AP

AP
Business Highlights
Monday November 17, 7:17 pm ET

Stocks finish lower as recession worries deepen

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street finished sharply lower Monday as investors pored over more signs of economic weakness, including a huge round of layoffs at Citigroup Inc.

Stocks zigzagged throughout the session, finally giving way to a stream of late-day selling that left the Dow Jones industrials lower by 223 points to 8,273.58.

A better-than-expected reading on industrial production did little to boost investor sentiment, and markets were nervously waiting to see if the nation's troubled automakers would get a bailout.

Citigroup to shed another 53,000 jobs

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup Inc. is shedding approximately 53,000 more employees in the coming quarters as the banking giant struggles to steady itself after suffering massive losses from deteriorating debt.

The New York-based bank, which has already reduced its assets by about 20 percent since the first quarter of the year, also plans to trim expenses by 19 percent in 2009 from third-quarter levels, to $50 billion.

The plans, posted on the company's Web site, were discussed by CEO Vikram Pandit at the company's town hall meeting in New York Monday with employees.

Industrial output posts rebound in October

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Industrial output posted a bigger-than-expected rebound in October after plunging in September by the largest amount in over 60 years.

The Federal Reserve said Monday that industrial output rose 1.3 percent last month, reflecting a return to more normal operations following hurricanes and a strike at aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. the previous month.

The 1.3 percent increase in October was bigger than the 0.2 percent rise that economists expected, but the September decline was worse than the 2.8 percent drop originally reported.

Aid prospects darken for desperate US carmakers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prospects dimmed on Monday for the $25 billion bailout that U.S. automakers say they desperately need to get through a bleak and dangerous December.

Though all sides agree that Detroit's Big Three carmakers are in peril, battered by the economic meltdown that has choked their sales and frozen loans, the White House and congressional Democrats are headed for stalemate over the government money that might go toward helping them.

Target plans price cuts despite lower 3Q earnings

NEW YORK (AP) -- Target Corp. said Monday it will aggressively cut prices to give consumers bargains during the holiday season, even as weak sales of its apparel and home offerings led third-quarter earnings to fall 24 percent.

The discount retailer also said sales in established stores have been weak so far in November, and if that persists it expects fourth-quarter earnings below analyst expectations. Profit for the three months ended Nov. 1 fell to $369 million, or 49 cents per share, from $483 million, or 56 cents per share, last year.

Another major economy in recession; crude falls

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Oil prices fell below $56 Monday and gasoline futures plunged to a new low as Japan joined a number of European nations in recession and provided even more evidence of a broad deterioration in demand for energy.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery dropped $2.11 to settle at $55.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures fell 5 percent, or 6.45 cents to $1.1746 a gallon after earlier touching a 52-week low of $1.168.

Lowe's 3Q profit falls 24 percent on slow spending

CHICAGO (AP) -- Lowe's Cos. Inc. posted better-than-expected third-quarter results Monday, even as profit slid more than 24 percent because shoppers postponed big-ticket purchases amid growing economic uncertainty.

The nation's No. 2 home improvement chain said it earned $488 million, or 33 cents per share during the three months ending Oct. 31 -- down from $643 million, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.

SEC charges Mark Cuban with insider trading

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators on Monday charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.

Cuban disputed the Securities and Exchange Commission's allegations and said he would contest them.

In a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas, the SEC alleged that in June 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by Mamma.com Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private. The agency said Cuban knew the shares would be sold below the current market price.

Further signs of stress in Canada's oil sands

TORONTO (AP) -- Canada's booming oil sands industry showed more signs of cooling off Monday as crude prices continued their long plummet from record summer highs.

Petro-Canada and its partners Teck Cominco Ltd. and UTS Energy Corp. postponed a decision on further investment in a $19.5 billion oil sands project in northern Alberta and shelved plans to build an upgrade refinery -- becoming the latest to postpone investment decisions on a mine and the latest to ditch upgrades.

Putnam Investments to cut 47 jobs, merge funds

BOSTON (AP) -- Putnam Investments said Monday it will cut 47 jobs, including 12 portfolio managers, and merge six of its stock mutual funds into larger funds under a restructuring by the company's new top executive.

Robert Reynolds, a former Fidelity Investments executive named Putnam's president and chief executive in June, said he also will assign more responsibility to individual fund managers rather than putting small groups in charge of each fund. Reynolds also will revamp bonuses for fund managers and financial analysts to more closely align pay with performance at Putnam, which manages $116 billion in assets.

By The Associated Press

The Dow fell 223.73, or 2.63 percent, to 8,273.58, near its lows of the session.

Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 22.54, or 2.58 percent, to 850.75, while the Nasdaq composite index dropped 34.80, or 2.29 percent, to 1,482.05.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 5.16, or 1.13 percent, to 451.36.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 3.68 cents to $1.795 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery rose 22 cents to settle at $6.533 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude fell $1.93 to settle at $52.31 on the ICE Futures exchange.