PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Sept 30
Sept 30 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* The nation braced for a partial shutdown of the federal government, as time for Congress to pass a budget before a Monday midnight deadline grew perilously short and lawmakers gave no signs Sunday they were moving toward a resolution.()
* Obama administration officials, scrambling to get the health law's insurance marketplaces ready to open on Tuesday, keep hitting technical problems, while government-funded field workers across the country say they aren't fully prepared to help Americans enroll in the program. Implementation of the law is expected to proceed even if the government partially shuts down because Congress fails to pass the necessary spending bills. ()
* Twitter is planning to make public its secret filing for an initial public offering as soon as this week. That means the social media and microblogging company's stock could begin trading by late October or early November, if the offering moves at full speed. ()
* Household names such as Twitter, Hilton Worldwide and Chrysler have raised the star power of this fall's slate of initial public offerings, renewing market observers' hopes that blockbuster IPOs will draw individual investors back into the stock market. ()
* In the coming month, markets face four huge tests: the Washington debt crisis, the release of September employment data, third-quarter earnings releases and the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting. All four of these horsemen could disrupt investments and some could tank the market. Money managers hope all will be nonevents and stocks will finish the year higher. ()
* Satellite operator DirecTV has struck a deal with startup movie studio A24 Inc to partner with it in acquiring independent films in exchange for rights to offer them exclusively on its video-on-demand services 30 days before they hit theaters. ()
* Shell plans to sell its stake in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, following a $2 billion write-down of the company's North American assets. Shell's sale of leases on 106,000 acres in the oil-and-gas-rich region illustrates the struggles major oil companies have had in places where smaller energy firms have thrived. ()
* IBM agreed to settle allegations some company online job listings expressed a preference for foreign workers with temporary visas over U.S. citizens, the Justice Department said Friday. Under the terms of the settlement, IBM will pay $44,000 in civil penalties and revise its hiring and recruitment procedures to comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act. The company will also provide reports to the government for two years. ()
* A Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet operated by LOT Polish Airlines en route from Toronto to Warsaw landed in Iceland Sunday after Norway refused it entry because of the malfunction of a system that transmits airplane identification.
