Ubs Securities

Fluor Corp., still pushing to cut $100 million in operating costs by year's end, said Wednesday that its fiscal third-quarter profit dropped 2.8% to $66.2 million from last year. The quarterly profit, amounting to 79 cents a share, was down from last year's third-quarter income of $68.1 million, or 81 cents a share. Revenue for the period ended July 31 rose 36%, however, to $3.7 billion from $2.7 billion on what the company called strong new business from several industry segments.

Worker productivity in the U.S. grew more than forecast in the fourth quarter as companies held down labor costs, a sign that inflation pressures might recede. Productivity rose at an annualized 1.8% rate slowing from a 6% pace in the third quarter, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts was for a 0.5% gain.

General Motors Corp., trying to reverse a U.S. sales slump, is testing a plan in California and five cities that lets people who lease select GM cars return them if they're not satisfied, according to two reports. Customers who lease the Buick LaCrosse, Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G6 from April 5 to June 30 in California, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington and Providence, R.I., will be able to return them within the first 12,000 miles, according to the Detroit News and Autodollars.

U.S. labor costs rose by the most in almost five years and productivity growth slowed in the second quarter, suggesting that the Federal Reserve will resist calls from Congress to stop raising interest rates. The cost to companies of employing workers was 4.2% higher in the second quarter than in the year-earlier period, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Productivity, a measure of how much an employee produces for every hour worked, rose at a revised 1.

Fresh signs of a weak housing sector and a modest drop in new orders received by U.S. factories during May implied the economy was struggling to gain momentum in the second quarter. The National Assn. of Realtors said its index of pending home sales -- a forward-looking gauge -- slumped by a sharp 3.5% in May to 97.7, its lowest level since September 2001. The steep drop came as a surprise to financial markets. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that the May index would instead rise 0.2%.

A measure of the economy's outlook fell more than forecast in June, pulled down by a slump in building permits that signals housing will remain the biggest drag on growth. The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators declined 0.3% after rising a revised 0.2% in May, the New York-based research group said Thursday. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke acknowledged in testimony before Congress this week that the decline in home construction would continue to hinder economic growth.

New orders at U.S. factories in January posted their largest drop since 2000 as aircraft orders fell, while pending sales of U.S. homes slipped as the housing market slowed, reports showed Monday. Factory orders fell 4.5% in January, slightly less than expected but still the biggest drop since July 2000, as orders for durables, machinery, computers, and aircraft declined, Commerce Department data indicated. Analysts polled by the Reuters news service were expecting factory orders to fall 5.3%.

Shares of Tenet Healthcare Corp., the second-largest U.S. hospital chain, fell 11%, the most in more than two years, as third-quarter losses from continuing operations exceeded analysts' estimates. The deficit on the continuing business totaled 5 to 7 cents a share, Dallas-based Tenet said Monday in a preliminary statement of the quarter's results. Bad-debt expenses and uninsured admissions rose more than Tenet said it had expected.

The judge overseeing a $1.4-billion settlement of an investor lawsuit alleging that investment banks issued biased research told the administrator of the fund Friday to seek more investors who may be eligible for compensation. Banks including Citigroup Inc. and Bear Stearns & Co. agreed in 2003 to pay $1.4 billion to settle state and federal claims that analysts published misleading research to win investment-banking business. In May, with $164 million unclaimed from investor victims, U.S.

An index of U.S. services dropped to a 16-month low in September, suggesting that high energy prices might limit the economic expansion. The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its gauge of non-manufacturing industries such as banking, construction and retailing fell to 56.7, the lowest reading since May 2003, from 58.2 in August. The gauge has still shown expansion, marked by readings higher than 50, for 18 straight months.