NEW YORK — Wall Street extended its advance today amid a burst of enthusiasm about the economy that gave the Standard & Poor's 500 index its first close above 1,500 since September 2000.

The S&P 500, the index most closely watched by market professionals, made its first foray past 1,500 shortly after trading began and rose as high as 1,503.34 just over a week after the Dow Jones industrial average passed 13,000 for the first time. The index closed at 1,502.39, up 6.47, or 0.43 percent, and is now within striking distance of its closing high of 1,527.46, set March 24, 2000, just as the dot-com bubble began to burst and Wall Street began a three-year-long decline.

The Dow, meanwhile, had its third straight record high close.

Stocks have soared in recent weeks as first-quarter earnings beat reduced expectations, and upbeat economic news added to the gains. With the Dow having piled on more than 700 points in April alone, there are concerns that investors may be getting a little too enthusiastic given the uncertainty in the housing market and other sectors of the economy.

GM profits drop 90% from year ago

DETROIT — The troubled mortgage market spilled onto General Motors Corp.'s balance sheet today as first-quarter profits dropped 90 percent from a year ago due mainly to losses at GM's former financial arm.

But the fact that the nation's largest automaker still lost money on its North American operations seemed to trouble industry analysts more than losses at GMAC Financial Services because GM is more than a year into a massive restructuring plan that includes cost cuts and multiple new products.

The net profit of $62 million, or 11 cents a share for the January-March period, was GM's second consecutive quarterly profit, although it was down from $602 million, or $1.06 per share, a year ago.

GM said in today's report it had record vehicle sales of 2.26 million worldwide and showed improvements in its automotive operations in the latest quarter.

Dutch court blocks ABN Amro's sale of Chicago bank

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch court blocked ABN Amro's planned sale of a Chicago bank today, a ruling that makes it more likely a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland will capture ABN Amro in the industry's largest takeover battle.

The court said ABN Amro must seek shareholder approval before it can sell its U.S. subsidiary LaSalle to Bank of America Corp. The ruling was a major setback for ABN Amro management, which had planned to sell LaSalle for $21 billion and then sell the rest of the company to Britain's Barclays PLC for about $91 billion.

The ruling increases chances that a three-bank consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC will win the bidding war for the Netherlands' biggest bank. The group has suggested a purchase valued at $98.5 billion.

Either bid for ABN Amro would be the highest price paid for a banking buyout.

Barclays' bid is now in limbo, since it was both preliminary and dependent on the LaSalle sale, while the RBS consortium has more breathing room to make its preliminary offer official.

Chavez threatens to nationalize Venezuela's banks

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez today threatened to nationalize the country's banks and largest steel producer, accusing them of unscrupulous practices.

It was not clear if Chavez was only referring to Venezuelan banks like Mercantil Servicios Financieros CA and Banco Provincial SA, or if he was also aiming the threat at major international banks with subsidiaries in the country, such as Citigroup Inc. and Spanish banks Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and Banco Santander Central Hispano SA.

Chavez also warned the government could take over steel producer Sidor, which is majority controlled by Luxembourg-based Ternium SA. Shares of Ternium fell 3.9 percent to $26.15 in U.S. trading after Chavez's comments.

Sidor "has created a monopoly" and sold the bulk of its production overseas, forcing local producers to import tubes and other products from China and elsewhere, Chavez said.

Slowing growth in worker productivity speaks to inflation

WASHINGTON — The growth in worker productivity slowed in the first three months of this year but so did wages, providing evidence that a slowing economy is holding down inflation.

The Labor Department reported that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, rose at an annual rate of 1.7 percent in the January-to-March quarter, down from a 2.1 percent rise in the final three months of last year.

Wages slowed even more sharply with unit labor costs rising at a 0.6 percent rate, compared with a 6.2 percent surge in the final three months of last year when year-end bonuses for high-income workers inflated the number.

The increase in productivity was slightly better than expected, while the slowdown in unit labor costs was much steeper than economists had anticipated.

Beazer Homes USA notified of coming inquiry

ATLANTA — Beazer Homes USA Inc. has received a notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission that the agency is conducting an informal inquiry to determine if any person or entity related to the company has violated securities laws, the homebuilder said today.

The Atlanta-based company said in a regulatory filing that it was notified of the inquiry Tuesday and will cooperate fully with the SEC.

It did not provide further details about the inquiry.

However, in the same filing, Beazer Homes said that it received notice Monday that a class-action complaint was filed on behalf of present and former participants and beneficiaries of the Beazer Homes 401(k) plan naming Beazer Homes and certain of its current and former officers and directors as defendants.

Europe's biggest oil company sees earnings rise 5.7%

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's biggest oil company, said today its first-quarter earnings rose 5.7 percent, despite falling oil prices and declining profit at its production and refining arms.

Net income rose to $7.28 billion from $6.89 billion in the year-ago period, while sales fell 3.3 percent to $73.5 billion.

The main reason Shell's results improved was due to the good performance of the stock market. The company's corporate financing arm reported earnings of $801 million, up from $227 million last year, due mostly to the "realization of gains on the sale of the equity portfolio held by the group insurance companies."

Production of oil and equivalents fell 6.4 percent to 3.5 million barrels per day, due mostly to lower natural gas production.

Shell has largely recovered from a 2004 accounting scandal in which it was forced to restate the size of its proven reserves, in part by investing heavily in non-conventional sources such as oil sands and liquefied natural gas.

New Century Financial Corp. forced to shut down

LOS ANGELES — Financially strapped subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp., failed to receive any bids for its mortgage loan origination business, forcing it to shut down the unit and lay off around 2,000 employees, the company told employees today.

The Irvine-based company, which has been preparing to sell off its assets under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since last month, notified employees during a conference call that they would be laid off effective Friday.

Speaking on the call, New Century President and Chief Executive Brad A. Morrice said despite a number of potential buyers for its wholesale and consumer-direct operations, "none of those potential deals have come to pass."

The deadline for bids for the business unit was yesterday.

Delta shares open to public trading

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc.'s new shares began their first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange today at a price below the company's initial projection.

Delta's chief financial officer said he was pleased with the carrier having the second-highest market capitalization in the industry, even as one analyst predicted that ranking would be short-lived.

The Atlanta-based company's shares opened their first public trading day since Delta exited bankruptcy on Monday at $21.75. That pegged Delta's initial market value at $8.7 billion based on the 400 million shares Delta planned to issue. All of those shares were outstanding, but as of today afternoon about 150 million shares had not been issued because of unresolved claims with creditors, a Delta spokesman said.

Dow Jones, S&P, Nasdaq rise

The Dow Jones rose 29.50, or 0.22 percent, to 13,241.38.

The S&P 500 closed at 1,502.39, up 6.47, or 0.43 percent. The Nasdaq composite index rose 7.62, or 0.30 percent, to 2,565.46.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell 49 cents to settle at $63.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling 72 cents Wednesday.

Heating oil futures fell less than a penny to settle at $1.8453 a gallon, while natural gas prices gained 21.7 cents to settle $7.947 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The brent crude contract for June delivery fell 20 cents to settle at $66.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.