MOST NOTEWORTHY: Nova BioScience, Saba Software and Darling were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Jefferies initiated Nova BioSource Fuels (NYSE: NBF) with a Buy rating and $3.75 target, and finds the risk/reward attractive for biofuels investors as the company has more than 100M gallons of biodiesel capacity slated to come onstream by 2009.
  
• B. Riley expects Saba Software's (NASDAQ: SABA) renewed focus on profitability to drive substantial EPS and free cash flow expansion in FY09. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $6 target.
  
• Stephens believes Darling International (NYSE: DAR) shares offer a solid commodity cycle and an attractive renewable fuels opportunity and initiated shares with an Overweight rating and $17 target..

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Wachovia.
  
• Goldman initiated Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) with a Neutral rating and $20 target.
  
• Morgan Stanley initiated ARM Holdings (NASDAQ: ARMHY) with an Equal Weight rating.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal's (subscription required) "Heard on the Street" column focused on Credit Suisse Group's (NYSE: CS) new CEO, Brady Dougan, saying the company chose him to hold a steady course, avoiding periods of high revenues followed by crashes.
  
• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Weekday Trader" column wrote that Elizabeth Arden Inc (NASDAQ: RDEN) trades at a discount to its industry and the broader market, and looks enticing at current levels.

OTHER PAPERS:

• BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column reported that AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines, is a buyout target of a group that includes the Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS).
• The New York Times reported that Congress has reintroduced legislation to allow the federal government to further regulate the tobacco industry by cracking down on marketing aimed at young people.
• The New York Times also reported that Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer said Wall Street analysts are being too optimistic about sales of Windows Vista.
• According to the Red Herring, Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) has acquired Adscape for $23 million.

General Electric has a few news items this morning for investors to digest -- or ignore, as the case may be. None of it looks very major. It's just the usual mix of deal talk and and legal wrangling. Here's the headlines:

- A South African firm, Sanlam, is in talks with GE to buy its U.K. life insurance business. Sanlam later confirmed that was true, but called talks "embryonic."

- GE Capital and Arden Capital Realty have agreed to settle class action law suits filed by shareholders who protested terms of their pending merger. GE's real estate group is buying Arden for about $5 million, plus assuming its debt.

GE's stock opens this morning at $33.97 and I doubt this news will have much impact, although I think both are mild postives for GE.