For the quarter ended June 30, Apple's profit rose to $818 million, or 92 cents per share, up from $472 million, or 54 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.

Sales grew to $5.41 billion from $4.37 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected Apple to report earnings of 72 cents per share on sales of $5.28 billion while Apple itself had projected earnings of 66 cents per share on quarterly sales of $5.1 billion.

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WASHINGTON — The economy registered modest growth in the early summer, considering how consumers and some businesses were buffeted by both high gasoline prices and the sour housing market.

That's the gist of a Federal Reserve region-by-region survey, released Wednesday, which also showed the economy clearly has emerged from a rut at the beginning of the year and is now growing, albeit slowly.

On the inflation front, consumer prices continued to increase "at a moderate rate," the Fed report said. "Almost every region said that oil and gasoline prices were either rising, high or an issue," it noted. Gas prices have climbed past $3 a gallon nationwide.

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NEW YORK — Chrysler Group's sale to a private-equity firm was put back on track Wednesday after a group of Wall Street banks agreed to assume the bulk of a $12 billion debt sale that failed to attract buyers.

Bankers have been unsuccessfully marketing the financing package to major institutional investors since June, but recent turmoil in the mortgage industry has weakened demand for leveraged loans and high-yield debt. With no investor appetite, the seven banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. will instead keep the debt on their books.

For buyout shop Cerberus Capital Management, it was one of the few ways to keep its $7.4 billion acquisition on track. But it was a stunning turn of events that indicated investors were not comfortable taking on debt of the troubled automaker, and showed just how cold the U.S. credit market has grown.

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WASHINGTON — Sales of existing homes fell in July for a fourth consecutive month, further evidence that housing troubles are far from over.

The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of existing homes dropped by 3.8 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units. That is the slowest sales pace since November 2002 and the decline was about twice what had been expected.

The median price of an existing home edged up to $230,100, 0.3 percent more than a year ago. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

It was the first price gain in 11 months. Analysts, however, said they were looking for prices to fall further because of the high level of unsold homes.

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NEW YORK — Newspaper publishers New York Times Co. and Tribune Co. reported lower advertising revenues for the second quarter on Wednesday as the industry struggled with deep losses in several categories, especially classified.

The Times, which also owns The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and a group of regional newspapers, posted a 6.9 percent decline in newspaper advertising in the period, while Tribune's fell 11.2 percent.

Chicago-based Tribune is the nation's No. 2 newspaper company by circulation and publishes 11 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday.

Weak classified advertising was a big factor behind the declines at both companies, falling 13.4 percent at the Times company and 17.7 percent at Tribune.

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NEW YORK — E-Trade Financial Corp. on Wednesday reported a slight increase in its second-quarter profit that topped Wall Street's expectations though revenue at the discount brokerage fell short of what analysts had been expecting.

The company also tightened its full-year profit forecast.

Earnings for the three months ended June 30 rose 1.7 percent to $159.1 million, or 37 cents per share, from $156.5 million, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding $35 million in pretax charges related to legal and regulatory items, the company earned 42 cents per share.

Net revenue rose 9 percent to a highest-ever $663.5 million from $611.4 million a year earlier.

Wall Street had expected the New York-based financial services company would earn 40 cents per share on revenue of $668.3 million, according to Thomson Financial. Estimates typically exclude one-time items.

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NEW YORK — Oil futures jumped more than $2 a barrel Wednesday, pulling gasoline futures higher after the government reported that inventories of crude oil at a key Oklahoma terminal fell last week. Gas prices at the pump, meanwhile, extended their decline.

The report, from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, showed overall increases in gasoline inventories and refinery utilization, and declines in inventories of crude oil, roughly in line with analyst expectations.

But traders chose to focus on a 1.4 million barrel decline in oil inventories in and around Cushing, Okla., delivery point for crude traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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HOUSTON — ConocoPhillips said Wednesday its second-quarter profit dropped 94 percent as the nation's third-largest oil company incurred a $4.5 billion charged related to its assets in Venezuela, where it has abandoned its heavy oil projects.

But the company's shares rose after adjusted earnings topped Wall Street expectations.

The April-June result amounted to net income of $301 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with last year's robust second quarter when ConocoPhillips posted a profit of $5.18 billion, or $3.09 a share.

Revenue in the most recent quarter rose to $47.4 billion from $47.1 billion in the year-ago period.

Excluding the Venezuelan impairment, ConocoPhillips' adjusted earnings amounted to $4.8 billion, or $2.90 a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast earnings of $2.68 a share.

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CHICAGO — Boeing Co. shares traded at an all-time high Wednesday after the airline maker posted its largest profit in 3› years, earning nearly $1.1 billion in the second quarter as it continued to pound away at its European rival Airbus.

The better-than-expected results — the company's strongest since the fourth quarter of 2003 — easily beat Wall Street forecasts and sent Boeing's stock up more than 3 percent.