IN BRIEF

Gold prices may keep climbing, Barrick says

Gold, which touched a record last month, may keep rising on sustained demand from Asia and the Middle East, and as investors seek an alternative to the weakening dollar, Barrick Gold Corp. forecast.

The "Middle East, India and China have a strong affinity for gold," Executive Vice President Alexander Davidson said Tuesday. "As the U.S. dollar has lost some of its appeal as an investment, investors are shifting a portion of their investments to gold."

The metal traded at a high of $1,032.70 an ounce on March 17 as credit-market losses and a weaker U.S. currency drove investors to buy the commodity as a haven. Barrick Gold, based in Toronto, is the world's largest producer.

Barrick owns and operates a large number of gold mines throughout Nevada. Its biggest site, measured in ounces produced, is Barrick-Goldstrike, on the Carlin Trend outside of Carlin.

DALLAS

American Airlines cancels 500 flights

American Airlines said it was canceling up to 500 flights Tuesday, perhaps one-fifth of its schedule, to check the bundling of wires in some planes, the same issue that caused the airline to scrap more than 400 flights last month.

By late afternoon Tuesday, McCarran International Airport's Web site showed four cancellations for American departures.

American, the nation's largest carrier, said the cancellations could spill into today and beyond.

The airline said the Federal Aviation Administration raised more concerns about the recent inspections of the wiring in its approximately 300 MD-80 aircraft.

Ma'ariv Holdings talking with Adelson

Ma'ariv Holdings Ltd., which publishes Israel's second-biggest newspaper, said it is in talks with Sheldon Adelson to sell the unit that publishes the Ma'ariv daily and other publications.

The talks with Adelson, who runs U.S. casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp., may not lead to an agreement, the Tel Aviv-based company said in a statement to the city's stock exchange.

The statement came after Ha'aretz reported Tuesday that Adelson had reopened talks broken off last year with Ma'ariv Holdings to buy the Ma'ariv daily. Adelson offered as much as $100 million or as little as $30 million for the media business, the newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.

Ma'ariv Holdings is controlled by the Nimrodi family and Russian-Israeli millionaire Vladimir Gusinsky.

NEW YORK

Fed meeting minutes spark Treasurys rise

Short-term Treasury prices rose Tuesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting revealed policymakers fretted over the prospects of a deep recession when cutting interest rates last month.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 0.19 points to 99.47 with a yield of 3.56 percent, up from 3.54 percent late Monday, according to BGCantor Market Data. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year long bond fell 0.5 points to 99.84 with a yield of 4.39 percent, up from 4.35 percent.