AUTOMOTIVE

Slumping sales force GM layoffs

Detroit —- Sagging pickup truck and sport utility vehicle sales have forced General Motors Corp. to shut down one shift each at four North American factories and lay off about 3,500 workers. The cuts will affect pickup factories in Pontiac and Flint, Mich., and Oshawa, Ontario, as well as the full-size SUV plant in Janesville, Wis.

FINANCIAL

Earnings rise 12.5% at Humana

Louisville, Ky. —- Health insurer Humana Inc. reported a 12.5 percent increase in its first-quarter profit Monday as growth in its Medicare Advantage, military and commercial businesses more than offset problems in its stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plans. The results beat Wall Street expectations, and the company raised full-year earnings projections. Humana earned $80.17 million, or 47 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with $71.2 million, or 42 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

One-time charges push Tyson to loss

Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, said Monday that it lost $5 million in its fiscal second quarter as it faced high feed and fuel costs and absorbed charges for previously disclosed plant closings. Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson lost 2 cents a share in the three months ended March 29 vs. a profit of $68 million, or 19 cents per share in same period a year ago.

Profit up sharply at Matsushita

Tokyo —- Japanese electronics maker Matsushita's profit more than doubled in the January-March quarter, buoyed by strong sales of cellphones, flat-panel TVs and DVD players. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of the Panasonic brand, said Monday that it earned 61.6 billion yen ($589.47 million), up from 23.4 billion yen the same period the previous year. Quarterly sales dipped 4 percent to 2.199 trillion yen ($21.04 billion). The drop was largely because of an exclusion of revenue from Victor Company of Japan, whose status changed from subsidiary to affiliate last year, Matsushita spokesman Akira Kadota said.

Loews falls short of estimates

Loews Corp., the holding company run by New York's Tisch family, and its CNA Financial Corp. insurance unit reported first-quarter earnings that fell short of analysts' estimates as policy sales shrank. Net income at Loews declined for the third straight quarter, falling 14 percent to $662 million, or $1.05 a share, from $768 million, or $1.20 a share, the New York-based company said Monday.

Soft drink maker Cott swings to loss

Cott Corp., the world's biggest maker of store-brand soda, reported a first-quarter loss as sales fell and price increases failed to counter rising costs for sweetener, aluminum and plastic. The net loss was $20.7 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with profit of $4.8 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier, the Toronto-based company said Monday. Sales declined 2.6 percent to $389.7 million, missing the average estimate of analysts.

Interest rates rise in Treasury auction

Washington —- Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction, with six-month bills climbing to the highest level since early March. The Treasury Department auctioned $20 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.420 percent, up from 1.320 percent last week. Another $20 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.700 percent, up from 1.680 percent last week. Separately, the Federal Reserve said that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, rose to 1.88 percent last week from 1.67 percent.

Verizon hits earnings target

New York —- Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday said first-quarter earnings rose 9.8 percent as its wireless division signed up more new customers than rival carriers. Verizon earned $1.64 billion, or 57 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $1.5 billion, or 51 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 5.5 percent to $23.8 billion. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 61 cents per share, matching expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Revenue fell slightly short of analyst expectations.

Earnings increase 28% at Visa

New York —- Visa Inc., the world's largest credit and debit card processor, said Monday that its profit rose 28 percent in the first three months of the year as customers charged more to their cards. The company, whose shares started trading publicly in March, said its fiscal second-quarter profit was $314 million, or 39 cents a share. That was up from $246 million in the same period last year.

Profit declines 21% at Rock-Tenn

Rock-Tenn Co.'s fiscal second-quarter net income fell 21 percent to $17.1 million, or 45 cents a share, from $21.7 million, or 55 cents a share, in the prior-year period, partly because of the write-off of deferred financing fees of $4.9 million, or 8 cents a share. Excluding items, per-share earnings rose to 66 cents from 57 cents in the year-ago quarter. The Norcross-based consumer goods packaging company's revenue for the period ended March 31 rose 17 percent to $685.9 million.

HEALTH CARE

Quest to settle overtime dispute

Boston —- New Jersey-based Medical laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics Inc. has agreed to pay nearly $689,000 in back wages for alleged violations of federal labor law. The U.S. Department of Labor said Monday that Quest failed to fully pay 238 employees nationwide who were misclassified as being exempt from overtime requirements.

MANUFACTURING

Whirlpool forms venture in China

Benton Harbor, Mich. —- Whirlpool Corp. has formed a joint venture with a Chinese company to produce appliances for consumers in that country. Refrigerators and washing machines will be among the major home appliances produced by the new Chinese business created by Whirlpool and Hisense-Kelon Electrical Holdings Co. Ltd. Whirlpool described it Monday as a 50-50 joint venture.

MEDIA

Circulation falls at most papers

New York —- Circulation fell sharply at most top U.S. newspapers in the latest reporting period, an industry group said Monday, with the exception of the two largest national dailies, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. Those papers eked out gains of under 1 percent, while The New York Times, the No. 3 paper, fell 3.9 percent in the six months ending in March, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Newspaper circulation has been on a declining trend since the 1980s, but the pace of declines has picked up in recent years as reader habits change and more people go online for news, information and entertainment.

The WB will be revived on Web

Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Television Group plans to offer past episodes of series such as "Friends" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on its new Web site, TheWB.com, to lure users and advertisers. TheWB.com, an ad-supported, video-on-demand network targeted at 16- to 34-year-olds, will be tested from early May and started at the end of August, Warner Bros. said Monday.

REAL ESTATE

Vacant homes at all-time high

Washington —- The percentage of vacant homes for sale in the United States set a record in the first quarter of this year, the government said Monday. The Census Bureau report shows that 2.9 percent of U.S. homes —- excluding rental properties —- were vacant and up for sale, compared with 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. It was the highest quarterly number in records going back to 1956. That works out to 2.28 million properties, up from 2.18 million in the same quarter last year.

Foreclosure filings increase sharply

Los Angeles —- The number of U.S. homes heading toward foreclosure more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, a research firm said Monday. Among the hardest-hit states were Nevada, Florida and California, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. Nationwide, 649,917 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in the first three months of the year, up 112 percent from 306,722 during the same period last year.

B of A to modify 265,000 loans

Los Angeles —- Bank of America Corp. will expand efforts to help Countrywide Financial Corp. borrowers avoid foreclosure on trouble mortgages, a top bank executive said Monday. The announcement came as members of the Federal Reserve Board convened two days of public hearings on Bank of America's proposed $4.1 billion stock deal for Countrywide. Liam McGee, president of Bank of America's global consumer and small-business banking operation, said the bank will modify at least $40 billion in problem loans from at least 265,000 borrowers over the next two years. That figure includes borrowers from both lenders, McGee said after he delivered his testimony.

KB Home founder: Prices to fall more

Eli Broad, co-founder of KB Home, the fifth-largest U.S. home builder by revenue, said Monday that he expects home prices to drop another 20 percent. "I don't think we're anywhere near a bottom in housing," Broad told Bloomberg Television. "We're going to have a big inventory of unsold, unoccupied homes that's going to take three or four years to clear out."

REGULATORY

Price-fixing probe in Britain widens

London —- Britain's consumer watchdog has widened an investigation into alleged price-fixing by supermarkets to target some of the world's biggest consumer goods makers, including Procter & Gamble and Unilever. The two companies said Monday that they had been visited by officials from the Office of Fair Trading, following reports that the agency was investigating the pricing of health and beauty products, groceries and cleaning goods at Britain's big supermarket chains.

TECHNOLOGY

Intel to supply Cray with chips

Intel Corp. is ratcheting up the competition with smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. by teaming up with supercomputer maker Cray Inc., which for the past six years has used only AMD chips in its high-performance machines. The multiyear deal Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel announced Monday bolsters its server business —- a major source of its revenue —- and snaps an exclusive arrangement that kept its chips out of some of the world's most powerful machines.

TRANSPORTATION

American to add fee for 2nd bag

Fort Worth, Texas —- American Airlines on Monday became the latest carrier to announce that it would require passengers to pack light, or pay up. The nation's biggest airline said it must charge passengers $25 for checking a second bag to help offset rising fuel costs. The fee will apply to travelers who buy domestic economy-class tickets on or after May 12, American said.