Posted by Katharine Crnko
For Marketplace Morning Report, Wednesday May 18, 2011
Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.
Senate Democrats want the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the oil industry is fixing gas prices. Here‘s Marketplace’s coverage.
With interest rates set to rise once the Federal Reserve ends its easy monetary policy, companies are racing to borrow money in the corporate bond market. Here‘s Marketplace’s coverage.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that the International Monetary Fund needs to find an interim replacement for Dominique Strauss-Kahn. While developing countries are pushing to break from the traditional European leadership, many consider France’s Christine Lagarde the best choice. Here‘s Marketplace’s coverage.
Citizens of South Africa are voting today in local elections. These elections are expected to come down over issues of poverty, and not the traditional issue of race. Here‘s Marketplace’s coverage.
General Mills has signed a deal to acquire 51 percent of dairy products maker Yoplait. The deal cost General Mills $1.15 billion.
Target’s earnings were helped by strength in its credit card business, which offset weak sales at its retail operations.
Earnings at Deere, the world’s No. 1 maker of farm equipment, were helped by strong overseas sales, thanks to a weaker U.S. dollar.
Today is the 20th annual pickle eating contest at the Carnegie Deli in New York. Ten contestants will try to chow down on as many pickles as they can in a five minute window. The record currently stands at 3.8 pounds of pickles consumed. The head of the Pickle company that sponsors the contest says it’s absolutely nauseating to watch.
In eastern China, there’s a big problem with exploding watermelons. Over recent weeks, nearly two-dozen farmers used a growth accelerator for their fruit. But state media says the product is safe, but overused. And combined with recent wet weather, caused the melons to burst. While the farmers can’t make any money at the market with chunks of exploding fruit, they are using the pieces to feed their fish and pigs.
You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.
Here are the songs we played:
- Class System — Handsome Boy Modeling SchoolBuy
- Parentheses — The BlowBuy
- Sleep on It Tonight — MorcheebaBuy
- The Devil, You + Me — NotwistBuy
- Cornflake Girl — Tori AmosBuy
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