BUSINESS BRIEFS
Wal-Mart's low prices paying off
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with its emphasis on low prices and improved merchandise, is stealing market share from competitors and is well-positioned for the holiday season, CEO and President Lee Scott told investors yesterday.
The company, nevertheless, is scaling back the growth of its namesake stores in the U.S. and focusing on remodeling existing locations as it responds to a tough consumer spending climate.
FED INTEREST RATE MAY DROP TO 1%
NEW YORK — The still-cinched credit markets are anticipating a half-point interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this week, but investors are worried it won't be enough to quickly revive the economy.
The Fed has been slashing rates and taking unprecedented action to get market participants back in the lending mood, including launching a facility yesterday to buy the short-term corporate debt known as commercial paper.
But the central bank has reduced its key rate — the target federal funds rate — to 1.5 percent. After the Fed's meeting tomorrow, the market predicts it will be down to 1 percent.
VERIZON EARNINGS FOR QUARTER UP 31%
NEW YORK — Verizon Communications Inc. said yesterday earnings rose 31 percent in the third quarter as wireless did better than expected, while its traditional phone business continued to decline.
The country's second-largest telecommunications company, after AT&T Inc., earned $1.67 billion, or 59 cents per share, up from $1.27 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 4.1 percent to $24.7 billion.
NEWSPAPERS SEE CIRCULATION DROP
NEW YORK — Circulation at the nation's daily newspapers is falling faster than anticipated this year as readers continue their migration to the Internet and papers narrow their distribution to cut costs.
The development, which compounds the fiscal challenge of plummeting advertising revenue, was revealed yesterday when the Audit Bureau of Circulations released sales totals reported by newspapers for April through September.
Combined weekday circulation of all 507 papers that reported circulation totals this year and last averaged 38,165,848 in the six months ending in September, 4.6 percent below 40,022,356 a year earlier.
OIL PRICES BOUNCE BACK AFTER BIG DIP
HOUSTON — Oil prices waffled yesterday, touching their lowest levels in nearly a year and a half but also showing some strength after a surprisingly upbeat home sales report gave investors a glimmer of hope that the housing market might rebound and help ease the economy's many problems.
Crude finally ended the day falling less than a dollar.
Oil dropped as low at $61.30 a barrel in early trading before rising in response to the Commerce Department report that sales of new single-family homes rose by 2.7 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 464,000 homes.
