My finance view

Market analysts and investors around the world remained on edge Sunday as Congress continued to work out a deal to avoid a U.S. debt default.

If there is no agreement to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and defuse the building financial crisis, analysts say they expect Monday to bring a steep slide in stocks across the globe.

In the U.S. that would add to six straight days of stock losses. The Dow fell 581, or 4 percent, in that time.

John Brady, a senior vice president for futures and options at MF Global predicts the Standard & Poor’s 500 index could fall another 7 percent on Monday if a deal falls apart. The S&P closed at 1,292 on Friday and was down 3.9 percent last week. A loss of the size Brady suggests could send the S&P down to 1,200, a level it hasn’t seen since last November.

The Treasury Department has said that after Tuesday the U.S. government won’t have enough money to meet all of its financial obligations if Congress does not raise the nation’s debt ceiling. If a deal is not reached, the Treasury Department will have to decide which bills to pay and which to delay. Among them: interest payments on bonds, salaries of federal employees, and Social Security payments to retirees. The Treasury Department has not indicated which payments will take priority if the debt ceiling is not raised.

Treasury bonds have long been considered the world’s safest investment and are a top holding of the largest pension funds in the U.S., the Chinese government and millions of Americans who own mutual funds.

Thomas Tzitzouris, head of fixed income research at Strategas Research Partners says to avoid a steep decline, the market needs to at least see some progress.

If not, he says: “That would be a double whammy. When (Congress says) there is progress and then there isn’t, that really spooks the market.”

That’s exactly what happened last week when a series of proposals gave investors fleeting hope for a deal. That is, until one party or the other shot them down. Nearly every measure of market confidence fell last week as Congress edged closer to Aug. 2 without a deal. The price of gold rose 2 percent for the week. The price of gold tends to rise when investors aren’t confident about other investments. A measure of stock market volatility, the VIX, jumped 6 percent.

On the other hand, if a deal is reached to raise the borrowing limit, MF Global’s Brady says the S&P 500 could add 6 percent.

“Stocks will rally, and stocks will rally big,” Brady said.

A deal would remove a major source of something investors hate most: Uncertainty. But there’s another reason the so-called deal rally might be a big one no credit check payday loans. Companies have reported strong earnings in recent days, but traders have been reluctant to buy stocks because they were afraid the debt wrangling in Washington might set off a financial crisis. In turn, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to its lowest level of the year on Friday, 2.80 percent. Treasury yields fall when demand for them goes up. Demand tends to rise when investors are reluctant to put money in stocks.

“If this issue can be taken out of the headlines and the focus on Washington can be redirected toward corporate earnings and economic fundamentals, the market will have removed a significant obstacle,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.

Even so, there are other problems suppressing investor enthusiasm. A report Friday said that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent between April and June. This year, the economy has grown as its slowest pace since the recession ended in June 2009 _ just 1.7 percent. A debt deal that significantly cuts short-term government spending could further weaken the economy, experts say.

Even with a deal to raise the borrowing limit and cut spending, analysts say companies won’t be ready to hire workers and invest in new projects until some other Washington issues are resolved, like the cost of health care legislation passed last year and financial reform legislation.

Analysts say that if a deal is ultimately reached before Aug. 2, investors will chalk up the market-rattling debt drama as another example of ultimately harmless Washington theatrics.

If the current deal falls apart, however, they say politicians will have done lasting damage to the nation’s credibility. Over time, this could make U.S. government debt less desirable to the worldwide market. That, in turn, could raise the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government.

Lawmakers expressed optimism that a deal could yet be reached Sunday. A number of other promising deals have fallen through in recent days. This has left some investors frustrated at Washington for adding to the economic uncertainty by failing to reach a deal before the deadline became so close at hand.

“This is the worst crisis I can remember and I’ve been in the markets for many of them,” said Uri Landesman, the president of Platinum Partners, a New York hedge fund. “There has been incredibly weak leadership all the way around.”

–Associated Press writer David Carpenter contributed to this report.

Source

The economy slowed in the first six months of 2011 to its weakest pace since the recession ended. High gas prices and scant income gains forced Americans to sharply pull back on spending.

The Commerce Department says the economy expanded only 1.3 percent in the April-June period. And it downwardly revised the January-March figures to show growth of just 0.4 percent, the weakest since the recession ended two years ago.

Consumer spending was almost flat this spring. It increased only 0.1 percent, after 2.1 percent growth in the winter. Spending on long-lasting manufactured goods, such as autos and appliances, fell 4.4 percent.

Government spending fell for the third straight quarter. And state and local governments cut spending for the seventh quarter in eight since the recession ended.

Source

Stocks gave up some of their gains Thursday as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on a bill to avoid a U.S. debt default. Indexes were still higher for the day following an unexpected decrease in unemployment claims.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose less than a point to 12,303 in afternoon trading. The index had been up as many 82 points earlier in the day. The Dow has fallen over the previous four days over worries that the U.S. might default on its debt as soon as next week if Congress doesn’t raise the country’s borrowing limit.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 4, or 0.3 percent, to 1,309. The Nasdaq composite index rose 13, or 0.4 percent, to 2,777.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote later Thursday on a new plan to avoid a default. Speaker John Boehner pleaded with fellow Republicans to support the proposal, which calls for cutting $900 billion from the deficit over the next decade.

The bill still faces opposition from Senate Democrats and the White House, but the vote could bring President Barack Obama and Congress a step closer to resolving the standoff. The Treasury Department says the government won’t have enough money to cover all its bills after next Tuesday.

Even if the U.S. doesn’t default, investors worry that the country might lose its triple-A credit rating. That could raise interest rates and possibly slow down the U.S. economy, which is still recovering from the worst recession in decades.

“We’re running out of time,” said Phil Dow, director of equity strategy at RBC Wealth Management in Minneapolis. “It’s getting scary.”

Markets were far less volatile than Wednesday, when the Dow had its biggest one-day drop since early June.

One reason for the optimism: The government said first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell to 398,000 last week, the lowest level in four months instant payday loan lenders. That’s a sign that employers are laying off fewer workers.

The price of gold, which tends to rise when investors are fearful of economic disruptions, fell $1.70 to $1,613.40 an ounce. It’s still up 13.4 percent this year. The dollar rose against other currencies, as did Treasury prices. The dollar and Treasurys would likely fall if investors were worries that a default was imminent.

Utility and telecommunications stocks fell the most in the S&P 500 index. That suggested investors were becoming more comfortable taking on risk since those stocks tend to be less volatile than the rest of the market.

Technology stocks rose. LSI Corp., which makes storage and networking chips, forecast revenues that were higher than investors were expecting. Its stock gained 13.7 percent, the most in the S&P 500.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. rose 2.2 percent after the drugmaker reported earnings that were better than analysts anticipated. The company also raised its earnings forecast for 2011. Exxon Mobil Corp. fell 1.8 percent, the most of the 30 companies that make up the Dow average, after its earnings came in below analysts’ estimates.

Other earnings results were mixed. DuPont Co. rose 0.8 percent after the chemical maker said its earnings increased 5 percent on higher revenue. The company also raised its earnings outlook for the year.

Akamai Technologies Inc. fell 19.1 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index, after the online streaming company’s earnings were lower than analysts had expected. Sprint Nextel Corp. fell 15.9 percent. The nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier said its loss widened in the second quarter, in part, because of a tax expense and investment losses.

Source

Moody’s downgraded Cyprus’ credit rating by two notches over concerns about the economic toll of a deadly blast that took out the island nation’s main power station.

As well as cutting its rating on Cyprus from A2 to Baa1, the credit rating agency also slapped a negative outlook on the country Wednesday, meaning that another downgrade may be in the offing.

Moody’s said the destruction of the Vasilikos power plant as a result of a July 11 blast at a nearby naval base has amplified concerns about the fiscal situation in Cyprus, which began using the euro currency in 2008.

As well as killing 13 people, the blast has led to rolling, two-hour power cuts to cope with demand.

“This incident has caused material disruption to the Cypriot medium-term economic and fiscal position,” Moody’s said, adding that it has reduced its growth forecasts for Cyprus to zero percent and one percent in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Before the blast, the European Commission projected Cyprus’ economy to grow by 1.5 percent this year and 2.4 percent in 2012.

Moody’s also said that an “increasingly fractious political climate” in the wake of the blast raises the risk that planned economic reforms may be watered down or delayed.

Public anger at the government over the blast of dozens of seized containers filled with Iranian munitions has yet to subside. Thousands continue to protest outside the presidential palace, accusing the government of negligence and calling on President Dimitris Christofias to quit.

Some 98 containers, most of them filled with gunpowder, were left stacked in an open field since being seized from a Cypriot-flagged ship in 2009 that the U.N. said breached a ban on Iranian arms exports.

The Cyprus government and opposition leaders agreed last week to cuts cost to buoy the economy in the wake of the blast.

But there is still disagreement on how deep cost cuts should go, especially to the public payroll that takes up about a third of the island’s euro8 billion ($11.58 billion) budget.

Cyprus’ top banker last week warned that the blast may force Cyprus to seek a bailout if deep spending cuts aren’t swiftly made.

Cyprus has pledged to the EU to cut its fiscal deficit which now stands at 5.3 percent to 3 percent of GDP by next year.

Moody’s also said there is a material risk that the Cypriot government may need to prop up some of the island’s banks over the next few years because of their heavy exposure to bailed-out Greece.

“Therefore, a period of prolonged macroeconomic stress would increase the likelihood that these contingent liabilities will crystalize on the Cypriot government’s balance sheet,” said Moody’s.

Moody’s also pointed to the Cypriot banking sector’s large size relative to the economy, as domestic bank assets total 600 percent of the island’s euro17.4 billion ($25.18 billion) gross domestic product. Around 40 percent of the total loans of the island’s three largest domestic banks are to customers based in Greece.

However, Cypriot banks should remain well capitalized over the short term after strengthening their capital reserves over last year.

The agency said it would consider upgrading Cyprus’ credit rating if the government moves ahead with large scale structural reforms. But it warned of additional downgrades if those reforms are watered down or significantly delayed.

Credit rating agencies Fitch and Standard and Poor’s have also downgraded Cyprus in recent months, mainly because of the island’s Greek exposure.

Source

Ralcorp Holdings makes some of the most tame-sounding brands in the cereal aisle, from Shredded Wheat to Bran Flakes. And it often flies under the radar, with most of the pasta, cereal and crackers it produces sold at grocery stores under store-brand labels.

Ralcorp doesn’t even hold conference calls with analysts when it announces quarterly earnings, a practice mostly unheard of among public companies.

But lately, the company, headquartered at 800 Market Street in downtown St. Louis, has been anything but boring. Great change is afoot for its 9,000 employees, of which about 300 work downtown.

ConAgra Foods’ unsolicited bids to buy Ralcorp has set off a chain of events that ensures one of St. Louis’ largest publicly held companies will no longer look like it does today.

Within the past week and a half, several new scenarios have emerged for Ralcorp. As a defensive move, the company said it’s planning to spin off its Post Foods cereal business unit as a standalone company, with Ralcorp’s chairman, Bill Stiritz, taking over as chairman of Post Foods.

Most analysts don’t see the strategy as a plan to stop ConAgra’s bid for Ralcorp, with more than $4 billion in sales last year. Instead, the move is being viewed by some as a crafty way for Ralcorp’s board to elicit the most value for its shares.

Should the Post spinoff happen, that would likely mean the end of St. Louis as the hub of decision making for a portfolio of some of the country’s most recognizable cereal brands, which also includes Honey Bunches of Oats, Grape-Nuts, Raisin Bran, Golden Crisp, Honey-Comb, Alpha-Bits, Pebbles and Waffle Crisp.

Post Foods’ divisional headquarters is in Parsippany, N.J. The spinoff would result in Post Foods emerging as a new publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Unwelcome suitor

ConAgra first offered to buy Ralcorp in March, and in May sweetened its bid to $86 a share, or $4.9 billion.

Ralcorp’s board of directors rejected both of ConAgra’s offers, but the rejections haven’t dampened ConAgra’s appetite for Ralcorp.

When Ralcorp announced its Post Foods spinoff plans on July 14, ConAgra released a statement the same day saying its bid to buy all of Ralcorp remains in the best interests of Ralcorp’s shareholders. Neither ConAgra or Ralcorp made executives available to comment for this story.

ConAgra’s executives have indicated they are most interested in adding Ralcorp’s private-label cereal, pasta, crackers and other foods that are sold under store names. Private- label products accounted for three-fourths, or $3.5 billion, of Ralcorp’s sales for the 12 months that ended March 31.

“In light of the current economic environment - where high gas prices, anemic wage growth, and elevated unemployment levels are weighing on an already fragile consumer - we still think that by extending its offerings beyond its lackluster brand portfolio, ConAgra may be able to benefit as consumers opt for lower priced products and retailers increasingly tout value offerings,” Morningstar analyst Erin Lash wrote in an investors’ note July 15, referring to the appeal of Ralcorp’s private-label products.

Ralcorp’s roots in St. Louis date to 1894 when William Danforth founded the Robinson-Danforth Commission Co., which made animal feed. The company later added breakfast cereals, and in 1902 changed its name to Ralston Purina. In 1994, Ralston Purina spun off its cereal business and a few other businesses outside of pet food, and Ralcorp was formed.

Ralcorp acquired Post Foods from Kraft in 2008 for $2.7 billion. Through its Post Foods division and private-label offerings, Ralcorp has grown to become the third-largest maker of cereal nationwide in the ready-to-eat category, behind Kellogg and General Mills.

By spinning off its Post business, Ralcorp could prompt other parties to make a competing offer for all or part of Ralcorp, analyst Alexia Howard of Sanford C. Bernstein wrote in a note to investors July 20.

“We now believe that Ralcorp may be prepared to sell if a sufficiently high price is offered for either the whole company or its components,” Howard wrote in the note.

Separately, The Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom reported last week that Lion Capital LLP, a London-based private equity firm, plans to offer $1.5 billion for Post Foods.

Lion Capital already owns Weetabix, the second-largest maker of cereals and cereal bars in the U.K. Post Foods recently added Pebbles Treats, its first foray outside of the ready-to-eat cereal category, which would complement Weetabix’s cereal bar offerings.

Still, ConAgra might not choose to patiently wait for Post to be spun off.

Christopher Growe, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, wrote in a research note July 15 that he expects ConAgra to increase its price per share bid to the mid-to-upper $90s.

Last week, Ralcorp’s shares hovered above $86, closing Friday at $87.92 a share.

“Could it wait until the breakup occurs and just go after the private- label business?” Growe wrote in his note. “Sure. However, we believe the company would be better suited to purchase the whole Ralcorp.”

Still, the surprise twists and turns taken in the past few months mean Ralcorp’s future path won’t be decided any time soon, according to Morningstar’s Lash.

“This saga has been ongoing for the past several months and it might continue for some time, in our view,” she wrote in the note.

Source

Days after its largest shareholder demanded E-Trade Financial Corp. let shareholders consider proposals including the hiring of new financial advisers to explore options such as selling the company, the online brokerage said Friday that it is bringing in Morgan Stanley & Co. to review its strategic opportunities.

In a Wednesday letter to E-Trade that was disclosed in a regulatory filing, hedge fund Citadel LLC said that mismanagement by the company’s board and executives caused it to lose money every year since 2006, extinguishing shareholder value and wasting growth opportunities. Citadel demanded the company hold a special shareholder meeting to consider proposals to remove directors Michael Parks and Donna Weaver, change how it elects directors and explore strategic alternatives, including selling the company.

E-Trade said Friday that it created a special board committee composed of independent directors that instructed the company hire Morgan Stanley & Co. to perform a strategic alternatives review. Morgan Stanley will share its findings with the board’s finance and risk oversight committee, whose members include Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin, and that committee will give E-Trade’s board a recommendation, the company said quick pay day loan.

E-Trade pointed out that the company hired J.P. Morgan Securities LLC to go over its strategic alternatives in the fourth quarter of last year. After this review, the board decided that selling the company then would not increase shareholder value, E-Trade said.

In a statement, E-Trade said it feels it “has already addressed the substance of Citadel’s proposals,” and that it is not in its shareholders’ best interest to hold a special meeting. The company also said called Citadel’s proposal to consider removing two directors “inappropriate” and said it violates the law in Delaware, where E-Trade was incorporated.

Citadel, which rescued the online brokerage four years earlier with a $2.5 billion investment, currently owns about 9.8 percent of E-Trade’s common shares _ about half the amount it owned at the beginning of the year. In April, it sold 27.5 million shares and converted separate investments into 31.4 million new shares.

E-Trade shares rose 67 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $16.31 in extended trading. The stock finished regular trading up 20 cents at $15.64.

Source

Missouri’s delicate compromise on economic development incentives got a boost Thursday when Gov. Jay Nixon said he endorsed many of its key elements.

From cargo hub tax credits to a new fund for high-tech startups, Nixon echoed many of the priorities laid out by House and Senate leaders in tax credit legislation they unveiled Wednesday. He called the deal

Stocks were mixed in early trading Wednesday, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average had its biggest gain this year, as traders weighed strong earnings from Apple and a slew of new deals.

Apple Inc. rose 3 percent after the company’s income doubled last quarter, trumping analysts’ estimates, as sales of the company’s iPhones quadrupled in Asia.

American Airlines’ parent company, AMR Corp., rose 2.4 percent after announcing an order for 460 planes from Boeing and Airbus. The new planes are expected to save money on fuel. Rising fuel prices left the airline with a loss of 85 cents a share, larger than analysts expected. The airline also said it would spin off its American Eagle subsidiary.

United Technologies Corp.’s dropped 2 percent in early trading, tugging down the Dow Jones industrial average. Cleaning and pest-control services company Ecolab Inc. said it would buy the water treatment company Nalco Holding Co faxless cash advance. for $5.4 billion. Nalco soared 25 percent while Ecolab dropped more than 7 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 23 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,563 in early trading. The S&P 500 index is up less than 1 point to 1,327. The Nasdaq is down 5 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,820.

Stronger profits from Coca-Cola Co. and IBM Corp. along with apparent progress in raising the U.S. debt limit prompted a stock market rally Tuesday. The Dow gained 202 points, its best day this year.

Tuesday’s rally turned the three major indexes positive for the month. The Dow and Nasdaq are now up more than 1 percent in July. The S&P 500 is up 0.5 percent.

Intel Corp. and American Express Co. are scheduled to report earnings after the market closes.

Source

MONTREAL

London police arrested Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch’s former British CEO, in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal Sunday, bringing the U.K. investigation into Murdoch’s inner circle for the first time.

Brooks, 43, was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday. The former editor of Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications _ phone hacking _ and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information.

A statement released on Brooks’ behalf said she “voluntarily attended a London police station to assist with their ongoing investigation.”

Sunday’s arrest comes just days before Brooks, Murdoch and his son James are due to be grilled by a U.K. parliamentary committee investigating the hacking. The arrest throws Brooks’ appearance before Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport committee into question; she would not have to answer questions that could prejudice a criminal investigation.

Brook’s spokesman, David Wilson, said Sunday’s appointment with police was prearranged on Friday but said she was not aware she was going to be arrested.

“Obviously this complicates matter greatly,” Wilson said. “Her legal team will have to have discussions with the committee to see whether it would still be appropriate for her to attend.”

Brooks, one of Murdoch’s most loyal lieutenants, stepped down Friday as head of his British newspaper arm, News International. She was editor of the now-defunct News of the World between 2000 and 2003 when some of the phone hacking took place, but has always said she did not know that hacking was going on. That claim has been greeted with skepticism by many who worked there.

At an appearance before lawmakers in 2003, Brooks admitted that News International had paid police for information _ an admission of possible illegal activity that went largely unchallenged at the time.

Police have already arrested nine other people connected to Murdoch’s British media empire over allegations that the News of the World hacked into the phone voice mails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, rival journalists and even murder victims. No one has yet been charged.

The arrest also piles more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron, a friend and neighbor of Brooks, who has met with her many times and invited her to stay at his official country retreat.

Cameron is already under fire for hiring Andy Coulson, who resigned as News of the World editor after two employees were jailed for corruption in 2007, as his communications chief. Coulson resigned from Downing Street in January after police reopened their hacking investigation. He was arrested last week and questioned before being released on bail.

Brooks’ arrest is another blow for Murdoch, who is struggling to tame a scandal that has already destroyed one of his British newspapers, cost the jobs of two of his senior executives and sunk his dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.

On Sunday, Murdoch took out a second newspaper ad promising that News Corp. will make amends for the phone hacking scandal. The ad in several U.K. Sunday newspapers, titled “Putting right what’s gone wrong,” said News Corp. would assist the British police investigations into phone hacking and police bribery. It vowed there would be “be no place to hide” for wrongdoers.

“It may take some time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners,” the ad said.

That follows a full-page Murdoch ad in Saturday’s U.K. papers declaring, “We are sorry.”

Last week Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World after it was accused of eavesdropping on cell phones for years. Sunday was the first day in Britain that the popular, gossipy, muckraking weekly was not on the newsstands.

Murdoch also abandoned his BSkyB takeover bid, and two of his senior executives resigned _ Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton.

But Murdoch’s critics say that is not enough. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said Sunday that Murdoch has “too much power” in Britain and his share of British media ownership should be reduced. With the News of the World gone, Murdoch now owns three national British newspapers _ The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times _ and a 39-percent share of BSkyB.

“I think that we’ve got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 percent of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News,” Miliband told The Observer newspaper.

“I think it’s unhealthy because that amount of power in one person’s hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organization. If you want to minimize the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous,” he said.

Deputy prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed there should be greater plurality in the British media.

“A healthy press is a diverse one, where you’ve got lots of different organizations competing, and that’s exactly what we need,” Clegg told the BBC.

Clegg’s Liberal Democrat party has asked Britain’s broadcast regulator to consider whether News Corp. is a “fit and proper” owner of BSkyB _ if not, Murdoch’s current stake in BskyB could be in danger.

Cameron’s Conservative-led government and the London police also are facing increasing questions about their close relationship with Murdoch’s media empire.

Cameron has held 26 meetings with Murdoch executives since he was elected in May 2010 and invited several to his country retreat. Senior police officers also had close ties to Murdoch executives, even hiring as a consultant a former News of the World editor who has since been arrested for alleged hacking.

Home Secretary Theresa May plans to make a statement Monday in the House of Commons outlining her “concerns” about close police ties with News International.

Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year and now say they have the names of 3,700 potential victims.

Records show that senior officers _ including Paul Stephenson, the current chief of London’s Metropolitan Police _ have had numerous meals and meetings with News International executives in the past few years. The force also hired Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor arrested last week in the phone hacking, as a part-time PR consultant for a year until September 2010.

Stephenson also stayed for free earlier this year at a health resort that employed Wallis to do its public relations. The police force said the stay had been arranged through the facility’s managing director, a family friend, as Stephenson recovered from surgery. It said the police chief had not known that Wallis worked there.

Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from further spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets _ including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post _ are based.

The FBI has already opened an inquiry into whether 9/11 victims or their families were also hacking targets of News Corp. journalists.

Source