BUSINESS BRIEFS
Industrial output up an unexpected 1.3% last month
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Industrial output posted a bigger-than-expected rebound in October after plunging in September by the largest amount in more than 60 years.
The Federal Reserve said yesterday that industrial output rose 1.3 percent last month, reflecting a return to more normal operations following hurricanes and a strike at aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. the previous month.
The 1.3 percent increase in October was bigger than the 0.2 percent rise that economists expected, but the September decline was worse than the 2.8 percent drop originally reported.
TARGET PRICE CUTS AIM TO BOOST SALES
NEW YORK — Target Corp. said yesterday it will aggressively cut prices to give consumers bargains during the holiday season, even as weak sales of its apparel and home offerings led third-quarter earnings to fall 24 percent.
The discount retailer also said sales in established stores have been weak so far in November, and if that persists it expects fourth-quarter earnings below analyst expectations. Profit for the three months ended Nov. 1 fell to $369 million, or 49 cents per share, from $483 million, or 56 cents per share, last year.
Target said sales at stores open at least one year, a key retail metric known as same-store sales, are expected to fall 6 percent to 9 percent in November.
OIL FALLS BELOW $56 AS DEMAND DROPS
NEW YORK — Oil prices fell below $56 a barrel yesterday and gasoline futures plunged to a new low as Japan joined a number of European nations in recession and provided even more evidence of a broad deterioration in demand for energy.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery dropped $2.11 to settle at $55.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures fell 5 percent, or 6.45 cents to $1.1746 a gallon after touching a 52-week low of $1.168.
PROFIT AT LOWE'S TAKES BIG HIT IN 3Q
CHICAGO — Lowe's Cos. Inc. posted better-than-expected third-quarter results yesterday, even as profit slid more than 24 percent because shoppers postponed big-ticket purchases amid growing economic uncertainty.
The nation's No. 2 home improvement chain said it earned $488 million, or 33 cents per share during the three months ending Oct. 31 — down from $643 million, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.
Lowe's larger rival, Home Depot Inc., is expected to see those same competing factors when it reports results for the third quarter today.
MAVERICKS OWNER FACES SEC CHARGES
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators yesterday charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.
Cuban disputed the Securities and Exchange Commission's allegations and said he would contest them.
In a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas, the SEC alleged that in June 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by www.Mamma.com Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private. Cuban owned 6.3 percent of www.Mamma.com's stock at that time and was the largest known shareholder in the search engine company, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit.
