April 22 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* Ford Motor Co has picked Mark Fields, its chief operating officer, to succeed Alan R. Mulally as the next chief executive of the company, according to a person with knowledge of the move. The selection of Fields would hasten the retirement of Mulally, who has said previously that he would stay as chief executive of Ford through the end of this year. (http://r.reuters.com/zes68v)
* Activist investor William A. Ackman, among the brashest men on Wall Street, made perhaps the boldest move yet for an activist. By teaming up with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, a big health care company, and offering to buy Allergan Inc, the maker of Botox, for roughly $50 billion. (http://r.reuters.com/bus68v)
* Investment banks, which rushed into the new territory of physical commodities starting at the turn of the century, are now beating a retreat. The latest bank expected to make an exit is Barclays Plc, which plans to announce on Tuesday that it will get out of large parts of its commodities business, according to a person briefed on the British bank's plans. (http://r.reuters.com/fus68v)
* Netflix Inc on Monday voiced strong opposition to Comcast Corp's planned $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc, even while confirming that it was raising subscription prices. (http://r.reuters.com/gus68v)
* The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday seemed inclined to offer at least modest help to Argentina's creditors. The issue before the justices was in some ways a minor one, and they will soon decide whether to hear a second and more significant case arising from Argentina's 2001 default on billions of dollars of debt. (http://r.reuters.com/hus68v) (Compiled by Arnab Sen in Bangalore)