IN BRIEF
MIAMI
As home market sinks, Lennar reports loss
Lennar Corp., the third-largest U.S. homebuilder, reported its fourth straight quarterly loss as revenue plunged and it wrote down more than $100 million worth of land and deposits.
The fiscal first-quarter net loss was $88.2 million, or 56 cents a share, less than half of what analysts had projected. A year earlier, the company reported net income of $68.6 million, or 43 cents.
Sales at the homebuilder fell to the lowest in eight years, dropping 62 percent to $1.06 billion. New orders slid 57 percent and Lennar said in a statement it's abandoning plans to buy 2,600 home sites.
NEW YORK
Bombing of pipeline sends oil prices higher
Oil futures shot back above $107 a barrel Thursday after the bombing of an Iraqi oil pipeline diverted investors' attention away from a stabilizing U.S. dollar.
The bombing of a key Iraqi oil pipeline Thursday morning appeared to cut oil exports from the southern oil city of Basra, despite oil officials' statements to the contrary. Dow Jones Newswires reported that exports from southern Iraqi terminals have been reduced to about 1.2 million barrels a day from a normal rate of 1.56 million barrels a day.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose $1.68 to settle at $107.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as $108.22. Crude futures, also aided earlier in the week by a flagging U.S. dollar, are up 6.6 percent since Monday.
TRENTON, N.J.
Drug maker Wyeth will eliminate 1,200 jobs
About 1,200 U.S. sales representatives at Wyeth have been told their positions are being eliminated as of Monday, the drug maker said Thursday.
The move is part of a major companywide program, announced nine weeks ago, to cut jobs and other costs and redesign the business of Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth, which is struggling with increased competition and fewer new drugs, like most pharmaceutical companies.
Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus said the sales representatives, in both the company's pharmaceutical and consumer health divisions, were notified Wednesday that their jobs were being cut.
NEW YORK
Bear Stearns chairman dumps personal stake
Bear Stearns Cos. Chairman James Cayne on Thursday dumped his entire stake in the embattled investment bank for $61 million as it appears closer to a takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Cayne sold 5.66 million shares for exactly $10.84 a share on Tuesday, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows. His stake was once valued at about $1 billion when the stock was trading at $171.50 per share.
His stake at one point plunged to about $27 million when JPMorgan announced nearly two weeks ago it would acquire the No. 5 U.S. investment bank for $2 per share. JPMorgan later upped that offer to $10 per share, and agreed to acquire 39.5 percent of the company without a shareholder vote to block any rival offers.
NEW YORK
Treasury prices decline amid job market news
Treasurys fell Thursday as a better-than-expected reading on unemployment and tame demand from investment banks for a $75 billion credit auction led investors to pare back their holdings in safe government securities.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 0.72 points to 99.23, and yielded 3.55 percent, up from 3.46 percent late Wednesday, according to BGCantor Market Data.
