IN BRIEF

WASHINGTON

Acura, Ford products top crash safety lists

The 2007 Acura MDX sport utility vehicle and the 2008 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable passenger cars received top scores in new crash tests being released today by the insurance industry.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave its highest score of "good" in frontal, side and rear-impact testing for the vehicles, built by Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co.

The MDX, Taurus and Sable received the Institute's "top safety pick" award, given to vehicles that receive the highest scores on the crash tests and have electronic stability control.

Some analysts upbeat on prospects for gold

Gold may rebound from the biggest decline since March on speculation the dollar will weaken against the euro, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment.

Fourteen of the 31 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg from Sydney to Chicago on Thursday and Friday advised buying gold, which fell 2.5 percent to $672.30 an ounce last week on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Eight said to sell and nine were neutral.

Five of the past six bear markets in the U.S. currency led to a higher gold price. The metal is up 5.4 percent this year while the dollar has fallen 2.4 percent against the euro.

NEW YORK

Wal-Mart adding online calling gear

Wal-Mart Stores is adding an array of Skype phone gear to the electronics section in 1,800 stores, bringing the renegade provider of cheap calling over the Internet to a huge mainstream audience.

The dedicated Skype section will feature handsets, headsets and webcams designed to work with Skype, a provider of free and very cheap long-distance calls, including to phone numbers abroad. Wal-Mart will also sell the first prepaid cards for Skype calls to be sold in this country, the companies were announcing today.

The new section at more than half of Wal-Mart's about 3,300 U.S. stores will feature Skype-compatible gear made by Motorola, Plantronics, Logitech International SA, Royal Philips Electronics NV and others.