IN BRIEF

Hiring to begin for Encore casino

Casino developer Steve Wynn says hiring will begin Sunday for 5,300 positions at his new Encore resort on the Strip.

Wynn said he sees good and bad in the current economic slump, which he thinks is affecting other hotels and casinos more than his high-end Wynn Las Vegas resort.

Wynn figures employees at other places might be reluctant to leave jobs to start a new job with a probationary period at the $2.1 billion Encore. But he also says people who've been laid off might be looking to find work at what he calls "a joint that's pretty stable."

Encore, with 2,034 rooms, is due to open by the end of the year adjacent to the Wynn Las Vegas resort on the Strip.

Company officials say hiring is going to be handled online.

Company makes offer for Republic Services

Waste Management on Monday made an unsolicited offer to buy disposal company Republic Services for $6.19 billion in cash, aiming to block its biggest rivals from teaming up against the nation's largest garbage hauler.

The deal represented a counter offer to Republic's planned acquisition of Allied Waste Industries announced in late June. Republic agreed to pay Allied Waste shareholders 0.45 worth of a Republic share for each Allied share they held.

The stock deal between No. 2 Republic Services and No. 3 Allied Waste Industries was worth $6.07 billion at the time.

Republic, the dominant trash hauler and recycler in the Las Vegas area, said its board of directors will review the $34 per share offer from Waste Management and respond "in due course."

Reno lender files for bankruptcy

Cetus Mortgage Ltd., a hard-money lender based in Reno, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, the day after the Nevada Mortgage Lending Division took control of its property and records.

The bankruptcy filing indicates that Cetus has fewer than 50 creditors, less than $1 million in assets and less than $500,000 in liabilities. Those totals appear to exclude loans that Cetus made to home builders on behalf of individual investors.

First National Bank of Nevada filed a notice in bankruptcy court on Friday, identifying itself as a creditor of Cetus.

The bank didn't disclose the amount that Cetus owes it, but the liability may be a loan backed by collateral, because Cetus president Marcilin Benvin didn't list First National on its list of the 20 largest unsecured creditors.

Five local Starbucks will shutter doors

Five local Starbucks stores will close in Las Vegas as part of the company's plans to shutter 600 stores in the United States in the next year.

Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. announced the closures last month and said the affected stores were underperforming outlets.

The local stores that will be affected are at 4810 W. Desert Inn Road, 2510 E. Tropicana Avenue, 5181 W. Charleston Boulevard, 3720 Lake Mead Boulevard and 6515 N. Buffalo Drive.

The nationwide closures are expected to boost the company's earnings by $100 million a year.

NEW YORK

Oil settles above $145 barrel price

Oil settled above $145 a barrel for the third time this month, close to where it began on Monday, after a back-and-forth trading session that mimicked last week's wild swings.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery gained 10 cents to settle at $145.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange -- just over a dime short of the all-time settlement high. Earlier, the contract dipped as low as $142.49 and rose as high as $146.37.

"There's a bit of a tug of war going on," said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn. "You've got some people in here trying to buy the dips a little bit ... but we're kind of stuck trading inside of Friday's range," when prices gyrated by nearly $6 and set a new trading record of $147.27.

WASHINGTON

Interest rates fall in T-bill auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday's auction, with rates on three-month bills dropping to the lowest level since late April.

The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.610 percent, down from 1.865 percent last week, and $23 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 1.955 percent, down from 2.060 percent last week.

The three-month rate was the lowest since these bills averaged 1.420 percent on April 28. The six-month rate was the lowest since these bills averaged 1.950 percent on June 2.

Bond prices rebound in wake of bank failure

Treasury bond prices rebounded Monday on concerns that more financial institutions could fail in the wake of IndyMac's demise.

In late trading, the 10-year Treasury note rose 0.78 to 100.13. Its yield dropped to 3.86 percent from 3.96 percent on Friday, according to BGCantor Market Data.

Yields move in the opposite direction from prices.

The 30-year long bond rose 1.53 points to 98.66 points. Its yield fell to 4.46 percent from 4.54 percent on Friday.

The 2-year note rose 0.28 points to 100.78, and yielded 2.46 percent, down from 2.60 percent.

The 3-month Treasury bill's yield fell to 1.50 percent from 1.59 percent on Friday, and the discount rate fell to 1.48 percent from 1.57 percent.

Also Monday, mortgage financier Freddie Mac auctioned $3 billion in short-term securities.