US stocks drop
New York: U.S. stocks fell on uncertainties about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates as economic growth shows signs of decelerating. Leading economic indicators showed that U.S. economic growth was slowing down.
Analysts said there would be selling seen in companies vulnerable to economic cycles and consumer spending, such as retailers, materials and technology stocks.

The largest U.S. homefurnishings retailer, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. was among the Nasdaq's biggest losers after Bear Stearns downgraded the stock, citing lower-than-expected earnings.

Dow index stock Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific Corp fell on a report questioning the safety of some stents.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 60.35 points, or 0.54 percent, to end at 11,019.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 6.60 points, or 0.53 percent, to finish at 1,245.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 18.22 points, or 0.85 percent, to close at 2,122.98.

Qualcomm Inc was down 6.4 percent, or $2.82, at $41.38 after Nokia the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said it would stop making phones based on CDMA, a cell phone standard developed by Qualcomm.

A positive report by Oracle Corp. after the closing bell is expected to help support the Nasdaq on Friday. Trading was moderate on the NYSE, with about 1.46 billion shares changing hands, below last year's daily average of 1.61 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 1.71 billion shares traded, below last year's daily average of 1.80 billion.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of about 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by 17 to 12 on Nasdaq.
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Arcelor investors turn to court
Luxembourg: Though European steelmaker Arcelor said it expected to double in size by 2012 once it merges with Russia's Severstal several of the European company's investors have gone to the courts against the deal. Arcelor, which is seeking to fend off a 23.8 billion euro bid from Mittal Steel also told its doubtful investors it would be 'aggressively pursuing' a series of focused consolidation moves to become the world's biggest steelmaker.

Arcelor's board is due to meet on Sunday to decide on the latest proposals by Mittal and by Severstal, which raised its offer this week. However, a group of Arcelor shareholders on Thursday asked a Luxembourg court for an injunction to halt a meeting at which shareholders are due to vote on the Severstal merger, saying they had been denied a fair say on the deal.

A lawyer for the Association of the Defence of Minority Shareholders, representing 2.7 percent of Arcelor's capital, told the court the voting arrangements were 'a blunt violation of corporate law'.

To halt the deal, 50 percent of Arcelor's capital would have to vote against it. The shareholder group has said the voting procedure is skewed towards those pushing for the deal. Arcelor's lawyers said the company was under no legal obligation to call a shareholders meeting in the first place and attacked the association as protecting hedge funds, rather than minority shareholders.

A decision on whether to delay the meeting is due on June 29, a day before the meeting is scheduled.
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Price fixing: Airlines in the dock
Competition authorities in Britain and the US have initiated investigations into a series of fuel surcharges imposed by BA, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United Airlines.

BA appears to be the focus of the investigation and could face fines of up to £850 million and an investigation into the activities of senior executives on allegations of price-fixing on flights. BA announced yesterday that it had given "leave of absence" to its commercial director, Martin George, and its head of communications, Iain Burns.

BA has been in the dock for hiking its surcharge on longhaul return flights six times in the past two years. It raises the surcharge to £70 in April, shortly before it announced that annual profits had risen 21 per cent to £620 million. Virgin also increased its surcharge by exactly the same amount as BA and on the same day. On two other occasions, the airlines matched each other's surcharges within 48 hours. United and American have also kept track with BA and Virgin's surcharges.

Under an international agreement, the four companies are the only ones allowed to fly between Heathrow and US airports.
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