Segro sells US assets for $2.9bln, to pay dividend

(Reuters) - Segro intends to return around 250 million pounds to
shareholders via a special dividend and the remaining 324
million pounds will be used to reduce the group's debt.




Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Australian Shares Climb to Record, Led by BHP, Newcrest on Higher Metals

(Bloomberg) -- Australian stocks rose to a record
high. BHP Billiton Ltd. led mining shares higher after prices of
metals including copper and nickel gained.

Westfield Group led gains among companies with U.S. earnings
after reports showed employment and manufacturing growth in the
world's biggest economy expanded more than expected.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Copper Prices Fall in Asian Trading on Chinese Stockpiles; Zinc Declines

(Bloomberg) -- Copper prices in Asia declined after
stockpiles in China, the world's biggest user of the metal, fell
less-than-expected even as global inventories dwindled to a
seven-month low.

The most active contract in Shanghai dropped as much as 1.4
percent, and copper in London declined as much as 0.5 percent in
early Asian trade.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Australia's ASX Plans to Start Futures Market in Carbon Emissions Trading

(Bloomberg) -- The Australian Securities Exchange,
owned by ASX Ltd., said it expects to start a futures market for
carbon emission permits in advance of the proposed introduction
of a national trading system by 2012.

The exchange is appointing a working group to assist with
industry input into the design of a futures market and to advise
the government on how a carbon trading system needs to be set up
to allow an efficient futures market for permits, the Sydney-
based company said today in an e-mailed statement.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Edwards, Clinton, Obama Skirmish on Iraq, Health Care in Democrats' Debate

(Bloomberg) -- The three leading Democratic
presidential candidates -- John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama -- skirmished over the Iraq war and health-care
coverage in a debate last night.

In the forum, which was devoted more to rhetorical or
political points than substantive differences, Edwards, 53, a
former North Carolina senator, was the aggressor. In the
sharpest exchange of the evening, he went after Clinton and
Obama, saying they failed to provide leadership on Iraq by
``quietly'' voting May 24 against funding for the war, without
forcefully arguing for their positions.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

UPDATE 1-Anadarko to sell assets to Atlas for $1.85 billion

(Reuters) - Under the terms of the deal, Atlas will acquire control of
Anadarko's interests in the Chaney Dell and Midkiff/Benedum
natural gas gathering systems and associated processing plants
located in Oklahoma and Kansas.




Anadarko said its divestitures have now yielded around
$12.5 billion in after-tax proceeds from announced and closed
deals.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Euro May Rise to 173 Yen on Rate Gap, Mizuho Corporate Bank's Fukui Says

(Bloomberg) -- The euro may strengthen to a record
173 yen this year as a strengthening economy and rising interest
rates attract investment into the region's assets, said Masaki
Fukui at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in Tokyo.

Europe's currency touched a record high of 164.29 yen May 29,
on speculation European Central Bank officials this week will
raise borrowing costs and signal they will keep rising. The euro
has strengthened almost 14 percent against the yen in the past
year as the rate differential between the two economies widened.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

JGBs fall on drop in Treasuries, rising Nikkei

(Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries slipped on Friday as strong data on labour
and manufacturing further reduced expectations that the Federal
Reserve might cut interest rates late this year, sending
benchmark 10-year yields to their highest levels in more than
nine months.




Stronger capital spending than expected by Japanese firms in
the first quarter, shown by data released earlier in the session,
also hurt the sentiment of the bond investors, worried that a
Bank of Japan rate hike could come as early as August.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Huan Hsin, Singapore Air, Wilmar, Yeo Hiap Seng: Singapore Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following shares may rise or fall
in Singapore. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are
from the previous market close.

The Straits Times Index added 1.1 percent to 3548.32. The
June futures contract gained 1.6 percent to 4339.1.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Abbott Laboratories, Belo, Hertz, Navteq, Wellman: U.S. Equity 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 June 1. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company
names.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT US): Shares of the drugmaker may
fall to $48 each as questions about the safety of its TriCor
cholesterol drug rise, Barron's said, without citing anyone.
Abbott stock fell 5 cents to $56.30. ``There is absolutely no
data to substantiate any change to the safety and efficacy of
TriCor,'' Laureen Cassidy, a spokeswoman for Abbott, told
Bloomberg News.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Hero Honda Motors, Proton, Yeo Hiap Seng: Asia Ex-Japan Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following stocks may rise or fall
in Asian markets, excluding Japan. This preview includes news
that broke after markets closed on June 1. Prices are from the
local market's last close. Stock symbols are in parentheses
after company names.

LG.Philips LCD Co. (034220 KS): The world's second-largest
maker of liquid-crystal displays said it abandoned plans to
build a production line to make screens for computer monitors
and laptops. The South Korean company will instead focus on
making larger-sized television screens. LG.Philips retreated
1,500 won, or 3.9 percent, to 36,950.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

UPDATE 1-Glaxo's Tykerb helps some breast cancer patients

(Reuters) - CHICAGO, June 3 - GlaxoSmithKline's new breast
cancer pill Tykerb might help prevent the growth of tumors in
some people with a hard-to-treat form of the disease, U.S.
researchers reported on Sunday.




The addition of Tykerb to standard chemotherapy treatment
failed to help most breast cancer patients, the researchers
told a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Gold May Climb as World's Central Banks Slow Sales This Year, Survey Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Gold may gain for a second straight
week on speculation central banks will slow sales of the metal.

Twenty-two of the 32 traders, investors and analysts
surveyed by Bloomberg from Sydney to Chicago on May 31 and June
1 advised buying gold, which rose $15.50, or 2.3 percent, to
$676.90 an ounce last week on the Comex division of the New York
Mercantile Exchange. Two said to sell and eight were neutral.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

No smoking gun yet in Conrad Black fraud trial

(Reuters) - But the prosecution, which wrapped up its case last week,
constructed a solid argument that Black and three co-defendants
at former Chicago-based media giant Hollinger International
Inc. committed a $60 million fraud and abused company perks.




"There were no smoking gun documents. But this is the case
they were dealt and I think the prosecution did a very good
job," said Hugh Totten, an attorney who handles white collar
criminal defense cases and has attended parts of the trial in
U.S. District Court.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

BA will have Iberia ownership guarantee -paper

(Reuters) - British Airways is thought to be keen to postpone a
potential takeover of Iberia while it restructures its own
business and completes its move into Heathrow's Terminal 5, the
paper said.




British Airways said it did not wish to comment.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News