NEW YORK (AP) - Oil futures surged to a new record over $120 a barrel
Monday, raising concerns about higher prices for gasoline and goods and services
throughout the economy.
Retail gas prices fell more than a cent over the weekend, but oil's advance
increased the likelihood that pump prices would resume their climb.
Supply threats that emerged overseas and a weaker dollar sent light, sweet
crude for June delivery to a new trading record of $120.36 a barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange before futures retreated slightly to settle up $3.65 at
a record $119.97.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street pulled back Monday following Microsoft Corp.'s
decision to withdraw its bid for Yahoo Inc. and as oil prices rose to a new
record over $120 a barrel.
Microsoft had offered $47.5 billion to buy Yahoo Inc., but scrapped the bid
late Saturday after the software maker and the Internet provider could not agree
on a sale price.
The failed deal came as a disappointment to Wall Street.
A jump in oil prices raised concerns that inflation could force consumers,
who account for more than two-thirds of the economy, to cut their spending on
discretionary items.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve reported Monday that more banks are
tightening lending standards on home mortgages, other types of consumer loans
and business loans in response to a spreading credit crisis.
The Fed said the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards was
near historic highs for nearly all loan categories.
The survey, conducted in April, found that nearly two-thirds of banks
surveyed had tightened lending standards on traditional home mortgages with 15
percent saying those standards had been tightened considerably.
But the survey found that the tougher lending standards extend far beyond
home mortgages to other types of consumer debt such as credit cards and home
equity lines of credit.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- The fallout from losing its New Jersey casino
license will force the owner of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas
to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company said Monday.
Tropicana Entertainment LLC said it plans to continue operating and will
keep current staffing levels.
It was buffeted by a chain of events that began Dec. 12 when the New Jersey
Casino Control Commission determined that the company was incapable of running
the "first-class operation" required by state law and stripped the Tropicana in
Atlantic City of its casino license after less than a year.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc.'s stock took a beating Monday after
Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $47.5 billion takeover bid, but the punishment
wasn't as severe as many analysts anticipated.
Although Microsoft has publicly indicated it will focus on measures besides
buying Yahoo in its bid to make its Internet division profitable, several
analysts predicted the software maker will revive its bid in the summer or fall
if Yahoo can't snap out of a two-year funk that exposed it to an unwanted
takeover in the first place.
Yahoo shares shed $4.30, or 15 percent, to close Monday at $24.37. That
wiped out nearly half the gain they made since Microsoft made its bid Jan. 31.
The drop left the Sunnyvale-based company's market value about $12.5 billion
below Microsoft's last offer.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Target Corp. says it is selling an interest in its
credit-card receivables business to JPMorgan Chase for about $3.6 billion.
The Minneapolis-based discount retailer says the interest represents about
47 percent of the principal amount of Target's outstanding receivables.
The deal is expected to close before the end of the month.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Merck & Co. said Monday it is eliminating 1,200 U.S.
sales jobs, a move that comes a week after federal regulators' surprise
rejection of an experimental cholesterol drug heavily touted by the
pharmaceutical company.
The cuts come on top of the elimination of about 8,100 positions under the
sweeping restructuring plan announced in December 2005, Merck's so-called Plan
to Win.
The new cuts are to be completed by the end of July, with employees of the
Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company being notified by the end of this month.
DALLAS (AP) -- Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer,
said Monday its second-quarter loss widened from a year ago as it paid more for
feed and took a restructuring charge.
Pilgrim's Pride also said its U.S. business would probably lose money in the
current quarter, and it might be summer 2009 before the company returns to
normal operating profit margins.
Poultry producers are trying to raise prices to offset higher feed costs,
but without much success. The company said the average price it received last
quarter for boneless skinless breast meat was 4 percent lower than a year ago,
although it has recently begun to rise
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest
retailer, announced Monday it would expand its discounted prescription drug
program to offer 90-day supplies for $10 and add several women's medications at
a discount. It also said it would lower the price of more than 1,000
over-the-counter drugs.
The move marks the third phase of a company program that began in 2006 to
provide a 30-day supply of generic prescription drugs for $4. The
Bentonville-based company said the program has saved customers more than $1
billion.
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) -- Shareholders of health and disability insurer Aflac
approved almost $15 million in compensation for Chairman and Chief Executive Dan
Amos on Monday in the first stockholder vote on executive pay by a major U.S.
company.
Aflac Inc., which sells insurance in the U.S. and Japan, said about 93
percent of the votes approved the 2007 compensation package of the company's top
five executives. About 2.5 percent were against it.
The Aflac board voted in February 2007 to give shareholders an advisory
"say-on-pay" vote.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 88.66, or 0.68 percent, to 12,969.54.
Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell
6.41, or 0.45 percent, to 1,407.49, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 12.87,
or 0.52 percent, to 2,464.12.
Supply threats that emerged overseas and a weaker dollar sent light, sweet
crude for June delivery to a new trading record of $120.36 a barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange before futures retreated slightly to settle up $3.65 at
a record $119.97.
In other Nymex trading Monday, June gasoline futures rose 8.65 cents to
settle at $3.0529 a gallon, and June heating oil futures rose 8.78 cents to
settle at $3.3065 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 40.1 cents to settle
at $11.178 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, June Brent crude futures gained $3.43 to settle at $117.99 a
barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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