IN BRIEF

Black Book member arrested in Reno

Gaming Control Board enforcement agents arrested a member of Nevada's Black Book on Wednesday when he was seen entering a Reno casino.

John Edward Mealey Jr., a convicted slot machine cheat who was placed on the state's List of Excluded Persons in 2001 by the Nevada Gaming Commission, was arrested at Diamonds Casino in Reno.

Enforcement agents, conducting surveillance of Mealey in June and July, saw him enter casinos to place sports book wagers. Mealey was charged with nine gross misdemeanors, each carrying a penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

NEW YORK

Oil prices continue tumble, finish lower

Oil prices briefly dropped below $118 a barrel Wednesday -- $30 below their record high -- after a jump in U.S. crude and other fuel supplies fed beliefs that high energy prices are eating into demand.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery finished the session down 59 cents at $118.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It was crude's lowest settlement price since May 2; prices earlier fell as low as $117.11, a $30, or 20 percent, drop from their trading high of $147.27, reached July 11. Some investors believe a 20 percent pullback signals the beginning of a bear market.

NEW YORK

Freddie Mac's loss wider than expected

Freddie Mac on Wednesday posted a second-quarter loss that was more than three times larger than Wall Street expected as a huge number of borrowers with good credit fell behind on their exotic and risky mortgages.

Freddie lost $821 million, or $1.63 a share, for the quarter that ended June 30, compared with a profit of $729 million, or 96 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $1.69 billion from $2.34 billion.

Freddie's financial losses were concentrated in a handful of states -- notably California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona -- where speculation was rampant, prices skyrocketed and buyers stretched to the financial limit to afford a home.

ATLANTA

European regulators OK airline merger

European regulators said Wednesday they have cleared Delta Air Lines Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Northwest Airlines Corp.

The European Commission said in a statement that after examining the operation, it concluded that the transaction would "not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it."

Atlanta-based Delta still needs Justice Department approval and the approval of its shareholders and the shareholders at Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest.

RICHMOND, Va.

CarMax plans cuts after sales slow

Used vehicle retailer CarMax said Wednesday it is reducing staffing levels and will temporarily slow its store growth after seeing a sharp drop in car and truck sales because of high gasoline prices.

CarMax originally withdrew its fiscal-year sales and earnings guidance in June, after sales dropped beginning Memorial Day weekend. From the Memorial Day weekend through the end of May, CarMax said its same-store sales -- or sales at stores open at least a year -- fell 5 percent.

Those sales continued to fall in June and July, resulting in an average drop of 17 percent for the two months, the company said Wednesday.

DEARBORN, Mich.

Ford says it meets goal of 15 percent cuts

A Ford Motor Co. executive said Wednesday the company met its goal of cutting 15 percent of its North American salaried costs by Aug. 1.

Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, wouldn't say how many salaried workers will leave the company, but he confirmed that the company met its goal. Several thousand of the company's 23,800 white-collar workers in North America were expected to leave through a combination of involuntary layoffs and normal attrition.

Before the latest round of cuts, the automaker said it had trimmed its white-collar work force in North America by 10,800 since the end of 2005, mostly through attrition, early retirement offers and voluntary buyouts.

Ford has been cutting jobs and scaling back U.S. production.

LOS ANGELES

Google launches China music search

Google said Wednesday that it has launched a music search service in China that allows users to access music legally online in a forum backed by some record labels and supported by advertising revenue.

Paid music downloads in China are virtually nonexistent, and Apple Inc.'s iTunes digital music store is not offered there. Downloadable pirated versions of songs are widely available for free online.

Google's service, called Music Onebox, directs users to Top100.cn, a site that names as an investor basketball star Yao Ming, to download or stream music for free. Users outside China are blocked from accessing the music.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices fall, pressured by new sale

Treasury bond prices fell Wednesday, pressured by demand for the government's sale of new 10-year notes.

The new 10-year Treasury note fell 0.25 points to 98.56, with a yield of 4.05 percent. Its yield was at 4.02 percent late Tuesday, according to BGCantor Market Data. Yields move in the opposite direction from prices.

The 30-year long bond fell 0.84 points to 94.88. Its yield rose to 4.70 percent from 4.64 percent Tuesday.