AP
Business Highlights
Friday August 1, 6:23 pm ET

Jobless rate climbs as 51,000 jobs vanish

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unemployment rose last month to its highest rate in four years, adding to the growing body of evidence that an economic recovery is far off.

Employers cut 51,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said Friday. The economy has shed jobs each month this year -- 463,000 in all.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent, up from 5.5 percent in June.

Job losses in July were the heaviest in industries hard hit by the slow housing market, the clampdown on credit and the shaky financial sector.

GM posts $15.5B 2Q loss, 3rd-worst in its history

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. reported a $15.5 billion second-quarter loss Friday, the third-worst quarterly performance in its nearly 100-year history.

Through the first half of the year it used up more than $7 billion in cash, including $3.6 billion from April through June.

GM now faces the ominous task of raising revenue by selling cars rather than trucks. Even with plans to boost production of hot-selling fuel-efficient models and cut output of unpopular trucks and sport utility vehicles, the company is running short on time if it keeps burning through more than $1 billion in cash every month.

Ford, Toyota US sales fall in July

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors, Ford, Toyota and other automakers said Friday their U.S. sales fell by double digits in July as they struggled to keep up with consumers' growing demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Nissan Motor Co. was the only major automaker to report a gain, with truck sales up a surprising 18 percent thanks in part to the new Rogue crossover. Nissan's overall sales rose 8.5 percent.

Automakers were expecting July sales to be at their lowest level in more than a decade as sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles continued to plummet and new troubles in the auto leasing market further wrecked consumers' confidence. And they said things could get worse before they get better.

Big Oil's biggest quarter ever: $51.5B in all

HOUSTON (AP) -- Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total SA wrapped up a string of gargantuan, record-breaking earnings reports Friday, a stretch in which six of the major international oil companies topped $50 billion in combined profit for the first time.

While the profits of unparalleled size have brought withering criticism from Washington and disgust from consumers across the country, very few were surprised. Crude prices during the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago.

Chevron said Friday its second-quarter profit rose 11 percent to a record $5.98 billion.

Citigroup faces charges by Cuomo, SEC probe

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Friday said he is prepared to charge Citigroup Inc. with fraudulent sales of auction-rate securities and with the destruction of key documents.

Cuomo joins the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators in examining Citigroup's sale of auction-rate securities. They believe the instruments were being aggressively marketed despite a rapid weakening in trading.

Auction-rate securities have their interest rates set at periodic auctions, depending on the submitted bids. The investments were once considered safe, but the market collapsed in February amid turmoil in the credit markets.

Oil prices up slightly on Iran nuclear worries

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices rebounded Friday, briefly jumping more than $3 a barrel after Israel's deputy prime minister reportedly warned that Iran was nearing a "breakthrough" in its nuclear program.

But prices at the pump fell again, with a gallon of regular gas slipping on average just over a penny to $3.898, according to auto club AAA, Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Gas is down 5.2 percent from record high of $4.114 a gallon reached July 17, as high prices eat into demand.

Light, sweet crude jumped as high as $128.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest level in nine sessions, before easing back later to $125.95, up 87 cents.

Stocks pull back after another decline in jobs

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street retreated again Friday after readings on jobs and manufacturing -- the first reports for the third quarter -- indicated that businesses and workers still face a tough economy. The major indexes ended a turbulent week narrowly mixed.

A massive quarterly loss at General Motors Corp. and rising oil prices also gave investors reason to trade cautiously. But the market was considerably calmer than the first four sessions of the week, when the Dow Jones industrials rose or fell by triple digits each day in response to economic data or news about the financial sector.

Friday's reports were not as poor as many analysts had anticipated, which likely accounted for the muted reaction. The Dow fell 51.70, or 0.45 percent, to 11,326.32, and ended the week down 0.39 percent.

Yahoo board emerges unscathed from annual meeting

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Yahoo Inc.'s board emerged largely unscathed from the Internet company's annual meeting Friday as a subdued crowd of shareholders raised few questions about the directors' rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.

Some shareholders expressed displeasure by opposing the re-election of Yahoo's current directors, but the resistance wasn't as intense as last year, when three directors were rejected by more than 30 percent of the vote.

In this year's balloting, only two directors -- Chairman Roy Bostock and Arthur Kern -- were opposed on ballots representing at least 20 percent of Yahoo shares. Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who steered the Microsoft negotiations with Bostock, was approved by 85 percent of the shares cast.

FCC rules Comcast violated Internet access policy

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A divided Federal Communications Commission has ruled that Comcast Corp. violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers and has ordered the cable giant to change the way it manages its network.

In a precedent-setting move, the FCC by a 3-2 vote on Friday enforced a policy that guarantees customers open access to the Internet.

The commission did not assess a fine, but ordered the company to stop cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use a special type of "file-sharing" software.

FDA rejects Schering drug to reverse anesthesia

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government regulators dealt a major setback to Schering-Plough Corp., rejecting a highly anticipated drug designed to help patients recover from anesthesia.

The Food and Drug Administration notified the company Thursday that it will not approve its drug sugammadex, due to concerns about allergic reactions seen in some patients, according to a company statement.

The rejection letter was unexpected because a panel of outside FDA advisers had unanimously voted in favor of the medication earlier this year. The FDA is not required to follow the group's advice, though it usually does.

By The Associated Press

The Dow fell 51.70, or 0.45 percent, to 11,326.32. The Dow ended the week down 0.39 percent.

Broader stock indicators also lost ground Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 7.07, or 0.56 percent, to 1,260.31, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 14.59, or 0.63 percent, to 2,310.96.

Light, sweet crude jumped as high as $128.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell about a penny to $3.4505 a gallon while gasoline futures added 2.81 cents to $3.099. Natural gas futures added 24.9 cents to $9.368 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, September Brent crude rose 62 cents at $124.60 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.