PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 5

Nov 5 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. * A key Senate lawmaker is shaping a bill that would shift almost all bank-supervision powers from existing agencies to a new one in charge of even the most complex institutions. * The Senate passed a bill giving tax breaks to big companies hit by the recession, while raising other corporate taxes, particularly for multinationals. * Incentive pay on Wall Street is set to rise by about 40 percent as stronger financial markets collide with political backlash over bonuses, according to a closely watched survey. * The U.S. Federal Reserve affirmed its plan to keep rates "exceptionally low" for a long time, but began to lay rhetorical groundwork for an eventual shift in its stance. * Calgary, Alberta-based Agrium Inc plans to make its best and final offer to acquire rival fertilizer maker CF Industries, with a bid valuing CF at $4.65 billion. * A Moody's Investors Service study found the largest private-equity deals of the decade's buyout boom have fared much worse than other leveraged buyouts. The Moody's study of 186 private-equity owned companies found that, overall, they defaulted on their debts at a rate similar to other companies that carry large amounts of debt. * Cisco Systems Inc posted a 19 percent profit drop and a 13 percent revenue decline for its fiscal first quarter, but Chief Executive John Chambers issued his most forceful comments yet that the economy was improving and that businesses were ready to resume spending on technology. * General Motors Co executives, rushing to update a restructuring plan for Opel and Vauxhall, are confident they can still win financial backing from Germany despite the rift created when the company's board abruptly abandoned a plan to sell control of the European divisions. * Qualcomm Inc's fourth-quarter profit dropped 8.5 percent, triggered by charges, but a deal with Korea's Samsung Electronics helped offset a cautious forecast for the current period. * News Corp's net income climbed 11 percent in the latest quarter, as gains in its cable-television networks and film business offset declines at its newspaper and broadcast-TV divisions. * Chrysler Group LLC broke even in September and finished the month with more cash than it had at the end of June, the company's chief executive said.

Keywords: PRESS DIGEST/WSJ (Compiled by Tenzin Pema; Bangalore Equities Newsdesk [phone]; within U.S. [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.