Business Highlights

Bleak outlook for economy as growth slows

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy is still growing, just not by much. And until that changes, don't look for the jobs to come back.

Americans spent less and businesses thought twice about restocking their shelves in the past three months, making for a sluggish spring. And the government now says the recession was a deeper hole to climb out of than previously known.

The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of U.S. economic output, grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent from April to June, down from 3.7 percent the quarter before and the weakest showing in nearly a year. Many economists say the economy is growing even more slowly now.

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Stocks end July with big gain; Dow gains 7.1 pct

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks had a fitting end to a choppy July as prices seesawed their way to a narrowly mixed finish. The market still had its best month in a year.

Investors had an ambivalent response Friday to the government's gross domestic product report. The Dow Jones industrial average fell almost 120 points in early trading, then ratcheted up and down until the close. The Dow ended down just a point, and the other big indexes had similarly small moves.

The day was much like the rest of July, which saw investors alternately buying on strong earnings reports and selling on weak economic numbers. The Dow rose 7.1 percent for the month, its best showing since it gained 7.8 percent in July 2009.

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Disney selling Miramax to investors for $660M

NEW YORK (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. is selling Miramax Films to a group of investors for $660 million, marking a new phase for a studio that helped launch the career of Quentin Tarantino and push independent movies into the mainstream.

The deal announced Friday ends speculation that founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein — who lent the names of their parents, Miriam and Max, to the company — could regain control of the studio they launched more than three decades ago.

With ownership of the studio passes the rights to a long catalog of Oscar winners, including "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), "Chicago" (2002) and "No Country for Old Men" (2007).

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Chrysler to add 900 jobs to midsize-car plant

DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler Group LLC said Friday that it will add nearly 900 jobs at a factory in suburban Detroit and spare it from a planned closure. The decision is a show of optimism that consumers will embrace the company's refurbished midsize sedans.

The automaker made the announcement at another Detroit-area plant just before President Barack Obama spoke there about the success of the government-funded auto industry bailout.

The jobs will staff a second shift at Chrysler's assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., just north of Detroit, which makes the slow-selling Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring midsize sedans.

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Chevron 2Q income triples on higher energy prices

NEW YORK (AP) — Chevron's second-quarter earnings tripled on better refining margins and higher prices for oil and natural gas, the company said Friday.

The results easily beat most Wall Street expectations. The San Ramon, Calif., company is the latest oil major to report big gains in the second quarter as demand for oil and gasoline has pushed prices higher. Exxon Mobil Corp. posted income of $7.56 billion in the quarter, its best result since the last three months of 2008. Royal Dutch Shell Group boosted second-quarter earnings 15 percent, and ConocoPhillips said profits nearly tripled in the April-June period.

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Merck's 2Q net drops on higher costs, charges

Drugmaker Merck & Co. on Friday reported a 52 percent drop in second-quarter net income, weighed down by big restructuring charges from buying Schering-Plough Corp., generic competition and other factors.

Merck, the world's second-biggest drug company by revenue, beat analysts' profit expectations by 3 cents a share, but came up short on revenue and slightly reduced its sales forecast for the year.

The maker of allergy medicines Singulair and Nasonex and cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia said its net income was $752.4 million, or 24 cents per share. That's down from $1.56 billion, or 74 cents a share, a year earlier.

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Sanofi CEO targeting everything but blockbusters

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — After 20 months running drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA, Chris Viehbacher wants to end the roller coaster of revenue peaks and valleys as blockbuster drugs climb to billions in sales and suddenly plummet when generic competition hits.

With two of the French company's top blockbusters now hurt by generic rivals — the latest one so unexpectedly last week, the company was forced to cut its 2010 profit forecast — Viehbacher is seeking future growth by diversifying. His strategy as CEO is to make deals for dozens of drugs aimed at smaller patient groups, and to boost revenue from emerging markets, consumer health products and generic medicines.

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Arch Coal 2Q profit surges on global sales

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Arch Coal Inc. said Friday it reversed losses from a year ago during the second quarter, handily beating Wall Street's expectations on the strength of global markets and a nearly 40 percent jump in sales.

The St. Louis miner, one of the world's biggest coal producers, said it expected an even stronger showing for the remainder of the year, and raised the lower end of its adjusted annual earnings guidance by a dime, excluding non-cash charges.

Leer said global markets for higher-margin metallurgical coal remain tight while conditions for thermal coal that fuels power plants "have strengthened meaningfully," with those utilities drawing down their stockpiles.

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Delta fined $38M for Northwest cargo price-fixing

Delta Air Lines will pay a $38 million fine to settle criminal accusations that the cargo unit of Northwest Airlines conspired to fixed prices, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Northwest met with other airlines at least from 2004 to 2006 to fix cargo prices between the U.S. and Japan, according to the charge filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington. Meetings were also held to make sure the haulers were complying with the agreed-upon rates, according to the charge.

At the time, Northwest ran a stand-alone cargo unit with Boeing 747s that flew to Asia. It was the only U.S. carrier with a dedicated freighter fleet, but it was shut down last year. Airlines often carry cargo in their bellies along with luggage.

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Regulators close small Georgia bank

WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators have shut down a small bank in Georgia, lifting to 104 the number of U.S. banks to fail this year as the industry has struggled to cope with mounting loan defaults and recession.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday took over NorthWest Bank and Trust, based in Acworth, Ga., with $167.7 million in assets. State Bank and Trust Co., based in Macon, Ga., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of the failed bank.

The failure of NorthWest Bank and Trust is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $39.8 million.

The Dow fell 1.22, or 0.01 percent, to 10,465.94.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.07, or 0.01 percent, to 1,101.60, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.01, or 0.1 percent, to 2,254.70.

Benchmark crude began the month just shy of $73 a barrel. The price for September delivery added 59 cents to settle at $78.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil for August delivery added 0.55 cent to settle at $2.0427 a gallon. Because that contract expires Friday, much of the trading has moved to the September contract, where the price rose 1.85 cents to $2.0881 a gallon.

The August contract for gasoline, which also expires Friday, gained 0.92 cent to $2.1066 a gallon. The September contract rose 2.14 cents to $2.1224 a gallon.

Natural gas for September delivery added 9.6 cents to $4.923 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude settled up 59 cents at $78.18 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.