IN BRIEF

FRANKFURT

Plan for Opel includes new models, target to break even

General Motors Co.'s top European official said Friday that a plan for Opel to be unveiled next month will include a schedule to launch new models and a financial break-even target.

Nick Reilly's comments in an official GM blog came as the U.S. automaker completes its restructuring plan for Opel and British sister brand Vauxhall, a program it has said will result in about 9,000 job cuts across the continent.

GM is in consultations with European government officials and employee representatives.

Reilly said this week that the up to 60 percent of the job cuts could come from Germany, and that the future of an Opel plant in Antwerp, Belgium is "uncertain."

STOCKHOLM

General Motors says suitors show interest in buying Saab

A spokeswoman for General Motors' Saab unit says several potential buyers have expressed interest in the Swedish brand after a group pulled out of a deal to acquire it.

On Tuesday, a group led by Sweden's Koenigsegg Automotive AB dropped out of a deal to buy Saab that had been in the works since June.

Saab spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs says a few potential buyers have approached Saab after the deal fell through. She didn't identify the potential suitors Friday but said Saab was in close contact with more than one.

A person briefed on GM's plans said Wednesday that it hasn't talked to any potential buyers. Saab has been in a court-protected restructuring since Feb. 20.

TORONTO

Canadian court says Wal-Mart has right to close its store

The Supreme Court of Canada said Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was entitled to close a store in Quebec in 2005, seven months after workers voted to become the first Wal-Mart store in North America to unionize.

The highest court in Canada ruled in a 6-3 margin that the multinational had the right to shut down the outlet in Jonquiere, Quebec, and lay off 190 employees.

Justice Ian Binnie wrote for the majority, saying that the court had "endorsed the view that no legislation obliges an employer to remain in business." And that, "the closure did not constitute an unfair labor practice aimed at hindering the union or the employees from exercising rights under the labor code."

A Wal-Mart Canada spokesman said the ruling is consistent with previous decisions from a Quebec labor commission and the Quebec Superior Court and Quebec Court of Appeal.

The world's largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Ark., opened its Jonquiere, Quebec, store in 2001.

In September 2004, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union was certified to represent employees of the Wal-Mart store, becoming the retailer's first employees in North America to form a union.

Wal-Mart closed the store in April 2005, just before an arbitrator was to impose a collective agreement for the 190 recently unionized employees.

Cadbury investors should sell shares, research firm says

Cadbury Plc investors should sell their shares in the U.K. candy maker because Kraft Foods Inc. is unlikely to raise its cash-and-stock offer above the current share price, Consumer Equity Research said Friday.

According to James Targett, an analyst at the London-based research company, there are "few viable bidders" for Cadbury, meaning Kraft Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld has "good reason to remain disciplined" and not pay too much.

Kraft's hostile bid for the confectioner, worth 10.3 billion pounds ($16.9 billion), or 723 pence a share, is the only offer to be made so far. Hershey Co.'s controlling trust has asked the company to make a $17 billion offer for the Dairy Milk maker, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Hershey press officers have declined to comment on whether the company will make a bid.

NEW YORK

Crude oil prices fall by biggest percentage since January

Shades of the roiling energy markets that were set off last year by the crisis on Wall Street emerged again Friday, with crude seeing the largest percentage price drop since January.

The sell-off this time followed troubling news from Dubai, which asked lenders for a six-month reprieve on payments for about $60 billion in debt.

Benchmark crude prices fell 7 percent in early trading, though those declines eased as investors weighed chances that Dubai's woes would spread to Europe, Asia and the U.S. Crude finished down $1.91 on Friday to settle at $76.05 a barrel.

It was partly the fear of frozen credit markets last year that sent crude prices from $147 per barrel in July to about $32 by December.

ST. LOUIS

After rough year, wine sales makes spirited comeback

The wine usually starts flowing around the holidays -- and this year, wine sellers are happy to say, it's flowing a little more.

After a slow holiday season in 2008 and a rough year, wine outlets, both bars and stores, are seeing better days. During the weekend before Thanksgiving, sales were higher than the same weekend last year, when consumers scaled back as the recession deepened.

But 2009 could shape up to be a better year, particularly if holiday sales continue on a comeback track. That's big news for an industry that produced about $30 billion in sales in 2008.