Guy Ritchie in NYC to Snatch Time With the Family - E! Online

What's a Guy to do when Madonna is making headlines for her trips to the lawyer's office rather than the recording studio?

Hop the next flight, of course.

A source tells E! News that Guy Ritchie touched down in New York Monday so he can spend as much time with his wife and their brood as possible before she heads out on her next world tour.

"He has been planning for a long time to spend all of July in New York," the source said. "It's not a last-ditch effort to save the marriage."

Whether that's because the marriage is already over and there's nothing to save remains to be seen. But for now—and for awhile now—those close to the couple, including Ritchie's mum, are quick to deny that there's trouble at home.

The filmmaker was spotted tonight heading into the family's Upper West Side apartment, where he's aiming to stay.

"There are no plans to get a divorce," our insider said. "She is working all the time, but they are still completely in love." Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour kicks off Aug. 23 in Cardiff, Wales.

For Ritchie, the source added, the biggest issue in their marriage has been all the media attention.

(Oops...)

As for the couple's ringless fingers, the Ritchie source said that the Brit hasn't been in the habit of wearing his wedding band for ages, while Madonna's rep said that the singer has rarely slipped hers on over the last six years, either.

The duo tied the knot Dec. 22, 2000, and are parents to Lourdes, Madonna's daughter from a previous relationship; biological son Rocco; and adopted son David.

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Wall Street declines on first day of 3rd quarter: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Stocks fall after more concerns about oil prices, disappointing manufacturing data NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street began the third quarter Tuesday with another sharp decline as rising oil prices and weak economic data made it clear the country can expect no respite anytime soon from its morass of financial problems. The Dow Jones industrials skidded nearly 150 points, and Treasury prices rose in a flight to the safety of government debt.

The first session of the second half of 2008 brought more discouraging news for investors: Oil rose again toward record high levels, a report showed that U.S. manufacturers are still under duress and Ford Motor Co. said its June sales tumbled. This all raised the market's fears that the economy -- still reeling from soaring commodities prices and the lingering credit crisis -- is not any closer to turning around.

The biggest issue facing shareholders remains the escalating price of oil. A barrel of light, sweet crude held above $142 after hitting a record high of $143.67 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The toll higher energy prices is taking on the economy was evident in a report Tuesday on U.S. manufacturing. The Institute of Supply Management said manufacturing unexpectedly grew in June, but a closer look at the report showed that the prices companies paid for fuel and materials continued to grow as demand shrunk. The overall gain came on higher exports, and, taken as a whole, the ISM report turned out to be a disappointment.

Tuesday's events -- especially the manufacturing and auto sales data for June, the last month of the second quarter -- were an unnerving harbinger of what's to come when companies start issuing earnings and outlooks in the coming weeks. It is widely expected that those results will reflect the impact of higher oil, and the fact that crude continues to climb is pointing to even more economic troubles in the coming months.

During the spring, the market had hopes for a better second half. But oil and the continuing stream of credit-related problems at financial companies erased those hopes during June, a month that wiped out more than 10 percent of the Dow's value.

"It feels like we continue to stretch and stretch until something snaps, and that will continue to happen until we do something about oil," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "This is a test of wills between oil and stocks, and hopefully we're not on some kind of collision course."

The Dow fell 143.21, or 1.26 percent, to 11,206.80. The major indexes ended the first half of 2008 with double digit declines.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gave up 15.12, or 1.18 percent, to 1,264.88; and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 27.94, or 1.31 percent, to 2,263.01.

The drop in the U.S. followed a steep decline in European markets. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.60 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.60 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 2.11 percent.

Bonds rose as investors pulled money out of stocks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.91 percent from 3.98 percent late Monday.

Investors were also disappointed by another drop in construction spending due to the continuing slump in housing. The Commerce Department said construction spending fell 0.4 percent, slightly less than economists' forecasts.

Mike Malone, a trading analyst, Cowen & Co., said the steep drop shows how fearful the market is about any kind of bad news. He said the drop in major indexes shows a lack of buyers in the market, and swings made even more pronounced because of light volume in the market.

"We just weren't able to hold on to gains," Malone said. "There was some hope that the financials might lead us higher on the day, but they weren't able to hold the line and brought everyone down with it."

Investors might get some more direction in upcoming economic reports like Thursday's June employment numbers.

Ford fell 31 cents, or 6 percent, to $4.50 after the automaker reported that sales declined by a weaker-than-expected 28 percent in June. General Motors Corp. fell 74 cents, or 6.5 percent, to $10.87 ahead of the release of its sales report.

CIT Group Inc. rose 97 cents, or 14 percent, to $7.79 after the financial company announced the sale of its home lending business to Lone Star Funds for $1.5 billion. Lone Star will also assume $4.4 billion of debt and other liabilities.

CIT also agreed to sell other assets to raise a total $1.8 billion in fresh capital. Global financial companies have been raising money to combat more than $300 billion of losses from mortgage-backed securities and other risky investments.

Also in the financial sector, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. shares rose 39 cents to $20.23 after a steep decline on Monday. The nation's fourth-largest investment bank had been the target of rumors that it might sell itself to Britain's Barclays PLC at a discount price.

Declining issues led advancers by a 3 to 1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 818.2 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.77, or 1.56 percent, to 678.90.

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Rebuilding at 9/11 Site Runs Late, Report Says - NYTimes.com

At the World Trade Center site, the memorial to the people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, will not be open to the public in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack, as had been previously announced.

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A String of Dependencies

The $2.5 billion PATH station and transit hub nearby are not only behind schedule and over budget, but the final design is not even finished.

On the south side of the site, the demolition of the Deutsche Bank tower will not be completed until sometime next year, at least 14 months behind schedule.

For at least a year, some officials involved in the rebuilding effort have hinted that delays for any one of the 26 separate but interrelated projects on the 16 acres were compounding. But on Monday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, issued a 34-page report listing the site’s problems, saying, “The schedule and cost for each of the public projects on the site face significant delays and cost overruns.”

The Port Authority adamantly refused to offer new schedules or cost estimates, but some officials said the delays could run up to three years. The cost overruns could extend into the billions for a project whose total cost is now more than $15 billion.

At the heart of the problem, the report said, were overly ambitious completion dates that were probably inaccurate from the day they were announced. Those dates were set at a time when former Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority wanted to convey the sense that this most politically, economically and emotionally significant of projects would be completed quickly.

The report also illuminated in great detail just why that schedule was so inaccurate: The work entails more than two dozen projects, some of them large and extremely complex, all within the confines of a dozen square blocks. Nineteen public agencies, two private developers and 101 construction contractors and subcontractors are involved.

Although Port Authority officials publicly acknowledged the daunting problems on Monday, they were also eager to convey the sense that some progress was being made on the centerpiece, the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower, as well as on three other office towers, the transit hub and the foundations for the memorial.

“The World Trade Center site is being rebuilt, will continue to be rebuilt, and it will be completed,” Christopher O. Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, said on Monday. “The question surrounding the World Trade Center rebuilding is not if all of the projects will be built, rather when and for how much.”

At the same time, Mr. Ward conceded that “there will clearly be some triage,” meaning some projects at ground zero may have to be delayed while others are accelerated. The PATH station designed by Santiago Calatrava will have to be revised, he said. Public officials will also have to decide how to keep the station for the No. 1 subway line at the site from impeding construction that is only inches away.

At a news conference on Monday, Gov. David A. Paterson, who had asked the Port Authority for the report on the overall rebuilding effort, painted a grim picture. He said past estimates and schedules had been so unrealistic, and so much essential information remained unknown, that even now, the authority would not set a completion date.

Instead, Mr. Paterson said, he had ordered that all stakeholders in the effort meet to find a way to centralize decision-making about the site. The goal, he said, was to come up with a more realistic schedule and budgets by Sept. 30.

“Here’s what we’re not going to do,” Mr. Paterson said. “We’re not going to give any phony dates or timetables at this point and then follow it up with phony ribbon-cuttings and encouraging words and no follow-up.”

Mr. Paterson also said there would be no casting of blame for the rebuilding delays.

“I don’t know that it would be important to assess that it was the fault of people or that they were irresponsible,” he said. “I think, all in all, everyone was trying to do the right thing.”

Still, the reference to phony ribbon-cuttings and the like amounted to a rebuke of Mr. Pataki, who was in office in 2001 and viewed the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan as a central element of his 12-year legacy.

“For years, unrealistic deadlines were set,” said Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, whose district includes the site. “There seemed to be more interest in having press conferences declaring how Lower Manhattan would be rebuilt better than ever, than in establishing realistic deadlines and budgets. Now we’re in a situation where projects could be stalled, or are years away from being completed.”

Ms. Menin said tension between the Pataki and Bloomberg administrations also contributed to the delays. “There were times when literally the city and state each separately would call me to say they did not want to sit at the same table when presenting at a community board meeting,” she said.

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The Associated Press: British cooking equipment maker backs $2.1B bid

LONDON (AP) — A $2.1 billion bid by Manitowoc Company Inc. for Enodis PLC was endorsed by the British cooking equipment supplier Tuesday, ending a takeover fight with Illinois Tool Works.

Enodis said that it will recommend a 328 pence ($6.55) per share cash offer from Manitowoc Company Inc., a U.S. ice machine maker, following an auction arranged by Britain's takeover regulator.

The Takeover Panel said that Illinois Tool Works had withdrawn its 280 pence ($5.59) per share offer announced in May. The panel added that it had agreed not to reveal details of any increased bid made by Illinois Tool Works during the auction.

Enodis chairman Peter Brooks said that the final offer from Manitowoc was the best value for shareholders.

"Having considered carefully all aspects of the bids received, including transaction timing and execution risk, in particular from an antitrust perspective, and the higher price which this offer provides, the board of Enodis intends to recommend unanimously the offer from Manitowoc to shareholders," Brooks said in a statement.

The final offer from Manitowoc, based in the Wisconsin city of the same name, is well above its first offer in April of 260 pence ($5.09) per share.

Enodis, which supplies fryer systems, refrigeration units and ice and beverage dispensers to restaurants and retailers, including McDonald's Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., had consistently supported increased bids from Manitowoc despite attempts by Illinois Tool Works to stymie a deal.

An Enodis-Manitowoc tie-up will give Manitowoc entry into two major new market segments — hot food service and food retail equipment.

"Even at the higher price, we believe the strategic benefits of the combination are significant while remaining consistent with the strict financial disciplines that we have adhered to for all our acquisitions," said Manitowoc chief executive officer Glen E. Tellock.

Enodis has successfully fought off a series of takeover bids over the past two years.

The company, which has manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, and employs 6,800 workers, in May reported a profit of 9.7 million pounds ($19 million) for the six months ending March 29, compared with 17.3 million pounds in the comparable period a year ago. It attributed the drop in profit to the cost of restructuring.

Enodis shares fell 1.1 percent to close at 315 pence ($6.28).

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Bloomberg.com: U.S.

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Moody's Corp. ousted the head of its structured finance unit and said employees violated internal rules in assigning ratings to last year's worst performing securities.

Noel Kirnon, 47, will leave after a company review showed some staff at Moody's Investors Service breached rules for ranking European constant proportion debt obligations, or bonds backed by derivatives, the company said in statements today. Moody's awarded Aaa ratings to at least $4 billion of CPDOs, as the securities are known, before they lost as much as 90 percent of their value.

U.S. and European regulators are tightening rules for Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings after the companies provided top grades to securities backed by U.S. subprime mortgages that sparked $400 billion of writedowns and losses on Wall Street. Moody's, the world's second largest credit-rating company, said today that employees, not the company's practices, were to blame.

``Moody's have lost a lot of credibility,'' said Jeroen Van Den Broek, head of investment-grade credit strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam, a unit of the biggest Dutch financial services company. ``It seems like they're looking for a scapegoat.''

Moody's, which is 19.6 percent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., fell $1.18 to $33.26 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 12:38 p.m. The stock is down 45 percent over the past year.

Loss of Trust

``Some of the investors getting involved with complex structured assets like CPDOs that relied on the agencies may not trust them again,'' said Steven Behr, global head of principal strategies at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, Britain's second-biggest bank. ``They have a serious credibility issue in admitting to flaws.''

ABN Amro Holding NV created the first CPDO in 2006, promising investors returns of as much as 2 percentage points above money-market rates combined with the highest ratings.

Banks attempted to boost returns by investing as much as 15 times the money raised in credit-default swaps. The contracts provided an income in exchange for CPDO guaranteeing the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a borrower fail to adhere to its debt agreements. A rise in the cost of the contracts indicates deterioration in the perception of credit quality; a decline, the opposite.

The CPDOs stood to gain from an improvement in credit quality and risked declines from any deterioration. Losses were meant to be covered by selling more of the credit-default swaps and charging a higher premium.

Computer Error

Dominion Bond Ratings Service said in 2006 that there may not be enough trading history to assess the risks. Fitch Ratings said in April 2007 that the securities may not have deserved the top grades.

Moody's began cutting its grades on CPDOs in September as losses on subprime mortgages spread across credit markets, causing investors to flee all but the safest government debt and driving up the cost of protecting against company risk.

Moody's said on May 21 that it had begun a review of its CPDO ratings after a report by the Financial Times said some senior staff were aware in early 2007 of a computer error. The glitch gave the top Aaa rating to CPDOs that should have been ranked as much as four levels lower, the FT said. Moody's altered some assumptions to avoid having to assign lower grades after fixing the error, the FT said.

Sullivan & Cromwell

Moody's hired law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to conduct the review. It found that personnel didn't make changes to the methodology for rating European CPDOs to mask any model error, Moody's said today. The staff engaged in ``conduct contrary to Moody's code of professional conduct,'' when considering whether to downgrade the securities after discovering the error, the ratings company said.

Under company guidelines, a committee may only ``consider credit factors relevant to the credit assessment and may not consider the potential impact on Moody's, or on an issuer, an investor or market participant,'' Moody's said.

Some 11 CPDOs worth just under $1 billion were affected by the error in the model, Moody's said. They would initially have been rated in the range of Aa, or one to three steps lower. The firm has since removed its rating on four of the deals after investors sold them back to the sponsor bank or reorganized them.

`Deeply Disappointed'

Employees involved face disciplinary proceedings that may include termination, Moody's said.

``I am deeply disappointed by the conduct that occurred in this incident,'' Chief Executive Officer Raymond McDaniel said in the statement.

Moody's is providing ``enhancements'' to the supervision of ratings, Chief Compliance Officer Michael Kanef in New York said in a telephone interview. The company has appointed an executive and analysts to improve surveillance, he said.

``This is not a circumstance where we have initiated disciplinary proceedings and come to a halt,'' said Kanef. ``We are moving forward with several important progressive actions that are designed to ensure that we are addressing and improving our policies and procedures.''

Kirnon, who oversaw the credit policy committee, started working on collateralized debt obligations at Moody's in 1990. He will leave the company July 31 and will be replaced on a temporary basis by Andrew Kimball, 58. A search for a permanent replacement is under way, Moody's said. It didn't give a reason for Kirnon's departure.

Richard Cantor, 50, will take over as chief credit officer and chairman of the company's credit policy committee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Moody at emoody@bloomberg.net

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S&P raises Countrywide, Fitch keeps on review | Markets | US | Reuters

NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Tuesday raised its ratings on Countrywide Financial Corp. after the largest U.S. mortgage lender was acquired by Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

S&P raised Countrywide's counterparty rating to "AA," the third-highest investment-grade level, from the highest junk level of "BB-plus" to align it with ratings of Bank of America. The upgrade reflects expectations that Bank of America will honor Countrywide's debt, S&P said in a statement.

Rival rating agency Fitch Ratings said the takeover was positive for Countrywide creditors, but it kept its "BBB-minus" rating on review until details of the new corporate structure are announced.

Fitch said the latest regulatory filing by Bank of America left open the possibility that Countrywide's debt could remain the obligation of the mortgage lender, not Bank of America.

In that case, Countrywide's debt rating could be downgraded from its current level and would remain below Bank of America's rating. But if Bank of America guarantees Countywide's debt, ratings could be equalized, Fitch said.

Countrywide had $97.23 billion of outstanding debt as of Dec. 31, including Federal Home Loan Bank advances to Countrywide Bank of about $47.68 billion.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America completed its acquisition of Countrywide on Tuesday. For details click on [ID:nN01486703].

The deal makes Bank of America the No. 1 mortgage originator and mortgage servicer in the United States, according to S&P.

S&P said the outlook, which indicates the likely direction of the rating over the next two years, is negative because of continued weakness in Bank of America's now expanded mortgage portfolio and credit card book. 

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TABLE-Ssangyong Motor June sales down 32.4 pct y/y | Reuters

 July 1 (Reuters) - Ssangyong Motor Co's (003620.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) sales
during June (in vehicles):

                     June 2008       June 2007
 TOTAL SALES                7,392          10,932
 OVERSEAS SALES             5,490           5,082
 DOMESTIC SALES             1,902           5,850

 Ssangyong Motor is a South Korean maker of sport utility
vehicles including Rexton and Kyron. China's SAIC Motor
Corp (600104.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) owns a 51.33 percent stake in Ssangyong.
 (Reporting by Rhee So-eui in Seoul; Editing by Keiron Henderson)

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