Industries

Lanson Champagne U.K. Sales Rise as Wimbledon Fans Cool Off, Toast Murray Champagne Lanson, the official champagne supplier to the Wimbledon tennis championships, said U.K. sales rebounded in the last four weeks as fans cooled off during a heat-wave and toasted the success of Andy Murray.

Seven & I Slides After Reporting Weaker Supermarket Sales Cut Profit 28% Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan’s largest retailer, fell the most in almost three months in Tokyo trading after slumping supermarket and department-store sales cut profit by 28 percent.

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Crude Oil Futures Fall to $66 a Barrel in New York, 10% Below Year's High Crude oil futures in New York fell below $66 a barrel, a 10 percent decline from this year’s high, marking a market “correction.”

Saudi Arabia May Cut Heavy Crude-Oil Price as Processing Profits Decline Saudi Arabia may lower the official price of its heavy oil grade sold to Asia from a six-year high as processing profit for fuel used by ships and power plants declined in the previous month, refinery officials said.

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Seven More U.S. Banks Seized as Regulators Close Most Lenders Since 1992 Six banks in Illinois and one in Texas were seized by regulators as the deepening financial crisis pushed the toll of failed U.S. lenders this year to 52, the most since 1992.

Treasury Said to Start Distressed-Debt Program With $20 Billion of Funds The U.S. Treasury Department may begin its program to spur purchases of mortgage-backed securities from banks with about $20 billion in public and private money, down from as much as $100 billion when it was announced in March, two people familiar with the matter said.

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Kennedy Health Plan Calls for Government Insurance Option, Employer Fees Senator Edward Kennedy’s health committee released a new health-care overhaul plan that lawmakers said would lead to coverage for most Americans, in part by assessing fees on companies that don’t offer insurance.

Swine Flu Virus Resistant to Roche's Tamiflu Found in Hong Kong Patient Tamiflu-resistant swine flu was found in a teenager who hadn’t taken Roche Holding AG’s best-selling antiviral medicine, Hong Kong’s health department said.

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Kennedy Health Plan Calls for Government Insurance Option, Employer Fees Senator Edward Kennedy’s health committee released a new health-care overhaul plan that lawmakers said would lead to coverage for most Americans, in part by assessing fees on companies that don’t offer insurance.

U.S. Payrolls Fall More Than Forecast in June, Unemployment Rises to 9.5% Employers in the U.S. cut more jobs than forecast in June and the unemployment rate rose to the highest in almost 26 years, limiting wages and threatening to erode the consumer spending essential to an economic recovery.

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Halabi Companies Fail to Fix $1.9 Billion Commercial Mortgage Bond Default Investor Simon Halabi’s real-estate companies failed to remedy a default on 1.15 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) of commercial mortgage bonds at a time when, according to Fitch Ratings, “pretty much” all such European deals would breach loan-to-value conditions if they were tested.

Fonciere des Regions Says Properties Fell in Value by 5% in the First Half Fonciere des Regions SA, the French office landlord with stakes in five other real estate investment trusts, will report a drop of about 5 percent in property values for the first half, according to its chief executive officer.

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Google Book-Scanning Settlement Is Subject of U.S. Antitrust Investigation Google Inc.’s $125 million agreement to settle copyright issues with book publishers is being investigated by U.S. antitrust regulators.

Jackson Tour Promoter Says It's Owed Up to $30 Million by Singer's Estate The promoter bankrolling Michael Jackson’s concerts in London said it may be owed as much as $30 million by the pop singer’s estate for outlays tied to the comeback shows.

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GM Bankruptcy Judge Ends Hearing, Will Weigh U.S.-Backed Sale of Automaker General Motors Corp.’s battle with creditors over its reorganization neared an end yesterday, leaving it up to a bankruptcy judge to decide the fate of a plan to create a streamlined carmaker by selling its best assets to a group led by the U.S. Treasury.

Wiedeking Era at Porsche Runs on Fumes as Volkswagen Takeover Backfires Wendelin Wiedeking, hailed as “the man who outfoxed the market” by Fortune magazine in January, is fighting to save Porsche SE -- and his job -- as a strategy to take over Volkswagen AG unravels.

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