PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - July 15

July 15 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) is regaining its swagger after paying back TARP, taking tougher stands against the government, clients and competitors.

* U.S. House Democrats unveiled a sweeping health-care bill that would impose new taxes on the wealthy and hit businesses with a penalty equal to 8 percent of payroll if they fail to provide insurance.

* CIT Group Inc (CIT.N) and federal regulators are working out details of an aid package designed to help the troubled lender resolve its deepening liquidity crisis.

* Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) posted its most profitable quarter ever as the firm snatched business away from weakened rivals and churned out huge trading gains by revving up risk-taking.

* U.S. retail sales rose in June, but mostly because of higher gasoline prices and volatile auto sales, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Meanwhile, businesses continued to slash inventories.

* Proposed guidelines aimed at restoring credibility to the market for mortgage securities would switch more of the risk to lenders that originate loans and investment firms that package them into securities.

* The lead bidders for American International Group Inc's (AIG.N) asset-management unit have dropped out, marking another twist in the giant insurer's drawn-out efforts to sell the division. Meanwhile, questions have emerged about how AIG has managed the talks and why they've dragged on.

* Administrators representing Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's LEHMQ.PK main European unit have set forth a plan to return about $13 billion in client funds that have been in legal limbo since the investment bank collapsed last September.

* Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) second-quarter profit fell 3.6 percent, with sales hurt by unfavorable currency rates, competition from generic drugs and tighter consumer spending.

* More than a dozen TV networks -- including broadcaster CBS Corp (CBS.N) -- agreed to join Comcast Corp's (CMCSA.O) nationwide test of an online-video subscription offering, as companies seek additional revenue streams amid the advertising slump.

* Intel Corp (INTC.O) provided fresh evidence that PC sales are rebounding for some vendors, though the company's second-quarter results were marred by a rare loss due to a $1.45 billion antitrust fine.

* The U.S. Justice Department's investigation into credit-default swaps is homing in on the role of Markit Group Holdings Ltd. and its ownership by a group of banks that control a large amount of pricing information in the $26 trillion market.

* President Barack Obama has moved nuclear deterrence to the top of the national-security agenda -- and in his dealings in the past month with Iran, North Korea and Russia, revealed the issue to be an organizing principle to his foreign policy.

* The medical establishment in Britain, the nation hardest hit by swine flu outside North America, is scrambling to roll out a large-scale vaccination program in an effort to protect its population against a virus that threatens to spread rapidly here in coming weeks.

* Bidding on General Motors Corp's GMGMQ.PK Opel European unit is heating up this week, with RHJ International SA expected to offer around $300 million for majority control in the car maker, a person familiar with the situation said.

* An Iranian regulatory agency announced a new set of guidelines that it says are designed to ensure "objectivity" in Iran's domestic media.

* The European Union's new Parliament elected Poland's former Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek as president, the first East European to head one of the bloc's big institutions.

* A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is proposing to raise about $10 billion a year to fix aging water and sewer systems by taxing the biggest users.

* Dell Inc (DELL.O) said world-wide technology spending is weak and likely will remain so as companies postpone computer purchases.

* The deep discounts that U.S. restaurant chains have been offering to lure cash-strapped customers out of their kitchens are coming back to bite them.

* Money-management firm BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) is set to earn tens of millions of dollars for managing assets that once belonged to Bear Stearns Cos and American International Group Inc (AIG.N).

* Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) unveiled some of the pricing for its "cloud computing" platform, Windows Azure, in the latest signal that the software company intends to compete aggressively in the emerging market to provide enterprise computer services over the Internet.

* Sun Microsystems Inc JAVA.O projected a wider fiscal-fourth-quarter loss and lower revenue than Wall Street had been expecting, in what may be its last quarterly report as an independent company.

* Indonesia's state-owned airline plans to start flying to Europe next year and take other steps to expand its operations after the European Union lifted a two-year ban on selected Indonesian carriers.

* Gary Black resigned as chief executive of Janus Capital Group Inc (JNS.N), which had a volatile fund performance under his watch.