The recalls came nearly two weeks after Mattel Inc., the nation's largest toy maker, recalled 1.5 million Fisher-Price infant toys, also made in China, because of possible lead-paint hazards for children.

The government warned parents to make sure children are not playing with any of the recalled toys.

Nancy A. Nord, acting Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman, said no injuries had been reported with any of the products involved in Tuesday's recalls. She said the recalls were intentionally broad to prevent injuries.

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WASHINGTON — A big jump in energy costs pushed inflation at the wholesale level up sharply in July. However, outside of energy, price pressures were moderate.

The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices rose by 0.6 percent in July. That was far above the 0.1 percent that analysts had expected and reflected a big jump in energy costs.

But core wholesale inflation, which excludes volatile fo#?# declined to a four-month low even though imports from China hit an all-time high. Demand for Chinese goods has remained strong despite recalls of unsafe products this year.

The trade deficit dropped to $58.1 billion in June, a 1.7 percent decline from May level, the Commerce Department reported.

It was a bigger improvement than had been expected and left the deficit at its lowest level since February. So far this year, the deficit is running at an annual rate of $705.5 billion, 7 percent lower than last year's record deficit of $758.5 billion.

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MILWAUKEE — AirTran Holdings Inc. revived its hostile takeover effort for Midwest Air Group Inc. on Tuesday, offering $16.25 per share in a cash and stock deal worth $445 million.

Orlando-based AirTran had been courting Midwest for two years and abandoned its hostile takeover effort Sunday night after offering $15.75 per share in cash and stock for a deal worth $431 million.

Private investment firm TPG Capital offered $400 million cash just hours later and Midwest's board of directors unanimously chose to pursue that sale.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cut its profit outlook for the year, saying Tuesday during its second-quarter earnings announcement that consumer spending has slowed in the U.S. and abroad.

Analysts said Wal-Mart still has not overcome merchandising difficulties and thus is less poised than its discount competitors, such as Target Corp., to build sales among penny-pinching consumers.

The world's largest retailer has put a new focus on price cuts, moving away from its attempts to get more well-to-do grocery shoppers to walk over to the general merchandise aisles.

Retail analyst Patricia Edwards of Wentworth Hauser and Violich in Seattle said Wal-Mart is making some of the right moves.

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ATLANTA — The Home Depot Inc. on Tuesday reported a 14.8 percent drop in second-quarter profit. The results beat Wall Street expectations, but its shares fell after executives made comments that suggested to investors that the sale of the company's wholesale distribution business may not be a lock.

Chief Financial Officer Carol Tome said during an investor conference call that the world's largest home improvement store chain would have to cut by nearly half the size of its plan to repurchase up to $22.5 billion in company stock if the sale of its HD Supply unit falls through.

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NEW YORK — Don Imus has reached a settlement with CBS over his multimillion-dollar contract and is negotiating to resume his broadcasting career.

Imus and CBS Radio "have mutually agreed to settle claims that each had against the other regarding the Imus radio program on CBS," the network and Imus' attorney Martin Garbus said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The terms of the settlement will not be disclosed, according to the statement. CBS and Garbus confirmed only that the settlement had been reached.

The settlement pre-empts the dismissed radio personality's threatened $120 million breach-of-contract lawsuit.

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BOSTON — TJX Cos. on Tuesday said its second-quarter profit was cut by more than a half as the discount store operator recorded a $118 million charge because of costs from a massive breach of customer data, mostly to build up a reserve to cover estimated future expenses.

The owner of about 2,500 stores including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls also expects to record future breach-related charges of $21 million — costs that analysts said are easily manageable for a firm posting strong sales despite the data theft and tough times for retailers.

Framingham-based TJX also slightly raised its earnings expectations for the year.

TJX reported net income of $59 million for the May-July period, or 13 cents per share, down from $138.2 million, or 29 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

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SAN FRANCISCO — VMware Inc.'s shares soared 76 percent in their stock market debut Tuesday, reflecting a belief that the rapidly growing software maker is on the leading edge of a computing trend that will yield huge profits for years to come.

The run-up marked the biggest one-day gain following an initial public offering of stock so far this year, according to Renaissance Capital's IPOhome.com. The offering by the Palo Alto-based company raised $957 million before expenses.

VMware specializes in a process known as "virtualization." It enables a single computer to function like multiple machines, enabling companies to spend less on equipment and energy in their data centers.