DETROIT — A declining U.S. auto market, big sales last year and large incentives on Toyota pickup trucks all contributed to a lackluster June for Detroit's three automakers and especially for General Motors Corp.

GM saw its sales plummet 21.3 percent compared with June of last year, while Ford Motor Co. sales dropped 8.1 percent and Chrysler Group saw a decline of 1.4 percent.

But it was the same old story for the Japan-based automakers, all of which showed impressive gains led by Nissan's 22.7 percent increase. Toyota Motor Corp. saw a 10.2 percent gain, while Honda Motor Co. rose 11.5 percent.

Ford barely managed to hold off Toyota as the nation's No. 2 auto seller in June and for the first half of the year, but Toyota narrowed the gap from 319,208 vehicles in the first half of last year to only 39,558 in the first half of 2007, according to Autodata Corp.

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Wall Street advances ahead of July Fourth

NEW YORK — Wall Street advanced Tuesday ahead of the July Fourth holiday as investors drew confidence from a smaller-than-expected dip in factory orders and new merger-and-acquisition activity.

The market was relieved to hear from the Commerce Department that U.S. factories saw demand dip in May by just 0.5 percent; most analysts had predicted a decline of more than 1 percent.

Takeover news gave the market an extra boost. Kraft Foods Inc. said it offered $7.2 billion to buy the biscuit division of French food company Groupe Danone SA; Canadian miner Teck Cominco Ltd. bid 4.1 billion Canadian dollars, or $3.87 billion, for Canadian copper miner Aur Resources Inc.; and a major Wendy's International Inc. shareholder said he is considering buying the hamburger chain.

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Demand dips for American-made products

WASHINGTON — America's factories saw demand for their products dip by a smaller-than-expected 0.5 percent in May, suggesting that despite some pockets of weakness the manufacturing revival remains intact.

The drop reported by the Commerce Department Tuesday came after new orders for a range of manufactured goods rose by 0.5 percent in April. The decline in May mostly reflected weaker demand for airplanes. Fewer orders for construction equipment, industrial machinery and household appliances also figured prominently into the overall decline _ byproducts of the housing slump.

The 0.5 percent dip was actually a much better showing than the deeper, 1.2 percent decline that economists said they were expecting.

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Late home payments climb as late credit card bills fall

WASHINGTON — Late payments on home equity loans climbed to a 1 1/2-year high in the opening quarter of this year, while delinquencies on credit card bills fell, painting a mixed picture of how people are managing their debt.

The American Bankers Association, in its quarterly survey of consumer loans, reported Tuesday that late payments on home equity loans rose to 2.15 percent in the January-to-March quarter. That was up sharply from 1.92 percent in the final quarter of last year and was the highest since the late summer of 2005.

Payments are considered delinquent if they are 30 or more days past due. The survey is based on information supplied by more than 300 banks nationwide.

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Kraft Foods seeks to expand empire with $7.2 billion purchase

CHICAGO — Kraft Foods Inc. said Tuesday it has offered $7.2 billion in cash to acquire the cookie and cereal division of French food company Groupe Danone SA in a deal that would give America's biggest food and beverage company an even larger foothold around the globe.

Danone said in a statement that its board is considering the bid received Monday on an exclusive basis.

A deal would give Kraft, the maker of Oreo cookies, popular overseas brands such as LU, Petit Dejeuner, Tuc, Mikado and others.

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Major shareholder considers buying Wendy's

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A major shareholder who has pressured Wendy's International Inc. to increase stock value said Tuesday that he is considering a purchase of the nation's third-largest hamburger chain.

Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz said his company, which owns fast-food chain Arby's, would be a "natural, strategic buyer" for Wendy's, according to a letter he sent to Wendy's chairman, but that the company is blocking him.

Peltz, who runs the Trian Fund, also revealed in the filing that he and his allies have increased their stake to 9.8 percent of company shares, from 8.4 percent.

Peltz' company Triarc Cos. controls Arby's, which has more than 3,000 restaurants.

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b>Personal information of 2.3 million consumers stolen, check authorizing company says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A check authorizing company said Tuesday that credit, bank account and other personal information on 2.3 million consumers had been stolen, but none of the data were used for identity theft or other financial fraud.

The report from Fidelity National Information Services unit Certegy Check Services Inc. was the latest case of data theft that has troubled corporations, the federal government and universities.

Court documents filed in a civil case in St. Petersburg allege that a former employee, William G. Sullivan, sold the information to data broker Jam Marketing, which then sold it to several direct marketing companies.

Certegy said that the broker and the direct marketing companies were not aware that the information had been stolen.

About 2.2 million records stolen from Certegy contained bank account information and 99,000 had credit card information.

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b>Pending sales of existing homes hit record low

WASHINGTON — Pending sales of existing homes dropped to their lowest level in almost six years, a real estate trade group said Tuesday, demonstrating the persistence of the housing slump.

The 3.5 percent decline in May, compared with the previous month, follows a drop of 3.4 percent in April and a 4.5 percent dip in March. It leaves the National Association of Realtors' index at its lowest point since September 2001.

Lawrence Yun, the association's senior economist, said turmoil in the mortgage market is weighing on home sales, as lenders pull back from riskier mortgages to borrowers with weak credit histories.

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b>Oil, gas futures prices rise ahead of Thursday report

NEW YORK — Oil and gasoline futures prices rose in lethargic preholiday trading Tuesday on renewed concerns about gasoline supplies and positioning in advance of Thursday's government inventory report.

"I think that you just have people covering their short (positions) coming in to the holiday weekend," said Stephen Schork, an energy trader and editor and publisher of The Schork Report. U.S. financial markets were closing Wednesday for the July Fourth holiday.

While analysts expect Thursday's report will show gasoline inventories increased last week, the closure of a Kansas refinery due to flooding raised new concerns about gasoline supplies, sending futures prices higher, said Jack Hunter, an energy trader at FC Stone Group in Kansas City, Mo.

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b>Software company acknowledges 'inappropriate downloads'

FRANKFURT, Germany — Software company SAP AG acknowledged Tuesday that one of its units made "inappropriate downloads" of Oracle Corp. computer code for fixes and support documents, responding to a lawsuit filed by its rival.

SAP said it never had access to Oracle's intellectual property, even as SAP Chief Executive Henning Kagermann vowed to keep "all options open" to settle the case.

The legal battle underscores an increasingly cutthroat battle between the two competitors.

Oracle has accused SAP of "corporate theft on a grand scale" _ claiming that SAP obtained secret product information so it could reel in new customers. The lawsuit was filed on March 22 in San Francisco federal court.

In its formal response, SAP "acknowledged that some inappropriate downloads of fixes and support documents occurred at TomorrowNow" _ a Texas-based customer support unit authorized to download materials from Oracle's Web site. But it maintained that the data remained within that unit's system and SAP did not have access to Oracle's intellectual property.

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By The Associated Press

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 41.87, or 0.31 percent, to 13,577.30, adding to Monday's 126.81-point gain.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 5.44, or 0.36 percent, to 1,524.87, and the Nasdaq composite index lifted 12.65, or 0.48 percent, to 2,644.95.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 32 cents to settle at $71.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a new 10-month high. Gasoline for August rose 1.57 cents to settle at $2.2644 a gallon.

August Brent crude added 30 cents to settle at $72.93 a barrel Tuesday on the ICE Futures exchange.