The prospect of better times ahead lifted Yahoo's stock price nearly 10 percent late Tuesday.

The Sunnyvale-based company said it earned $151.3 million during the three months ended in September. That was 5 percent less than its net income of $158.5 million in the same period last year.

The earnings were 11 cents per share in both periods because Yahoo bought back some of its stock in an attempt to bolster its eroding market value.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Oil futures rallied to a new record of more than $88 a barrel Tuesday on concerns about disruptions to Middle Eastern crude supplies and a growing view that domestic supplies aren't sufficient to meet fourth-quarter demand.

Traders are concerned that a Turkish incursion into Iraq in search of Kurdish rebels could disrupt crude supplies from northern Iraq.

On Tuesday, Turkey's prime minister said Monday's decision to ask Parliament for permission to pursue the rebels was not a sign Turkish forces will act immediately.

The Middle East tensions add to supply concerns that have been stoked in recent days by reports from the Energy Department, the International Energy Agency and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries suggesting oil supplies are flat or falling as demand is growing.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Intel Corp.'s profit leaped 43 percent in the third quarter as cost-cutting, swelling microprocessor demand and a massive restructuring helped the world's largest semiconductor company glide past Wall Street's already-bullish expectations.

The Santa Clara-based chipmaker said Tuesday it earned $1.86 billion, or 31 cents per share, in the three months ended in September. That beat by a penny the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, and it's 43 percent higher than the $1.3 billion, or 22 cents per share, Intel earned in the year-ago period.

Intel is profiting from robust worldwide PC sales that are driving up demand for microprocessors, which act as the brains of those computers.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street sank for a second straight session Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the slumping housing market remains a "significant drag" on the economy.

Bernanke's speech Monday night in New York elevated concerns that the summer's credit tightness might persist into the winter — a sobering thought for investors, who are sifting through mixed third-quarter earnings and watching energy costs rise.

Crude oil prices spiked to another record above $88, and a National Association of Home Builders' index that tracks developers' expectations of future home sales fell for the eighth consecutive month to the lowest point since January 1985. Also Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson echoed Bernanke's concerns, saying the housing market is a significant risk to the economy.

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — LM Ericsson shares plunged nearly 24 percent Tuesday as the wireless network company unexpectedly cut its third-quarter forecast, the latest cell phone technology company to feel the pinch of slowing sales worldwide.

The announcement sparked new concerns about the tighter market that wireless equipment makers, including leader Alcatel-Lucent SA and Nokia Siemens, may face in the coming months. Shares in all of the companies were dragged down in concert with Ericsson's warning.

While Nokia Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent have struggled with integration issues and have cut costs and jobs, Ericsson has so far not had to do so. The company's announcement caught markets by surprise, particularly since none of the concerns were raised during an investor presentation last month.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wells Fargo & Co.'s profit grew at its slowest pace in more than six years during the third quarter, dragged down by deteriorating home loans likely to cause more trouble in the months ahead.

The story was similar at U.S. Bancorp, whose earnings slipped by 2 percent amid a traumatic housing downturn that's threatening to yank the economy into a recession.

Wells Fargo, the fifth largest U.S. bank, said Tuesday that it overcame the rocky market conditions to produce a profit of $2.28 billion, or 68 cents per share, during the three months ended in September. That represented a 4 percent increase from net income of $2.19 billion, or 64 cents per share, a year ago.

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CINCINNATI (AP) — Media company E.W. Scripps, searching to capitalize on its fast-growing cable and Internet-based businesses, said Tuesday it plans to split its stagnant newspaper business into a separate company.

The move comes two weeks after another media company, Belo Corp., said it would spin off its newspaper business, which has been struggling to keep readers and advertising dollars.

Scripps signaled in January that it planned to focus on its growing businesses and might sell or spin off its newspaper operations. Analysts said then that investors would respond well to some type of separation and they did Tuesday, pushing shares up nearly 8 percent.

The Scripps split differs from Belo in that Scripps' television stations would be part of the newspaper company, which some analysts have labeled "old media" business.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Homebuilders are getting gloomier about the slumping housing market, as a 22-year-old index that tracks their sentiment set a new record low Tuesday.

The National Association of Home Builders said its housing market index, which tracks builders' perceptions of conditions and expectations for home sales over the next six months, fell two points to 18 in October, the lowest level since the index began in Jan. 1985. It was the eighth straight monthly decline.

The consensus forecast of economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR was for a reading of 19.

Index readings higher than 50 indicate positive sentiment. The seasonally adjusted index has been below 50 since May 2006.

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BOSTON (AP) — Strength in services overcame a slide in hardware and helped third-quarter earnings rise 6 percent at International Business Machines Corp., enough to beat Wall Street expectations Tuesday.

From July through September, IBM earned $2.36 billion, or $1.68 per share, surpassing the profit of $2.22 billion and $1.45 per share that the Armonk, N.Y.-based technology bellwether posted in the same quarter of 2006.

Earnings per share rose at a much steeper rate than net profit because IBM's aggressive stock buyback plan has taken 130 million shares out of circulation in the past 12 months.

Revenue in the third quarter rose 7 percent to $24.1 billion from $22.6 billion a year ago. However, IBM continued to benefit heavily from weakness in the dollar, which makes deals cheaper for overseas buyers. If not for currency fluctuations, this quarter's rise in revenue would have been 3 percent.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Madonna and concert promoter Live Nation Inc. announced a deal Tuesday that will give the company an all-encompassing stake in the music of the Material Girl, the latest big-name artist to break ranks with a major record label.

Financial terms were not disclosed in the joint statement released by Madonna and Live Nation.

The deal is worth about $120 million over 10 years, a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the matter previously told The Associated Press.

The official announcement came after weeks of speculation that Madonna would abandon Warner Music Group Corp., which refused to match the Live Nation deal.