Harold Maass of The Week The Best of Today's Business

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Euronext shareholders pick a suitor

Euronext shareholders this morning rebuffed a proposal to merge with Deutsche Boerse, strengthening a rival bid from the New York Stock Exchange. (Reuters) Euronext executives had thrown their weight behind the NYSE proposal, despite Deutsche Boerse's insistence that it was offering the better deal. A merger between either bidder and Euronext -- which runs exchanges in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Lisbon -- would create a trading colossus, and fuel pressure on other exchanges to expand. "Everyone's in this feeding frenzy," said Peter Kann, a floor trader with Calyon Securities and NYSE Group shareholder. (Bloomberg)

Fannie Mae coughs up

Fannie Mae is expected to pay a fine of more than $400 million to settle claims that it tweaked its earnings in the 1990s so executives would get bigger bonuses. The deal with federal regulators -- scheduled to be announced today -- could help the mortgage giant move beyond an $11 billion accounting scandal that led to the departure of two top executives in 2004. (The New York Times, free registration required) A scathing new report by regulators says that Fannie Mae "deliberately and intentionally" put off accounting for $200 million in expenses so that executives would qualify for $27 million in bonuses. (AP in Yahoo! Finance)

Google woos TV advertisers

Google today is introducing a system for advertisers who want to put TV-style commercials on the Web. The ads will appear as a static picture. The video will only run -- and advertisers will only pay -- when a user clicks on the ad box. Entertainment studios have already tested the service with trailers for new movies, TV shows, and DVD releases. (Los Angeles Times, free registration required) "We will see an acceleration of video advertising from here," said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence, as rivals such as Yahoo! and AOL respond with their own efforts to boost the appeal of online ads. (Reuters)

Stocks keep struggling

European stocks rebounded this morning from their worst plunge in three years (Bloomberg), but Asian markets remained stuck in a downward slide. (MarketWatch.com) Emerging-market stocks were slammed in a global sell-off on Monday, as investors sought safe havens amid fears that rising interest rates could choke U.S. consumption and shake the world economy. Russian stocks fell 9 percent. Brazil's main index dropped 3.3 percent. In India -- where the market fell by 10 percent before climbing partially back -- authorities feared that traders and investors would commit suicide. Analysts said not to panic. Volatile foreign markets had been rising at an unsustainable pace, one said, and the sell-off was a much needed "bucket of cold water." (Los Angeles Times, free registration required)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

You were warned

"The storm that has lately hit stocks around the world didn't come out of a clear blue sky," says Chet Currier in Bloomberg.com. U.S. investors have been pouring billions into foreign stocks for months. The flood of money and the surge in commodity prices were clear signs of "increasing turbulence" ahead.

Don't worry, says Roben Farzad in BusinessWeek Online. This is "an overdue correction," not a crash. Places like India and Brazil had skyrocketed to "giddy new highs" as foreign investors flooded in. The recent plunge may come as a "rude shock for the Johnny-come-lately investor" who just rushed in to grab a piece of the huge gains. But many analysts remain confident that emerging markets are a solid long-term investment.

GOOD DAY FOR: Office morale, as 80 percent of American workers say there is little or no chance they will lose their jobs this year, according to a survey by Right Management. (USA Today)

BAD DAY FOR: Futures markets, after eBay yanked an ad posted by a Wall Street lawyer, Thaddeus Wojcik, who wanted to sell his future Social Security checks for $200,000. A Social Security Administration spokesman said Wojcik was "trying to sell something he can't deliver," as benefits can't be transferred to anyone outside his immediate family. (New York Post)

NOTED: The average American ate 203 restaurant meals in 2005, just shy of the peak of 211 in 2000. Take-out was king. Only 39 percent of the meals were eaten in restaurant dining rooms, down from 53 percent in 1985. (Chicago Tribune)