Quote of the Day

"What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." --Bob Dylan


Morning News of Note:

• GM: G.M. to Offer Big Discounts Just for June General Motors will announce a major sales promotion for June that will offer customers the same discounts as G.M. employees for most of the company's 2005 model cars and trucks, people with knowledge of the plan said. The strategy is expected to be announced on Wednesday along with sales results for May. It could lead to hundreds or thousands of dollars of additional discounts on some vehicles. (Full Story) NY Times
• Rising Rates: As Rates Rise, Winners and Losers Emerge THE HIGH-PROFILE GURUS who are the public faces of Wall Street's top investment banks apparently agree on one thing: The Federal Reserve will continue to raise short-term interest rates for the foreseeable future. Several strategists interviewed by Barron's Online say they expect the Fed to continue making regular 0.25% hikes in the federal funds rate at least through its November meeting. At that time, they expect short-term rates to sit at 4%, up from the current 3%. Some think Greenspan & Co. will stop there. On Tuesday, futures markets were pricing in a fed funds rate of 3.5% to 3.75% by the end of the year. (Full Story) BARRONS
• SBC: SBC Cuts High-Speed Internet Price 25% to Add New Customers SBC Communications Inc., the largest U.S. provider of high-speed Internet access on digital subscriber lines, cut the price for its standard DSL service by 25 percent to add more customers. SBC, the second-largest U.S. telephone company, lowered the price for DSL service with a maximum download speed of 1.5 megabits per second to $14.95 from $19.95, the San Antonio-based company said in a statement. Atlanta- based BellSouth Corp.'s comparable DSL service sells for as little as $32.95. (Full Story) Bloomberg
• China Cell Phones: China Spurns Homegrown Phones As Cellular Market Grows, Western Firms Get Most of the Profit The Chinese cell phone market is growing like gangbusters and boasts an impressive 330 million subscribers. Mobile-phone sales are expected to rise 11 percent this year, and Western phone giants such as Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. are ringing up profits from the boom. So why are China's own cell phone makers floundering? (Full Story) Washington Post

Market Commentary: The market is up big this morning after Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher made comments on CNBC that the "Fed is in the 8th inning" of this current rate hike cycle. That means they could be done raising rates sooner than most strategists anticipate. The bond market also rallied big on the news, sending the 10-year Treasury yield below 3.90%.