Detroit bankruptcy judge opens court to critics

DETROIT -- Dozens of people are being given five minutes each to object to Detroit's plan to get out of bankruptcy.

Judge Steven Rhodes says approximately 600 people without attorneys have filed objections. Roughly 80 will be given a chance to speak during morning and afternoon sessions Tuesday in federal court.

The judge held a similar hearing last fall on Detroit's eligibility to file for bankruptcy.

Rhodes will hold a trial on Detroit's bankruptcy strategy, starting Aug. 14. He must find that the exit plan is fair and feasible, among other things, in order for the city to shed billions of dollars in debt.

Voting by creditors ended last Friday. Those results will be released next Monday.

Albemarle buying Rockwood in $6.2B deal

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Specialty chemicals company Albemarle is buying counterpart Rockwood Holdings Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $6.2 billion.

Rockwood shareholders will receive $50.65 in cash and 0.4803 of a share of Albemarle common stock for each share they own. The deal values Rockwood at $85.53 per share.

Albemarle Corp. shareholders will own approximately 70 percent of the combined business, with Rockwood stockholders owning the remaining 30 percent.

Albemarle, based in Baton Rouge, said Tuesday that it expects about $100 million in annual cost savings by 2016.

The boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is targeted to close in the first quarter of next year. It still needs shareholder approval.

Rockwood is based in Princeton, New Jersey.

German investor confidence in 7th straight fall

BERLIN -- A survey shows that German investor confidence fell for the seventh consecutive month in July, in another indication that Europe's biggest economy may be coming off the boil.

The ZEW institute said Tuesday that its monthly confidence index, which measures investors' economic outlook for the next six months, fell to 27.1 points from 29.8 in June. That was a steeper fall than economists predicted.

ZEW president Clemens Fuest said recent data had a sobering effect but that "the medium-term economic outlook remains favorable."

Germany's economy grew a robust 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period, but recent data have fuelled expectations of slower second-quarter growth. Factory orders and industrial production in May were below expectations amid slowing growth in China and tensions over Ukraine.

Israel warplanes hit Syria's Golan, killing four

Israel warplanes hit Syria's Golan, killing four

Israeli warplanes strike three administrative and military targets in Syria's Golan, killing two security guards and...

Future MP: Hezbollah dragged Lebanon in Syria “furnace”

BEIRUT: Future Bloc MP Issam Araji reiterated Tuesday his party’s accusations that Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria had drawn Lebanon into the open-ended “furnace" of the raging conflict next door, in allusion to recent battles in the border Qalamoun area.

Araji told Future’s Radio Asharq that “when Hezbollah entered Syria, they brought upon themselves a big problem and dragged the country to battles which we did not need.”

“In other words, Hezbollah should have stayed away from the Syrian war, because its mere involvement and that of other groups, whether on the regime’s side or with the opposition, amounts to a blunt provocation for the Syrian people,” Araji added.

Araji was commenting on weekend battles in the Qalamoun area on the Lebanese-Syrian border in which at least seven Hezbollah fighters were killed in an attempt to root out Syrian rebels.

Araji said despite previous claims of victory, the Lebanese Shiite party and Syrian regimes forces had not been able to smoke out rebel fighters from their last strongholds in the rugged mountainous region.

“The renewal of battles (in Qalamoun) shows clearly that Hezbollah and Syrian regime forces do not fully control the area and that the Syrian opposition is intent on regaining dominance in order to cut off the supply route for the regime,” Araji noted.

He charged that extremist Al-Qaeda-linked groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria were targeting Lebanon under the excuse that Hezbollah members were fighting in Syria.

According to a high-level source speaking to the Daily Star on condition of anonymity, Hezbollah started mobilizing more than 200 fighters along with medium and heavy weaponry about a week ago in a bid to eliminate pockets of resistance in the area.

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Stocks move higher on earnings, acquisition news

NEW YORK -- Stocks shook off last week's doldrums and finished sharply higher Monday, driven by a round of corporate deal news and strong earnings from Citigroup.

Investors cheered AECOM Technology's $4 billion acquisition of engineering and construction services company URS Corp., sending URS' stock up 11.6 percent and AECOM 8.6 percent.

Citigroup rose 3 percent after the bank turned in better-than-expected results and disclosed it has agreed to pay $7 billion to settle a federal probe into its mortgage securities business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs, due to report earnings Tuesday, also got a lift.

All told, the three major stock indexes notched their second gain in two days. That's a turnaround from last week, when the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.9 percent, its worst showing since April.

Concern about Portugal's Espirito Santo International, which reportedly missed a debt payment last week, harked back to issues that spawned Europe's debt crisis.

On Monday, investors appeared to be reassured any problems would be contained.

"Investors are saying if this Portugal thing really isn't significant from an impact standpoint, and the earnings are coming in good ... stocks ought to be going higher," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investments.

The major indexes rose in premarket trading as investors digested Citigroup's earnings. They opened in the green and held steady through the entire session.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.53 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,977.10. The index is down 0.4 percent from its most recent all-time high of 1,985.44 set July 3.

Nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 rose, led by energy stocks. Utilities fell the most.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 111.61 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,055.42. The Dow is down slightly from its July 3 record of 17,068.65.

The Nasdaq composite gained 24.93 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,440.42.

The three stock indexes are all up for the year.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.54 percent from 2.52 percent late Friday.

With the market trading near all-time highs, investors will be focused this week on a large number of corporate earnings, including quarterly reports from General Electric, Google, Bank of America and Johnson & Johnson.

So far investors like what they see.

"We got started off with a very good report out of Citibank this morning," Orlando said. "And economic news this week — retail sales, capacity utilization, housing data, confidence data — is all supposed to be pretty good."

Citigroup rose $1.42, or 3 percent, to $48.42.

Several other big investment banks also rose. Morgan Stanley added 40 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $31.81, while Goldman Sachs rose $2.20, or 1.3 percent, to $167. JPMorgan Chase climbed 49 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $56.29.

Recent data point to an improving U.S. economy after a slow start this year.

Employers added 288,000 jobs last month, the fifth straight month of gains above 200,000. And the national unemployment rate slid to 6.1 percent, a 5 1/2-year low.

More people with jobs means more paychecks, which could boost consumer spending and growth.

"You're starting to stack up some fairly impressive jobs numbers," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co. "There's a lot of momentum to this market."

That momentum is helping drive corporate deals. On Monday, generic drugmaker Mylan said it agreed to buy Abbott Laboratories' generic-drug business in developed markets for $5.3 billion. Mylan's stock added $1.04, or 2.1 percent, to $51.24, while shares of Abbott gained 52 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $41.82.

Meanwhile, Kindred Healthcare said it would pay $16 per share to buy up to a 14.9 percent stake in Gentiva Health Services. That's just short of the 15 percent limit imposed by a shareholder rights plan that Gentiva's board adopted earlier this year. Kindred climbed 36 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $24.74, while Gentiva gained 39 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $16.21.

In other deal news, Kodiak Oil & Gas agreed to sell itself to Whiting Petroleum in an all-stock deal. Kodiak rose 68 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $14.91. Whiting jumped $6.04, or 7.7 percent, to $84.58.

Alcoa signs $1.1B deal to make jet engine parts

NEW YORK -- Alcoa on Monday signed a $1.1 billion deal to make jet engine parts for a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Alcoa said it will provide the first aluminum fan blade for jet engines, designed to reduce weight and boost fuel efficiency.

Alcoa mines and refines aluminum, but with low aluminum prices, it has increasingly shifted into making parts for aerospace, autos and other industries using aluminum, titanium and nickel.

Last month, the Pittsburgh-based aluminum company said it planned to spend nearly $3 billion to buy British jet engine component company Firth Rixson.

The 10-year deal with Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies, was signed at the Farnborough Air Show in England.

Shares of Alcoa Inc. rose 13 cents to $16.11 in afternoon trading. Earlier its shares rose as high as $16.25, their highest point since July 2011. Shares of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies, which makes elevators, helicopters and jet engines, rose 73 cents to $114.86.