Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Tuesday said a “major investment bank” is willing to commit $1.6 billion to his buyout plan for Dell Inc. as he challenged the company’s argument that his proposal was risky and does not have enough financing.

Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management have contested a plan by Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell and Silver Lake to take the Texas computer company private in a $24.4 billion deal, or $13.65 a share. Icahn has argued that the proposal undervalues the company.

Shareholders will vote on Michael Dell’s proposal on July 18. Icahn and Southeastern Assset Management are waging a proxy battle to stop the plan.

New U.S. housing starts rebounded 6.8% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914,000 after a large drop in the previous month, the U.S. Commerce Department estimated Tuesday.

Despite the rise, the gain was below expectations – economists polled by various media outlets had forecasted new starts to rise 953,000.

Starts fell 14.8% in April due to a sharp decline in apartment construction.

In May, starts for single-family homes increased 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 599,000, while starts for structures with at least five units jumped 21.6% to a rate of 315,000.

China received $9.26 billion in foreign direct investment in May, 0.3% higher than in the year-earlier period, according to a Xinhua news report Tuesday citing official data.

The inbound investment took the total FDI that China attracted in the first five months of 2013 to $47.6 billion, 1% more than the country received in the same period of 2012.

The rise in May FDI marks the fourth straight monthly increase, and follows eight consecutive months of declining FDI flows, according to the Xinhua news report.

Chinese housing prices in the nation’s largest cities maintained their upward trend in May, according to data released Tuesday from the National Bureau of Statistics.

In its survey covering the 70 large and medium-sized urban centers, 65 showed gains for newly built homes during May, while 3 showed declines and 2 were flat. Compared to May 2012, all but one city showed a rise.

Among prices for existing homes, 64 cities showed average gains, 3 showed declines and 3 were unchanged.

Existing-home prices rose in 67 of the 70 cities compared to the year-earlier period.

Shares of beauty products maker Coty dropped in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company, known for its celebrity fragrances, fell 14 cents to close at $17.36 Thursday after falling as low as $16.90 earlier.

Coty Inc.’s initial public offering of about 57.1 million shares raised nearly $1 billion for some of its stockholders.

The offering priced at $17.50, the midpoint of its projected range of $16.50 to $18.50 per share.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday fined cosmetics and beauty care manufacturer Revlon Inc. $850,000 for allegedly misleading shareholders during a going-private transaction.

The SEC alleges that Revlon deprived its independent board members from knowing that the transaction’s consideration had been deemed inadequate by a third party.

Antonia Chion, associate director in the SEC’s enforcement division, said that by erecting informational barriers, Revlon kept critically important information from its board and, in turn, misled investors.

Source: MW

The World Bank cut its global growth forecast to 2.2% for 2013 on Wednesday, down from a 2.4% projection issued in January and below last year’s forecast of 2.3% growth.

In its semi-annual Global Economic Prospects report, the multinational development agency also revised lower its expectations for growth in China, Brazil and India, while increasing estimates for Japan and the U.S.

For 2014, the World Bank sees global economic growth at 3%.

Traders at a number of major global banks have been manipulating spot foreign-exchange rates for at least a decade, altering the values of trillions of dollars worth of investments, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing five unnamed dealers.

The scheme involves the WM/Reuters Closing Spot Rates, which are used to provide daily benchmarks to value portfolios.

However, market participants have been front-running client orders to rig the rates by pushing through trades before and during a 60-second window when the rates are set.

British regulators are considering a probe into allegations of this practice, the report said.

Sources: Bloomberg, MW

Sony Corp. said Monday night that it will price its new PlayStation 4 at $399 for its launch this fall. That undercuts the $499 launch price of the rival console Xbox One from Microsoft, which also launches this fall. Both companies announced the launch prices for their new consoles at the E3 videogame conference in Los Angeles.

Sony did not give a specific launch date for the PS4, only to say the console would go on sale before the holidays.

Standard & Poor’s revised its long-term outlook on its U.S. credit rating to stable from negative, the ratings agency said Monday.

S&P downgraded the sovereign rating to AA+ from its top rating of AAA in 2011.

The rating agency cited economic strength and the dollar’s status as a reserve currency as the primary drivers of the outlook revision. S&P said the country has less than a one-in-three chance of another downgrade in the near-term.