IN BRIEF
NEW YORK
Mervyns files for bankruptcy protection
Department store chain Mervyns filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, the latest merchant to become a casualty in a harsh retail environment.
The Hayward, Calif.-based chain, along with certain affiliates, filed for protection from its creditors in U.S. bankruptcy court for the District of Delaware. It said that all of its stores will remain open and business will continue as the company reorganizes.
The privately held retailer, which had been languishing for several years, operates about 175 locations in seven states but primarily in California. It has three stores in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas, Miami lead home price declines
New figures out Tuesday showed home prices fell by a record 15.8 percent in May from a year ago, with none of the 20 cities surveyed registering a price gain, led by 28 percent slumps in Las Vegas and Miami.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index is now down more than 18 percent from its peak in July 2006.
"The key thing is the number of unsold homes out there," said Patrick Newport, a U.S. economist at Global Insight.
"That number has to come down significantly before things can get better." And that won't be until 2010, he predicts.
SAN FRANCISCO
Irked Pickens dumps shares of Yahoo
Billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens has sold all of his holdings in Yahoo in a pique over the way the Internet company's management handled sales talks with Microsoft Corp.
Pickens told the San Francisco Chronicle that he sold all 10 million of his Yahoo shares at a loss, because he grew frustrated with the company's repeated rebuffs of Microsoft's advances.
"I think that Yahoo management was pathetic," Pickens told the Chronicle in a story published Tuesday.
Pickens declined to quantify his losses, but he acquired his stake in mid-May when Yahoo was trading between $24 and $28 per share.
NEW YORK
Crude oil prices fall $2.54 per barrel
Oil prices tumbled more than $2 a barrel Tuesday, finishing at their lowest level in seven weeks as a stronger dollar and beliefs that record prices are eroding the world's thirst for energy sparked another sell-off.
The drop -- which surpassed $4 a barrel at one point during the day -- was a throwback to oil's nosedive over the past two weeks and outweighed supply concerns touched off by a militant attack Monday on two Nigerian crude pipelines. It was oil's seventh decline in the last 10 sessions.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $2.54 to settle at $122.19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest settlement price for a front-month contract since June 10. Earlier, prices fell to $120.42, also the lowest level since June 10.
Crude oil has now fallen more than $25 from its trading high of $147.27, reached July 11.
NEW YORK
Starbucks plans to cut 1,000 jobs
Starbucks Corp., which already plans to shut 600 stores, said Tuesday it is also cutting almost 1,000 office jobs as part of its bid to re-energize the brand and boost its profit.
Of the new cuts, 550 of the positions are layoffs and the rest are unfilled jobs.
NEW YORK
Treasury bond prices show drop
Treasury bond prices dipped Tuesday as investors cashed in profits from the previous session's rally and re-entered the stock market on tumbling oil prices.
The 10-year Treasury note fell 0.31 points to 98.63 points. Its yield rose to 4.04 percent from 4.01 percent on Monday, according to BGCantor Market Data.
The 30-year long bond fell 0.31 points to 95.88 points. Its yield rose to 4.63 percent from 4.62 percent Monday.
