IN BRIEF
New Jersey court will hear Tropicana petition
The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear Tropicana Entertainment's petition to regain its license in hopes of regaining control of the Tropicana Atlantic City, the company announced Friday.
Tropicana Entertainment lost control of its largest revenue generator in December when the state's Casino Control Commission revoked the company's license, forcing the property's sales. A state appeals court upheld the decision in July.
Although no date has been set for the hearing, the timetable for the property's sale may have to be pushed until after the court's decision is rendered, which could take a year.
A state-appointed conservator of the hotel-casino said in September that negotiations had begun to sell the property to Baltimore-based developer Cordish Co. for $700 million.
NEW YORK
Gloom over fiscal crisis sends oil prices down
The stunning collapse in oil markets accelerated Friday, with a barrel plunging below $78 as investors grow more pessimistic about a mushrooming global economic crisis.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell $8.89 to settle at $77.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest settlement price for a front-month crude contract since Sept. 10, 2007.
Crude has now lost 47 percent of its value since hitting a record $147.27 on July 11 as a deepening credit crisis sparked by the subprime mortgage fiasco wreaks havoc around the globe and drives down energy demand.
DETROIT
Executive says Ford money won't run out
While his company's stock slipped to an astonishingly low $1.99 per share, Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally said Friday that the automaker is conserving cash and won't run out of money before the economic slowdown ends.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Mulally also said bankruptcy would make no sense for Ford, and he's not worried about a takeover even as the stock hit its lowest level in 25 years.
Ford has burned through nearly $11 billion of its cash stockpile in the past year, but Mulally said it is not in danger of running out because it has taken out a large line of credit and has other ways to raise money through debt or equity as the automaker continues to put restructuring plans into place.
"Cash is really, really important, so we are managing that very carefully," the former Boeing Co. executive said. "We're clearly focusing on the cash, and everybody is working on minimizing the expenses to the absolutely critical things that are needed to implement our plans."
HARTFORD, Conn.
General Electric profits decline by 22 percent
General Electric Co. spared investors any nasty surprises as it reported a 22 percent drop in third-quarter earnings on Friday, meeting its own lowered forecast and blaming the decline on its struggling finance arm.
The company's loan and lease business has been hammered by the worst financial crisis since the 1929 stock market crash.
GE, which also makes everything from jet engines to water treatment systems and owns NBC Universal, reported net income of $4.3 billion, or 43 cents per share.
A year earlier, the company earned $5.56 billion, or 54 cents.
Sales rose 11 percent to $47.23 billion.
The Fairfield, Conn.-based company has cited softening profits at GE Capital, which provides financing ranging from consumer car loans to energy project lending.
DETROIT
General Motors may cut production again
General Motors Corp. is likely to announce further production cuts and possible plant closures as early as next week as it deals with slumping sales and a collapse in its stock price, a person with knowledge of the company's plans said Friday.
The person, who did not want to be identified because the plans aren't final, said the cuts likely will hit engine, transmission and stamping operations to correspond with a June announcement that GM would close four truck and sport utility vehicle assembly plants.
The closures of those assembly plants likely will be accelerated, the person said. GM announced last week that its Moraine, Ohio, sport utility vehicle factory will close Dec. 23, and it has said it will idle assembly factories in Oshawa, Ontario; Toluca, Mexico; and Janesville, Wis., by 2010.
Revenue drops at casinos in New Jersey
Casino revenue in Atlantic City, N.J., posted the biggest monthly decline since gambling started there in 1978 because soaring fuel and food costs left U.S. consumers with less money for entertainment.
In September, gambling proceeds fell 15 percent to $356 million, exceeding the previous record of an almost 14 percent decline set in January 1994.
Revenue from tables at the city's 11 casinos slid 6.2 percent, while slot machine play dropped 19 percent, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission said Friday in an e-mailed statement.
Gambling revenue at Atlantic City, the second-biggest U.S. gambling center, fell 6.3 percent to $3.6 billion in the year through September.
SEATTLE
Investor proposes new deal to sell off Yahoo
A small investor in Yahoo Inc. proposed a new deal on Thursday to sell the company to Microsoft Corp. for $22 a share, a 74 percent premium to the Web pioneer's current stock price.
Under the proposal by investment fund Mithras Capital, Microsoft would unload Yahoo's Asian assets and nonsearch businesses, extract $3 billion worth of cost savings and receive $2.8 billion of tax benefits, meaning the software giant would pay $10.3 billion for Yahoo's search business.
Mithras Capital, which owns more than 1.9 million shares, or 0.14 percent, of Yahoo, said in a statement that the proposal allows Microsoft to buy Yahoo's search business for $2 billion less than it offered in July.
Talks between the two companies broke off in July after Yahoo rejected Microsoft's proposal to buy its search business and enact a revenue sharing partnership.
As economic summit nears, Treasurys slide
Treasury prices fell Friday as traders looked ahead to this weekend's G-7 finance ministers meeting.
The 10-year note fell 0.88 points to 100.88 and yielded 3.86 percent, up from 3.76 percent.
