peHUB Second Opinion 8.03

Alleged Insider Trading at BP: The SEC is investigating whether people illegally profited at BP from trading on nonpublic information in the weeks after the Gulf disaster.

CIC Wants Harvard Portfolio: China’s $300 billion sovereign-wealth fund is eyeing Harvard University’s endowment to buy the university’s stakes in half a dozen U.S.-focused real-estate funds.

Mexicana in Bankruptcy: Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico’s biggest airline by passengers, filed for protection from creditors in Mexico and the U.S.

Secret Web Meetings: Google Inc., AT&T Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. executives are meeting behind closed doors with U.S. officials on proposed FCC rules on how to handle Web traffic such as Google’s YouTube videos.

Mass. Pension Hire: Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Trust appointed Michael Trotsky as executive director after the previous head said the public fund doesn’t adequately compensate its employees.

Forced To sell BlackRock Stakes: BofA and PNC  may be forced to sell their stakes in BlackRock under far-reaching rules proposed last week by the Basel Committee of Bank Supervision.

Young Investors More Cautious: A study from the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Affluent Insights Quarterly says that young investors have become as risk averse as older investors, from Dealbreaker.

New York a Tech Backwater: The New York tech scene will never equal Silicon Valley, according to adgrok.

Diamond Lake Lawsuit: A hedge fund run by Dow Kim, a former senior executive of Merrill Lynch, is being sued by an ex-employee two years after the fund, Diamond Lake, failed to open.

Science of Retweeting: A study finds that 29% of users had retweeted a link without actually looking at it while 36% said they retweeted to spread insight.

American Idol Dumps Sony: TV juggernaut has signed a new distribution and marketing deal with Universal Music Group which CNET says could affect downloads for years.