IN BRIEF
Union workers sign up for strike benefits
Although they are still working, unionized maids, cooks and other casino workers in Las Vegas signed up for strike benefits on Tuesday.
The Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 hosted a mobile sign-up station for strike benefits downtown.
About 10,000 workers, including employees at most downtown casinos, are working on extensions of five-year-old contracts while they seek new labor deals.
Last week union members voted to authorize union negotiators to call a strike if talks with 14 casinos and two laundries break down.
The union has amassed an $80 million strike fund which members would be able to access if a strike happens.
DETROIT
UAW boss warns of setting strike deadline
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger has warned his members that the union will be setting a strike deadline if negotiations with General Motors Corp. do not progress faster.
The message, given to local union presidents and chairpersons, was delivered late Monday but was not received by many UAW members until Tuesday.
"We do not take your patience for granted and recognize that the negotiations process must accelerate in an expeditious manner or we will be forced to establish a firm deadline," Gettelfinger and UAW vice president Cal Rapson, who represents GM employees, said in the message obtained by the Detroit Free Press.
The warning comes as the UAW and GM have been locked in overtime negotiations since late Friday.
SAN FRANCISCO
Intel announces date to release new chips
Intel Corp. fired a pair of technical salvos at smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday, announcing a November launch date for its next generation of chips and showing off its momentum in manufacturing technology.
Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini told a crowd of thousands at the Intel Developer Forum here that the company's next cycle of microprocessors, code-named Penryn, will begin shipping Nov. 12.
Microprocessors are the calculating engines inside personal computers and the servers that power corporate networks and the Internet. Intel is the world microprocessor leader, commanding more than three-quarters of the market.
Its new chips boast a 20 percent performance boost and increased energy efficiency over the previous generation, partly because of advances in chip-making technology that shrinks the size of the circuitry and new materials used inside the transistors.
NEW YORK
Another record close for crude-oil futures
Oil futures rose to new records Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a larger than expected half percentage point, raising market hopes that economic growth will accelerate and lift demand even as crude oil and gasoline inventories are tight.
A barrel of crude surged to a new trading high of $81.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the moments immediately after the Fed's decision. While light, sweet crude for October delivery settled at $81.51 a barrel, up 94 cents, prices continued to rise after the Nymex closed, hitting $82.38 in afternoon electronic trading.
Investors had already priced a quarter-point cut in the benchmark federal funds rate into the market, said Brad Samples, a commodities analyst at Summit Energy Services in Louisville, Ky. The half-point cut spurred even more buying.
CINCINNATI
Quarterly profits up 28 percent for Kroger
Kroger Co. said Tuesday its profit jumped 28 percent in the second quarter, topping analyst expectations. The nation's largest traditional grocery chain boosted its outlook for the year. Its shares rose 7.5 percent.
The supermarket operator said it earned $267.3 million, or 38 cents per share, for the three months ended Aug. 18, up from $209 million, or 29 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 6.6 percent to $16.14 billion from $15.14 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 34 cents per share on revenue of $16.02 billion.
NEW YORK
As Fed cut buoys stocks, Treasurys slide
Long-term Treasury prices fell Tuesday as investors celebrated the Federal Reserve's half-point cut in interest rates by shifting their money out of bonds and into stocks.
Treasurys initially rallied on the news of the cut in the federal funds rate to 4.75 percent from 5.25 percent, But they later came under pressure, with the long end bearing the brunt of selling, as investors, no longer wanting the safety of the government bonds, switched to equities.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note closed 0.03 points lower at 102.16 with a yield of 4.47 percent, unchanged from Monday's close.
But the 30-year long bond dropped 0.88 points to close at 103.84 with a yield of 4.75 percent, against 4.71 percent at Monday's close.
