Chrysler Building Sold to Abu Dhabi; 2,500 Employees Depart From Northwest; Icici Bank on the Prowl; OPEC Revenue to Jump 86%; Steve & Barry’s Bankruptcy; Bear Market S&P; Busch to Shareholders: Just Say No; Bank of America Chief Sees Mid-Year Recovery New York’s Chrysler Building, the an iconic piece of the city’s skyline and the world’s tallest building until 1931, was bought by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Tuesday. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council paid Abu Dhabi Investment Council acquired the Chrysler Building from a fund managed by Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU). Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) said yesterday (Wednesday) that it will cut 2,500 jobs because of high oil prices, and start charging $15 to check a single piece of luggage and as much as $100 to redeem a frequent-flier award ticket, the Associated Press reported. The ...

Siemens Slashes Jobs; Southwest Cozies Up to Canada; VMWare Axes CEO; Office Depot Drops on Dismal Sales; Oil Drops $10 in a Week; Fed’s New Lending Restrictions; Anheuser Busch Sues InBev; ConocoPhilips Strikes Deal with Abu Dhabi Siemens AG (ADR: SI) announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it would eliminate almost 17,000 positions to prepare for a global economic downturn. The Germany-based industrial giant hopes to achieve $1.9 billion (1.2 billion euros) in cost savings by 2010. Chief Executive Peter Loescher said Siemens needed to be faster, more efficient and have a leaner administration if it hoped to compete, Reuters reported. Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) and Canada-based WestJet Airlines Ltd. yesterday (Tuesday) announced a marketing alliance that is planned to go into effect in 2009. “This gives WestJet exactly what they need in terms of growing their trans-border ...

InBev Seeks Overthrow of AB Board; Microsoft Open to New Talks with Yahoo; Crude Retreats; Merrill Lynch to Write Down $6 billion; Freddie and Fannie Tumble; Tighter Fed?; Greenback Weighs on Gold; Prius Goes Solar Belgian brewer InBev NV announced yesterday (Monday) that it would attempt to remove the entire Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD) board of directors after InBev’s $46.3 billion hostile takeover offer bid was rejected. InBev is seeking to use a process outlined in Anheuser- Busch’s bylaws that allows shareholders to vote on a new board without a meeting, Bloomberg News reported. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said yesterday (Monday) that it would be willing to reopen talks to buy all or part of Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), but only if a new Yahoo board is elected, Reuters reported. Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier ...

Oil Over $143; GM Falls to 54-year Low; Starbucks Closes 600 Stores; Nikkei Post 10th Straight Loss; United Health Lands in the Emergency Ward; 900 American Flight Attendants on Standby; Blockbuster Abandons Bid; Microsoft at it Again; Crude futures closed yesterday (Wednesday) at a record $143.57 a barrel in New York after the U.S. Department of Energy announced a 2 million barrel decline in supply last week. Earlier, crude had traded for as high as $143.91 on Globex, MarketWatch reported. Shares of General Motors Corp. (GM) plunged Wednesday to their lowest level in 54 years yesterday (Wednesday), as investors shrugged off better-than-expected June sales and analysts raised concerns about the company’s cash needs, The Associated Press reported. In afternoon trading, GM shares fell as low as $9.98, their lowest level since hitting $10.36 a share on Sept. 21, 1954. Starbucks ...

Countrywide Deal Closes; Expanding Manufacturing; Conduct Trouble at Moody’s; Hong Kong Holiday; Construction Spending Down for 11th Straight Month; Constellation Toasts to Profit; AT&T Drops iPhone Contract; BP Employees Ridden Out of Russia Bank of America Corp. (BAC) announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it had completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC). The all-stock deal was initially announced in January. Bank of America expects to eliminate 7,500 jobs now that the acquisition is complete, MarketWatch reported. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of manufacturing activity had a 0.6 gain to 50.2 in June, the first measurement since January that showed the manufacturing sector was expanding. “While it may be too soon to say that manufacturing has begun to start growing again, it is possible that a bottom is being reached,” Joel Naroff, president and chief economist ...

Canada Staving off Recession; H&R Block Rebounds; Kellogg Buys Chinese Cookie Kingpin; Occidental Petroleum: New $1.1 Billion Hydrocarbon Plant; This Bud’s Not For You; Eurzone Inflation Hits 4%; Dubai Ties Into Russia’s Energy Sector; Tyson Takes a Bite Out of Indian Food Poultry Processor Canada posted 0.4% economic growth for the month of April, after falling in the red for the first three months of the year - its first negative quarter in five years. Economists warned this rebound isn’t forward looking, as U.S. demand is still low amid the subprime credit fallout and high gasoline costs, Bloomberg reported. Tax preparing leader H&R Block Inc. (HRB) said yesterday (Monday) that it posted 11% revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, a dramatic shift from its previous quarterly loss. The company benefited from the sale of its Option One ...

Report: Toyota Plunking $1 Billion on Brazil Plant; India Housing Boom Ending; GDP Revised Up; Home Sales Rise, Values Fall; Anheuser Busch to Reject InBev Bid; Bank of America Sheds Jobs; Gold Shares Glow; Oshkosh Plunges on Lowered Outlook Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) plans to drop more than $1 billion on a new factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Valor Economico reported without citing a source. The new factory would be a bid to capture a share of the economic growth and rising incomes in South America. A pair of mortgage executives in India said the country’s five-year property boom is coming to an end as the number of available homes increases along with interest rates. "Due to the state of the equity markets, many investors who would have bought a second or a third house ...

New Home Sales Plummet; Mexico Staves off U.S. Slowdown; Monsanto Reaps Big Rewards; MasterCard Pays AmEx $1.8 Billion; Buffett Concerned About Stagflation; Reduced Damages for Exxon; Nike Strong in Asia; More Cuts for Penney’s As the Federal Reserve pondered interest rates yesterday, the Commerce Department released data showing that sales of new single-family homes fell 2.5% in May from April, and more than 40% year-over-year. In a separate report, new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods were unchanged in May after two months of decline, Reuters reported. Unlike our northern neighbor, Mexico has been fairly able to stave off the effects of the U.S. slowdown. Agustin Carstens, Mexico’s finance minister, said that the Mexican economy grew more than 3% in the first half, Bloomberg reported.  For the medium to long term, the government may reevaluate its gasoline subsidy, he ...

Kodak Announces $1 Billion Buyback; Kroger Lowers Prices, Posts Profit; BP Breaks Ground on Wind Farm; Reliance and Dreamworks in Talks; Lukoil Joins Up With Italy’s ERG; Wachovia Brings in Goldman Sachs; Dow Hikes Prices; Yahoo and Microsoft Back in Talks Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) rose the most in 20 years as it boldly announced it will buyback $1 billion of its stock using a tax refund. The refund comes from an audit of the company’s taxes from 1993 to 1998, Bloomberg reported. The company posted a first-quarter loss in April. Kroger Co. (KR), the largest chain of U.S. grocery stores, beat analysts’ first-quarter earnings by lowering prices on the shelves and offering gasoline discounts, Reuters reported. The Cincinnati-based company Kroger posted a profit of $386 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a profit ...

Circuit City Falls, Cuts Dividend; Mitsubishi Working on Plug-In Line; Continental and United Buddy Up; Western Oil Back in Iraq; Citi CFO Sees More Trouble; Bear Stearns Execs Arrested; Transocean and BP Extend Drilling Contract; Bank of America to Takeover Countrywide by July In reporting a $164.8 million loss (or $1 per share), electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. (CC) suspended its 4-cent dividend. The company also forecast a wider second-quarter loss but said it expects a “gradual recovery” in the second half, Reuters reported. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (PINK: MMTOF) plans to introduce a line of plug-in hybrids as soon as 2013. The company’s all-electric i MiEV minicar plans to be charged from a standard electric outlet. About 1,000 of them will go on sale to fleet customers starting April 1, 2009, Bloomberg reported. Continental Airlines ...