AP Executive Morning Briefing

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Friday, February 9, 2007:

Consumer Confidence Hits 2 1/2-Year High

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Consumer confidence climbed to a 2 1/2-year high with people feeling even better about job prospects, the current economic climate and investment opportunities. The improvement comes as national job growth, while slowing a bit, remains fundamentally healthy. Workers' paychecks are going further as gasoline and other prices ebb. And, interest rates _ including those on mortgages and other consumer loans _ are stable and attractive.

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Golden Parachute Cradles Harrah's CEO

LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Gary Loveman, the chief executive of casino giant Harrah's Entertainment Inc., will receive about $94 million in stock options and other rights if the world's largest casino buyout deal is consummated, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Loveman would collect on stock options worth $80.3 million, stock appreciation rights worth $8.8 million, and restricted shares worth $4.9 million, according to a preliminary proxy statement filed Thursday with the SEC.

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Engineer: GPS Shoes Make People Findable

MIAMI (AP) _ Isaac Daniel calls the tiny Global Positioning System chip he's embedded into a line of sneakers "peace of mind." He wishes his 8-year-old son had been wearing them when he got a call from his school in 2002 saying the boy was missing. The worried father hopped a flight to Atlanta from New York where he had been on business to find the incident had been a miscommunication and his son was safe. Days later, the engineer started working on a prototype of Quantum Satellite Technology, a line of $325 to $350 adult sneakers that hit shelves next month. It promises to locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button. A children's line will be out this summer.

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Kodak Snapping Off 3,000 More Jobs

NEW YORK (AP) _ Eastman Kodak Co. is cutting 3,000 more jobs this year as the picture-taking pioneer wraps up its wrenching transformation into a digital-imaging company focused on consumer photography and commercial printing. By year-end, its work force will slip below 30,000, less than half what it was just three years ago.

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India's Air Force May Buy Boeing Copters

NEW DELHI (AP) _ Boeing Co. is negotiating the sale of 12 Chinook CH-47 military transport helicopters to India's air force, a senior company official said Friday. The cost of the aircraft plus support and training programs totals about $600 million, said Dean Millsap, the Asia Pacific director of Boeing Integrated Business Development, a division of Chicago-based Boeing.

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Oil Prices Spike on Iran, Cold Weather

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Oil prices rose above $60 a barrel Friday for the first time since early January, lifted by Iran-U.S. tension, violence in Nigeria and frigid U.S. temperatures. Light, sweet crude for March delivery was up 40 cents to $60.11 in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midmorning in Singapore.

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China Launches Review of Drug Industry

BEIJING (AP) _ China has launched a sweeping review of its drug industry as it investigates a former regulator accused of taking bribes to approve shoddy drugs blamed in a string of deaths, state media said Friday. The widening scandal has led to the closure of at least one company linked to the former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, who was fired in 2005. There has been no word so far on whether foreign drug companies are implicated.

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Machinery Orders Boost Japanese Stocks

TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese stocks rose Friday, led by electronics and banking stocks, helped an upbeat forecast for machinery orders and the yen's continued weakness. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 211.85 points, or 1.23 percent, to finish at 17,504.33 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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Nichiro Announces Massive Tuna Recall

TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese seafood company Nichiro Corp. began recalling nearly 5 million cans of tuna following a consumer complaint that a piece of a box cutter blade was found in a can, officials said Friday. Nichiro learned on Thursday of the small piece of blade found in a canned tuna produced in Vietnam in February 2006 and imported by a third company for sale by Nichiro, company spokesman Kazuaki Nishimoto said.

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U.S., Malaysia Trade Talks Deadlocked

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ Free trade talks between Malaysia and the U.S. appeared to have hit a deadlock Friday as Malaysia refused to budge on its procurement policy that favors ethnic Malay-owned companies and other sensitive issues. Barbara Weisel, the top American official leading a fifth round of negotiations, told reporters that it would be "very difficult to conclude within the deadline that we have set" because of Malaysia's position on sensitive issues.

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Gold Prices

LONDON (AP) _ Gold bullion opened Friday at a bid price of $659.30 a troy ounce, up from $655.30 late Thursday.

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Dollar-Yen

TOKYO (AP) _ The dollar rose against the yen in Asia Friday on the view that the Group of Seven financial heads meeting this weekend are unlikely to make any strong commitment to shore up the yen's recent weakness.

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