Alaska. (WSJ)

China’s Xinjiang Goldwind to build a wind farm in Illinois. (WSJ)

Some consumer groups oppose an Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) and MedcoHealth Solutions (NYSE: MHS) merger. (WSJ)

A generic version of blood thinner Lovenox to appear on the market after a year of legal fighting. (WSJ)

Chrysler nears a deal with the UAW. (WSJ)

STX kills a bid for a majority control of South Korean chip maker Hynix Semiconductor. (WSJ)

Copper reaches a one-year low. (WSJ)

Apple now worth $23 billion, more than Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM). (WSJ)

More economists view an orderly default of Greece as better than years of austerity and perhaps a depression. (NYT)

Growing number of Americans worry about being laid off. (NYT)

Aetna (NYSE: AET), Humana (NYSE: HUM), Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) would give patient information to a nonprofit group. (NYT)

Airbus raises estimate for long-term demand of commercial planes. (NYT)

Siemens (NYSE: SI) moves 6 billion euros to the ECB to lower risk. (FT)

Ireland’s economy begins to recover. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Swiss National Bank says the franc is overvalued. (Reuters)

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) management under more pressure as a reporter says News of the World editors knew about hacking and bribes in 2007. (Reuters)

The results of a French-German meeting about the euro depress markets. (Reuters)

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) cuts its forecast and the stock is hammered. (Reuters)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) drops the price of the PlayStation 3 to increase orders. (Reuters)

China’s need for corn imports stretches U.S. capacity to produce it. (WSJ)

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) may sell its real estate assets to Blackstone (NYSE: BX). (WSJ)

Research firm Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) claims that homes in a third of 130 markets have fallen below fair market value. (WSJ)

President Obama may ask the new congressional supercommittee for stimulus money. (WSJ)

Capital inflows in China add to fear about inflation. (WSJ)

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) increases pressure on unions striking against the company with threats to end benefits. (WSJ)

Honda (NYSE: HMC) dealers are still short of cars. (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell’s (NYSE: RDS) deal with Iraq for natural gas production could be worth $17 billion. (WSJ)

J. M. Smucker cuts prices on Folgers and Dunkin Donuts bagged coffee. (WSJ)

A German court lifts a ban on the sale of the Samsung Galaxy tablet in the EU, a blow to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). (WSJ)

Pensions reduce investments in high-end commercial real estate because of their belief in an emerging bubble. (WSJ)

Japan’s effort to reduce the value of the yen largely fails. (WSJ)

Fitch reaffirms its rating of U.S. debt as AAA. (WSJ)

The eurozone growth problem spreads to Germany. (WSJ)

Many of the most important economic data used by the market are based on unreliable estimates. (NYT)

Tech patents drive a new round of expensive M&A. (NYT)

Low inventories help retail profits. (NYT)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) says it expects U.S. growth to be slow. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE: EOG) is down 2.8% before market open to $93.25. This decline comes despite the fact that the company was upgraded to a buy at Citigroup.

McDonald’s Corporation (NASDAQ: MCD) is down 1.5% premarket to $83.80, relative to a 52-week range of $70.02-$89.57. This drop comes despite the fact that the fast food chain reported July global same-store sales up 5.1%.

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) is down nearly 3% before market open. Oppenheimer upgraded the company to outperform from perform.

Regulators have begun to tussle over interpretations of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill (Reuters)

LinkedIn (NYSE: LNK) posted strong earnings and a good forecast (Reuters)

New York State will challenge a Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) settlement of claims on mortgage backed securities (Reuters)

Kraft (NYSE: KFT) broke itself into two pieces because of activist investors (WSJ)

Low mortgage rates may have to go even lower to encourage people to refinance existing home loans (WSJ)

GM (NYSE: GM) earnings were helped by its program that cut 47 plants to 32 (WSJ)

Southwest (NYSE: LUV) will cut flights because of high fuel costs (WSJ)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) said it would keep making TV sets (WSJ)

Obama pushed for new programs to increase jobs (WSJ)

The ECB has begun to buy bonds from weak eurozone nations in the hope of averting another wave of sovereign crisis (WSJ)

Japan has begun to try to weaken the yen (WSJ)

The Swiss are worried the price of their franc, driven by safe haven buying, will hurt the economy (WSJ)

Retail sales gained slightly in July (WSJ)

U.S. small businesses have more worries with sales than they do getting bank credit (WSJ)

Concerns about Dendreon’s (NASDAQ: DNDN) Provenge pushed its shares down over 60% (WSJ)

UK banks are concerned about exposure to Belgian debt (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS) got approval to drill in the Arctic (NYT)

Concerns about a slowdown hit oil and metals stock prices (FT)

AIG (NYSE: AIG) said its earnings crisis has ended as it posted good results (FT)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) is under pressure to drop the price on PS3 to help sales (Bloomberg)

GM (NYSE: GM) pushed ahead of Toyota (NYSE: TM) as the world’s largest car company (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Silver and gold are near all-time highs (Reuters)

The House Budget Chair favors a cut in oil subsidies (Reuters)

Dow Transports hit an all-time high (Reuters)

Brent dropped below $125 on concerns about US growth (Reuters)

Central banks have started different approaches to curb inflation (Reuters)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) earnings rose, but Windows sales fell along with the company’s stock (Reuters)

ZTE will sue Huawei over 4G technology patents (Reuters)

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) and Callaway (NYSE: ELI) may put together a deal to buy Fortune Brands (NYSE: FU) (Reuters)

US government officials have shown no sign of alarm about the drop of the dollar (Reuters)

Long term inflation measures show belief that the Federal Reserve can keep prices in check (Reuters)

Banks are already revamping flawed mortgage loan practices (Reuters)

Chip maker Samsung’s profits fell 30%

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) revised its growth forecast lower (WSJ)

Chrysler plans to repay loans to the US and Canada (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil profits moved sharply higher (WSJ)

Parts shortages from Japan will cause higher prices for some cars and electronics (WSJ)

A growth in the difference in jobs between the strong and weak nations of the EU may make it harder for the ECB to tighten rates (WSJ)

The World Bank suggested China revalue the yuan (WSJ)

The Administration wants to tighten rules about how food companies can market products high in fat, sodium and sugar (WSJ)

Profits announced so far indicate that S&P 500 companies may set a record quarter (WSJ)

A rise in the costs of goods will harm Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) margins if it cannot raise retail prices (WSJ)

Judges examining foreclosure practices have not seen an improvement (WSJ)

A US approval of the AT&T (NYSE: T) plan to buy T-Mobile may open a route for Verizon Wireless to buy Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) (WSJ)

The FTC will try to limit food ads aimed at children (NYT)

Trouble with China’s truck transportation system may hurt exports (NYT)

Natural gas prices and resistance because of the Japan quake have slowed efforts to build reactors in the US (NYT)

The yuan moved past 6.5 per dollar for the first time since 1993. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Corporate earnings may not be strong enough to support current stock values (Reuters)

Public interest groups may sue the FCC to support net neutrality. (Reuters)

Sharp’s excess inventory of TV panels caused it to cut production. (Reuters)

The Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) board will review options for the company’s future. (Reuters)

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) said it was not in talks to buy a part of Woodside from Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS). (Reuters)

Some of Japan’s manufacturing capacity which is moving overseas because of the earthquake may not come back. (WSJ)

Copper has moved higher on data about China demand, but the nation may have more of the metal than previously thought. (WSJ)

Some economists expect US growth to move up sharply later this year (WSJ)

Iceland voters rejected a deal to pay money owed to the UK.  (WSJ)

Auto sales rose only 5.4% in China during March. (WSJ)

An Internet Security Threat Report says social networks and handheld devices are new targets for hackers. (WSJ)

China had its first quarterly trade deficit in seven years. (WSJ)

The Japanese government is urging its citizens to begin spending again. (WSJ)

Shell will buy major LNG holdings from Chevron. (NYSE: CVX) (WSJ)

More magazines are offering subscription products on the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad. (WSJ)

PIMCO has begun to turn its back on US government debt. (WSJ)

Prices for corn may drop because of exports but ethanol and livestock feed may hold them high. (WSJ)

JPMorgan (NYSE JPM) has been accused of not handling client money as well as it does its own. (NYT)

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is trying to take mobile market share from leader Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). (NYT)

Commodities prices will hurt the margins of US companies. (FT)

The US could sue up to 100 executives of failed banks. (FT)

The value of the dollar could drop with the end of QE2. (Bloomberg)

George Soros said China’s inflation is “out of control.”  (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sinopec has been in discussions with BP plc (NYSE:BP) since January about developing the country’s shale gas resources, but it’s not clear that BP is involved in this first project. BP is reportedly helping Sinopec assess two other potential shale gas deposits. Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS-A) has also signed a 30-year production-sharing contract with China National Petroleum Company, the country’s state-owned energy giant, for development of shale gas

Natural gas is important to the Chinese economy and demand for the fuel has grown faster than demand for crude oil or coal. By 2020, the government expects the most populous country to burn about 10 trillion cubic feet a year, less than one-half current US demand of more than 22 trillion cubic feet.

China’s demand for energy is met chiefly with coal, which accounts for 68% of supply, crude oil with 19%, and natural gas with just under 4%. In 2009,  China produced about 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, an amount equal to 92% of consumption. To fill the gap, China imports gas from Russia and Central Asia, mainly Turkmenistan, by means of pipelines. The country also imports relatively small quantities of LNG.

As with crude oil, China does not want to export dollars in exchange for energy. And, unlike crude oil, China has a potentially large domestic supply of shale gas and coal bed methane if the deposits can be developed. The government’s goal is to shift 10% of energy supply to natural gas by 2020.

The country also wants to reduce CO2 emissions, and natural gas generates less than half the emissions of coal.

Natural gas consumption is set to soar, with one Chinese expert claiming that for “next 100 years, natural gas will be the basic energy to support China’s development.” And there’s no significant reason that his prediction can’t come true.

Paul Ausick

Reuters:   Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is finding a flood of Asian buyers for the iPad.

Reuters:   Prudential plc is in talks with American International Group Inc (NYSE: AIG) to cut the price of AIA.

Reuters:   The euro dropped again as short covering stopped.Reuters:   Gold fell as investors moved to stocks.

Reuters:   Nokia oy (NYSE: NOK) and Opera support Adobe Inc.’s (NASDAQ: ADBE) Flash format.

Reuters:   Opera says it has 2.6 million downloads on iPhone.

Reuters:   Wall St. is debating the eventual fate of Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE: DIS) ABC unit.

WSJ:   Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS) bought natural gas firm East Resources for $4.7 billion.

WSJ:   Greece still may have to restructure its debt.

WSJ:   The CEOs of Continental (NYSE: CAL) and UAL, Inc (NASDAQ: UAUA) are pushing the merger.

WSJ:   The UAW wants new concessions from The Big Three.

WSJ:   Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android, being put on many tablet PCs is a rival to the iPad.

WSJ:   The BP spill is now bigger than the Exxon Valdez.

WSJ:   The FDA may levy penalties on Johnson & Johnson Inc (NYSE: JNJ) for its handling of children’s drugs.

WSJ:   Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) is raising its reliance on Verizon Wireless and Android.

WSJ:  Pequot Capital paid $28 million in fines for insider trading.

WSJ:   Large investment banks are competing for the business to take GM public.

WSJ:   Time Warner,Inc. (NYSE: TWX) needs to be more aggressive with digital content.

NYT:   Ford  is will improve fuel mileage to improve Explorer sales.

NYT:   A strike in China is forcing Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC) to close a plant.

NYT:   Geithner says the global financial overhaul must vary by nation.

NYT:   Spain narrowly approved austerity measures.

FT:   Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) is trying to settle with the SEC on acceptance of a lesser offense.

FT:   China’s national fund is concerned about shaky European finances.

FT:   Congress dealt a setback to EADS plans to bid for an Air Force tanker project.

Bloomberg:   Bond sales have dropped to their lowest level since 2000 as spreads have widened.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Reuters:   The Senate will begin a fight on financial reform

Reuters:   Arrow agreed to a buyout from Shell (RDS.A) and PetroChina (PTR).

Reuters:   Employer health care costs rose 7.3% in 2009.

Reuters:   The public is paying more attention to corporate ethics.

Reuters:   Ebay (EBAY) and NRF will take on issues of online crime.

Reuters:   Europe is divided on Greece before its summit.

WSJ:   Old interest rate deals are hurting cities and states.

WSJ:   Dividends are making a big comeback.

WSJ:   The head of Germany says Greece does not need financial aid.

WSJ:   EMI is in licensing talks to bring in money.

WSJ:   China warned against sanctions due to the value of the yuan.

WSJ:   The B of A CEO will go to China this week.

WSJ:   “Alice in Wonderland” stayed on top at the box office.

WSJ:   Cabin crews kept up their strike against British Air

WSJ:   AT&T (T) played down the Verizon Wireless lead in 4G LTE technology.

WSJ:   Six companies will have IPOs this week.

WSJ:   First Solar’s (FSLR) lead in solar tech may end.

WSJ:   Systemax is trying to revive the CompUSA and Circuit City brands.

WSJ:   The FDA is close to making a decision about China.

WSJ:   PepsicCo (PEP) is set to lower sodium in its food.

NYT:  The health care overhaul will give hospitals and drug companies millions of new employees.

NYT:   There is a race to be among the first Apple (AAPL) iPad apps.

FT:   Former Lehman CEO Fuld is facing new probes.

FT:   The US Chamber of Commerce is moving against China’s yuan philosophy.

FT:   A new deal may replace iron ore pricing systems.

FT:   Goldman Sachs (GS) took home huge sums from investments in a fund set up by the firm

FT:   Pepsi (PEP) is setting up programs to cut salt, sugar, and saturated fats.

Bloomberg:   The US government is paying higher rates than Berkshire Hathaway (BRK).

Bloomberg:   Bernanke says taxpayers should not cover costs of failed banks.

Bloomberg:   The health care bill now moves to federal regulators and states.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Richard Fuld, former CEO of Lehman, feels that the 2,200 page report on the collapse of the firm “vindicates” him  (NYPost)

Renaissance Technologies may close two of its funds (WSJ)

Harley Davidson (HOG) will be bought by a private equity firm  (Reuters)

HSBC (HBC) may participate in an auction for a $4 billion stake in Korea Exchange Bank  (Reuters).

Dubai World will offer to pay banks the full $26 billion that it owes but plans to stretch the payments over several years.  (Al Arabiya)

Arrow Energy is allowing Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) and PetroChina (PTR) to examine its book after the two large firms may a $3 billion offer for the Australian operation. (Reuters).

AT&T (T) is delaying its sale of Palm (PALM) handsets. (Barron’s)

Douglas A. McIntyre