IN BRIEF

Opening date set for Aliante Station

The $675 million Aliante Station in North Las Vegas will open at 11:11 p.m. on Nov. 11, Station Casinos will announce today.

The 202-room hotel will include a casino, a 16-screen movie theater, 600-seat concert venue, six restaurants, as well as convention space.

Aliante Station is the first joint-venture hotel-casino between Station Casinos and the Greenspun Corp. since the opening of Green Valley Ranch Resort in December 2001.

The property, which will be Station Casinos' 11th hotel-casino, will be the first for Station Casinos since the opening of Red Rock Resort on April 18, 2006.

SYDNEY, Australia

Airlines exec says fuel 'almost out of control'

The chief executive of Australian airline Qantas on Tuesday said skyrocketing fuel prices were "almost out of control" and are forcing the world's airlines to make major changes in the way they do business.

CEO Geoff Dixon invoked rising fuel costs in the Australian carrier's battle with engineers striking for more pay, saying the company will not go along with their demand for a 5 percent increase.

"We will have a record profit this year but we'll also have in the year coming up ... 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.9 billion) more in our fuel bill than the current year," Dixon told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"Everybody, apparently except the engineers, realize that fuel is almost out of control, that all airlines around the world are making major changes to their business and we have to do the same," he said.

He said the fuel crisis was the biggest challenge to the airline industry in up to 40 years -- more serious than the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS -- because it will be longer-lasting.

CINCINNATI

Kroger says deals help lure consumers

Kroger Co. said Tuesday that food, gasoline and drug discounts helped draw budget-strapped consumers for one-stop shopping, and the nation's largest traditional grocer reported profits rose 15 percent in its first quarter.

The results beat Wall Street expectations and helped send Kroger stock up $1.82, or 7 percent, to $27.82 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Kroger earned $386 million, or 58 cents per share, for the quarter ended May 24 compared with a profit of $336.6 million, or 47 cents per share, a year ago. Sales climbed 12 percent to $23.11 billion, from $20.73 billion a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 55 cents a share on revenue of $22.32 billion.

ATLANTA

Pilot negotiators say tentative deal struck

Delta and Northwest pilot negotiators say they have a tentative agreement with Delta management on a joint contract to cover both pilot groups when the companies combine later this year.

Delta's pilots union said in a statement Tuesday that the agreement is between the two pilot groups and Delta management. Terms were not disclosed.

Next the two pilot groups will try to reach an agreement on a merged seniority list.

The joint contract agreement, which covers roughly 12,000 pilots from both airlines, still needs rank-and-file approval and to be reviewed by the governing bodies of the two unions. Both unions' executive committees were scheduled to meet separately later this week.

Delta pilots already have their own deal with management, including pay raises and equity in the combined company. That move angered Northwest pilots, who felt left out by their fellow members of the Air Line Pilots Association.

NEW YORK

Oil futures end with modest gain

Oil futures ended an uneven session with a modest gain Tuesday as traders awaited news that could help the market break out of a trading range that has lasted for more than two weeks. Retail gasoline prices, meanwhile, slid below a national average of $4.07 a gallon.

Some investors were buying in response to another drop in the dollar. When the dollar loses ground, crude and other commodities tend to rise on their appeal as a hedge against inflation. Also, a weaker dollar makes oil less expensive to investors dealing in other currencies. Many analysts believe the dollar's protracted decline has been one of the main reasons oil has nearly doubled in value over the past year.

But Tuesday's advance was limited by concerns about the impact high prices are having on demand, and worries about Congress' increasing scrutiny of the oil market.

In a weekly report, MasterCard's SpendingPulse survey found that demand for gasoline fell 2.7 percent last week compared to the same week last year, and is off by an average of 3.6 percent over the past four weeks compared to the same period in 2007.

NEW YORK

Treasury bonds rise on confidence report

Treasury bonds rose Tuesday on a report that consumer confidence fell in June more than economists expected, another indication that higher gasoline and food prices are taking a toll on consumer spending. The market was also awaiting the results of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting on interest rates.

The benchmark 10-year note rose 0.625 points to 98.28 points, and its yield fell to 4.09 percent from 4.17 percent late Monday, according to BGCantor Market Data.