Saturday, February 15, 1997

Briefcase

Electric Boat to cut jobs

Electric Boat will have to cut 1,000 to 1,500 jobs this year due to a declining work load, the company's president said. Union officials expect the first layoff notices Monday.

Detroit unions offer to return

The unions on strike for 19 months against Detroit's daily newspapers made an unconditional offer to return to work. Officials of The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press did not immediately return calls for comment. Union leaders called the offer a legal maneuver, not a surrender.

CSX extends offer

CSX Corp. extended its latest offer to purchase Conrail Inc. stock just a month after shareholders refused to approve a merger of the rail giants. CSX has offered to buy 20.1 percent of Conrail's shares at $110 a share to bring its ownership of Conrail to 40 percent. CSX would acquire the remaining 60 percent of Conrail through a stock offer.

Border to benefit from shutdown

Major U.S. cutbacks by Thomson Consumer Electronics, including the closure of the world's largest television factory, eventually will give the border an economic boost. Thomson will open another factory in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, creating 1,500 jobs, and give El Paso businesses an expanded market to sell supplies.

Producer prices fall

Prices at the wholesale level, pulled down by tumbling food costs, posted the first decline in more than two years in January while output at the nation's factories moderated. "That means more thumbs-up for the economy," said economist Robert Dederick of Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago.

Soybean, wheat lower

Soybean and wheat futures prices retreated on the Chicago Board of Trade after expectations for new export business went unfulfilled. Corn futures were mixed.

Newsprint makers to merge

Abitibi-Price Inc., the world's largest newsprint producer, has announced it will merge with competitor Stone-Consolidated Corp. in a deal worth about $1.7 billion. The stock-swap transaction will create a new company called Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.

Coffee futures retreat

Coffee futures prices retreated for the first time in a week on New York's Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange, reflecting concern that industry estimates released next week will suggest Brazil's production is near normal.

Oil prices higher

Oil futures prices rose as a work stoppage at Petroleos de Venezuela and a continuing strike by public workers in Colombia raised some concerns about crude supply.

Yahoo! founders endow chair

Yahoo! The founders of the Internet company with the funny name have endowed a $2 million chair at Stanford University two years after they dropped out to pursue their fortune. Filo, 30, and Jerry Yang, 28, are worth about $140 million each as a result of their Internet directory company, which went public last spring.