Business Highlights

Stocks end mostly lower as oil prices advance

NEW YORK (AP) _ Stocks stalled Monday, ending mostly lower after rising oil prices and ongoing worries about the financial sector gave investors little reason to buy a day ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting.

Energy companies rose but sectors like airlines and financials logged steep losses.

With little economic data arriving, investors focused on the price of oil and the Fed's two-day meeting, which lets out on Wednesday. Most investors expect policymakers to keep the central bank's key federal funds rate on hold, and in its economic statement, emphasize the rising threat of inflation.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.09 billion shares compared with a heavy 2.04 billion seen Friday as stocks fell sharply and as several types of options contracts expired.

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Oil rises on modest Saudi increase, Nigeria

NEW YORK (AP) _ Oil prices rose Monday on disappointment over Saudi Arabia's modest production increase and concerns that output from Nigeria will decline. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, inched lower overnight, but appear unlikely to change much as long as oil prices stay in a trading range.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday at a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations that it would turn out more crude oil this year if the market needs it. The kingdom said it would add 200,000 barrels per day in July to a 300,000 barrel per day production increase it first announced in May, raising total daily output to 9.7 million barrels.

But that pledge at the meeting held in the Saudi city of Jeddah fell far short of U.S. hopes for a larger increase. The United States and other nations argue that oil production has not kept up with increasing demand, especially from China, India and the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries say there is no shortage of oil and instead blame financial speculation and the falling U.S. dollar.

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Citi halfway done cutting 6,500 in i-bank: source

NEW YORK (AP) _ Citigroup Inc. is about half-way through cutting 10 percent of the 65,000 employees in its investment banking unit, a person familiar with the job cuts said Monday.

The unit, as previously reported, plans to lay off about 6,500 workers in the division, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the job cuts are still under way.

"More than half of those have already been eliminated," the person told The Associated Press.

A major portion of the remaining job cuts are happening this week, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

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United Airlines cutting 950 pilot jobs

CHICAGO (AP) _ United Airlines says it will eliminate about 950 pilot jobs beginning this summer in addition to an already announced plan to cut 1,600 salaried positions and reduce its fleet.

United told its pilots union about the cuts Monday. The Chicago-based carrier says it's still working with the unions on the reductions.

Messages left for the Air Line Pilots Association were not immediately returned.

United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy says the initial furlough notices will go out in mid-July and take effect in September. She says the cuts will continue into next year.

At an investors' conference last week, United executives gave details on plans to shed up to 1,600 salaried jobs.

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Republic Services to buy Allied Waste for $6.07B

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Disposal company Republic Services said Monday it will buy Allied Waste Industries in a $6.07 billion stock deal that would combine the second- and third-largest players in the industry.

Republic Services Inc. will pay Allied Waste shareholders .45 worth of a Republic share for each share held, valued at $14.04 per share based on Republic's Friday closing stock price of $31.19.

Based on the nearly 432.5 million Allied shares outstanding at April 24, the deal represents a nearly 4 percent premium to Allied's closing stock price Friday.

Shareholders of Phoenix-based Allied Waste will own 52 percent of the combined company, which will be led by Republic Chairman and Chief Executive James E. O'Connor. Allied's Don Slager will become president and chief operating officer.

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Walgreen 3Q profit rises on cost controls

CHICAGO (AP) _ Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. said Monday its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 2 percent as it focused on cost control and maintained a rapid expansion pace in a difficult retail environment.

Despite the modest gain, the results fell slightly short of Wall Street's expectations and Walgreen shares slipped back after initially climbing nearly 3 percent.

Overall, however, analysts said the Deerfield, Ill.-based company's cost discipline and continued advances in a weak economy shows it has turned a corner after recent sluggishness.

Shares fell 37 cents to $34.70 Monday.

Earnings for the three months ended May 31 were $572.3 million, or 58 cents per share, up from $561.2 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier. That was a penny shy of the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

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GM to raise prices on 2009 models, cut production

DETROIT (AP) _ General Motors Corp. told dealers Monday it plans to raise prices on 2009 models by an average of 3.5 percent despite a tough market that is forcing the automaker to cut production and discount its 2008 models.

Company officials said in conference calls to dealers that the increases will allow GM to recover only part of the rising cost of steel and other commodities and the cost of safety and other features on the new models. The increases will amount to about $1,000 per vehicle.

GM already had increased the prices of its 2008 model year vehicles twice because of rising commodity costs, spokesman John McDonald said. The move comes a little more than a week after Chrysler LLC announced a 2 percent increase in the price of its remaining 2008 vehicles.

GM also said Monday it will run a sale June 24-30 to help clear out high inventories of 2008 pickups, sport utility vehicles and larger cars. The sale includes zero percent financing for up to 72 months.

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Ag products biz Bunge buying Corn Products for $4.4B

CHICAGO (AP) _ Two of America's oldest agricultural companies laid the foundation for a new $30 billion-a-year ag and food colossus Monday with the announcement that Bunge Ltd. is buying Corn Products International Inc. in a $4.4 billion stock deal.

While neither boasts a brand name universally known to consumers, the combination will vault White Plains, N.Y.-based Bunge into the Fortune 100 by adding Corn Products' sweeteners, starches and other ingredients to its portfolio of agribusiness, fertilizer, edible oil and milling products.

Bunge, which also agreed to assume $414 million of Corn Products' debt as part of the deal, hopes the acquisition will help provide a buffer against volatile commodity prices by branching into another area as well as a healthy cash flow.

The global market for starches and sweeteners alone is growing about 5 percent each year, and Corn Products has some of the biggest beer and food makers in the world as clients.

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Candy a sweet spot in sour economy

CHICAGO (AP) _ Like a lot of people, Nate Towne is cutting back on spending. He's carpooling to work and only shops at grocery stores that take coupons or offer discount "rewards" cards.

But even in this economy, he remains a self-described "candy snob."

"I'm serious when I say I'll pay a premium for my top favorites because in the grand scheme of things, it's only a few bucks," says Towne, a 37-year-old public relations consultant in Madison, Wis.

He's not the only one who's stuck on candy. Americans buy billions of dollars worth of the stuff each year _ with more than $29 billion in retail sales in 2007, according to the National Confectioners Association. That's about a 3 percent increase from the previous year.

By The Associated Press

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.33, or less than 0.01 percent, to 11,842.36.

Broader stock indicators ended mixed after a day of back-and-forth trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 0.07, or 0.01 percent, to 1,318.00, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 20.35, or 0.85 percent, to 2,385.74.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $1.38 to settle at $136.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other Nymex trading Monday, July gasoline futures rose 1.59 cents to settle at $3.4551 a gallon, and July heating oil futures rose 2.58 cents to settle at $3.7975. July natural gas futures rose 20.9 cents to settle at $13.203 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, August Brent crude futures rose $1.05 to settle at $135.91on the ICE Futures Exchange.