In Brief

Southern Nevada electric users can look forward to a $1 a month break starting Tuesday because Nevada Power Co. is cutting rates to reflect lower prices for fuel used in generation and wholesale power.

The utility is lowering the typical single-family residential bill by 0.42 percent, or $1 a month. That brings the bill for a customer using 1,250 kilowatt hours to $151.03, the company said. That’s a year-round average for monthly power consumption, but power bills typically run higher in the summer and the reduction in summer bills also probably will be larger.

The adjustment is expected to reduce Nevada Power revenue by $11.1 million yearly.

The utility adjusts its rates quarterly to reflect changes in fuel and power prices.

ST. LOUIS

Anheuser-Busch board spurns takeover bid

Anheuser-Busch’s board is unanimously rejecting a Belgian-Brazilian brewer’s takeover bid, saying the $46 billion offer undervalues the Budweiser maker.

The St. Louis brewer calls InBev’s $65-a-share price “financially inadequate” and not in the best interests of its shareholders.

Chairman Patrick Stokes says the proposal “significantly undervalues the unique assets and prospects of Anheuser-Busch” and doesn’t reflect the strength of the company’s brands.

The move may still not keep Anheuser-Busch Cos. from being sold. The company will likely face intense shareholder pressure to seek a higher price or take other actions to bolster its share price, and InBev has filed a lawsuit seeking a judgment to confirm that Anheuser-Busch’s shareholders can remove without cause the company’s board of directors.

NEW YORK

Discover’s profit rises on higher card use

Discover posted a healthier quarterly profit Thursday than Wall Street expected — no thanks to the lending business, however.

The card company benefited between March and May not from issuing credit, but rather from milking its third-party payments business — which processes ATM and debit transactions and other banks’ cards — and selling its British card business.

The trend toward plastic, whether it’s credit or debit, appears to be the saving grace right now for companies such as Discover, as customers fall behind on their debt payments and trim their spending.

Discover’s third-party payments segment produced transaction volume of $29.4 billion, up 33 percent from a year ago. Since then, Discover has signed on many new financial institutions to use its card network. The company also saw transaction volumes rise at already existing issuers.

SAN FRANCISCO

Yahoo reorganizes after takeover fight

Yahoo is setting up a new chain of command amid the turmoil triggered by the embattled Internet icon’s snub of Microsoft Corp.’s $47.5 billion takeover bid.

Under the new order announced Thursday, Yahoo executive vice presidents Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel are being given expanded responsibilities over the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s products and sales.

Schneider, a former newspaper executive, has been moving up the ranks since she joined Yahoo in September 2006. Patel has played a key role in developing many of Yahoo’s most popular products, including its finance section and instant messaging service, since joining the company 12 years ago.

Yahoo also is reorganizing its technology division in an effort to use its computing power more effectively and improve coordination between its product developers and engineers.

Lennar Corp. says quarterly loss narrows

Homebuilder Lennar Corp. said Thursday it managed to narrow its second-quarter loss, but CEO Stuart Miller gave a dour outlook for the industry, saying the housing market has yet to hit bottom.

“The housing market has continued to deteriorate throughout the first half of 2008,” Miller told analysts.

Miller echoed the building industry’s call for the federal government to step in to help break the cycle of rising foreclosures, stagnating home sales and falling home prices.

GM, Ford shares drop to new lows

Shares of General Motors Corp. plunged to their lowest price in more than 33 years, and Ford shares hit another 52-week low Thursday.

GM shares fell $1.38, or 10.8 percent, to close at $11.43, after tumbling as low as $11.21 earlier in the session. The low price for the day tied the low reached on Dec. 30, 1974, according to the University of Chicago’s Center for Research in Security Prices. The center adjusts prices for stock splits.

Ford shares hit a 52-week low of $4.94 in early trading before recovering to close at $5.07, still down 17 cents, or 3.2 percent. They have traded as high as $9.70 in the past year.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices rise as oil prices increase

Treasury prices rallied Thursday.

The benchmark 10-year note rose 0.48 points to 98.66 points, and its yield fell to 4.05 percent from 4.10 percent late Wednesday, according to BGCantor Market Data.

The 30-year long bond rose 0.63 points to 96.28 points. Its yield fell to 4.61 percent from 4.65 percent on Wednesday.