3:45PM Russia repays debt to Paris Club donors ahead of schedule.
Oil rich Russia has repaid $23.7 billion in debt ahead of schedule to its lenders informally called as Paris Club of creditor nations. “The $23,737,038, 657.61 was transferred to Paris Club of creditors”, said the Russia’s foreign trade bank, Vneshekonombank said in a press release in Moscow.

This is the largest sum ever to be repaid to in the fifty years of the history of Paris Club.

Russia repaid the debt of $22.5 billion in debt and $1.3 billion pre-payment premium totaling $23.8 billion. Russian Finance Ministry estimates that the pre-payment saves $12 billion to Russian treasury. German government had estimated that Russia will take till 2015 to repay the debt. After the collapse of Soviet Union, Russia inherited foreign debt of $70 billion and continued to borrow in the international markets leading to financial collapse of the Russian empire. In 1999 the country had debt level of 96% of GDP which now stand after the repayment at 9%.

3:00PM SanDisk cuts prices for music players and releases 8GB player.
The flash memory maker SanDisk has released $249 music player with 8GB memory. The MP3 device named Sansa e280 is positioned to compete in the marketplace where Apple’s iPod has a leading and dominating market share.

Several companies are in the MP3 device market; however, iPod has retained its dominant market position since its release. Among others, Creative Technologies, Sony, Nokia and SanDisk are competing in the market for MP3 players.

Sansa e280 is expandable to 10 GB by adding a 2GB MicroSD card. The current retail price for the iPod with 4GB of storage is $249 and 30 GB model using hard drive sells for $299. There are no models of 8GB or 10 GB from Apple.

SanDisk, one of the largest flash memory makers has price advantage and retail presence in more than 20,000 retail stores across the country. The retail shelf-space gives an advantage that other smaller makers may not enjoy. Sony and Nokia are expected to release better versions of players before Christmas. Sony Ericsson has several models that are popular in Europe but lacks similar products in the North American market.

SanDisk (SNDK: chart) traded up 40 cents to $51.57 on trading volume of seven million shares with less than 90 minutes of trading.

2:00PM Gold rises after five days of decline.
Gold rose $13 as trading in metals market neared close in New York. Gold, oil and copper managed to climb on news on Iran, continued violence in Middle-East and copper miners’ rejection of wage hike in Chile.

Iran is reported to have rejected the EU request to suspend uranium enrichment program. Gold futures for the October delivery gained $13.70 to $629.50 per ounce. Silver futures for the September delivery rose 32 cents to $12.35 per ounce and copper futures for the month 8.50 cents to $3.5150.

Metals stocks rallied on rising metals prices. Newmont Mining (NEM: chart) gained $1.80 or 3.5% to $52.51. Phelps Dodge (PD: chart) gained $1.20 or 1.3% to $91.20.

BHP Billiton (BHP: chart) gained $1.08 or 2.5% to $43.90 on the news that miners in Chile have rejected the company offer of wage hikes of 4.5%.

1:00PM European stocks closed lower on rising oil prices.
European stock exchanges closed lower with the 1% rise in oil price, weak bank stocks and weakness in the trading in New York. CAC-40 in Paris led the decliners in Europe with 0.6% decline followed by 0.4% decline in Germany and 0.3% decline in Switzerland. Norway surged 1.9% higher and the U.K. closed up 0.2%. South Africa gained 2.2% as gold gained $10 in New York trading.

Oil and energy stocks led advancers in the region. In Oslo trading, Norsk Hydro gained 3% and StatOil rose 3% on 1% rise in oil price. Neste Oil in Finland advanced 1.6%. Total SA in France and BP in the UK trading rose as well. British Petroleum was upgraded by Goldman Sachs.

Automakers fell with the rising oil price. Renault and BMW fell close to 1%, Daimler Chrysler fell 0.9% on the news that German court ordered the company to pay additional money to a select former shareholders of Chrysler at the time of merger in 1998.

Chemical companies stocks fell at close. BASF fell 0.6%, Akzo Nobel declined 1.6% and Bayer lost 1%. Three Chinese companies, Texas based Huntsman and German BASF opened a giant chemical plant to make plastic foam and insulation in Shanghai. The joint venture owned company with a total of $1 billion in investment is designed to supply industrial and housing market needs for insulation.

Tech stocks in the region declined. SAP, Philips, STMicroelectronics and Infineon fell near 1% at close.

12:00PM Merger Monday shows two major deals worth $1 billion.
Glenborough Realty Trust Inc. (GLB: chart) agreed to be acquired for $26 per unit, 8.2% premium from the Friday’s close price, by funds managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate for approximate value of $1.89 billion. The deal is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter. The offer included either cash of $26 per unit or common unit in the new entity or preferred unit in the surviving operating partnership. The company with properties in the coastal market has been selling properties to reduce debt.

The Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC: chart) made an unsolicited offer for Gold Kist (GKIS: chart) share of $20 a share or valuing the company at $1 billion. Gold Kist shares rose 50% at the opening to $19.46 on the news. Pilgrim’s stock rose as much as 10% and at mid-day trading settled at 6.5% gain.

The direct offer to shareholders of Gold Kist represents a Pilgrim management frustration at the slow pace of negotiation. The two companies have been in negotiations for the last three months but have not been able to agree on terms of the deal.