AP Executive Morning Briefing

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Monday, June 25, 2007:

World Bank Board to Name Next President

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Robert Zoellick, President Bush's former trade chief and No. 2 diplomat, appeared certain to win approval as the World Bank's next president. The World Bank's 24-member board scheduled a closed-door meeting Monday to take up Zoellick's nomination, which was put forward by Bush. No other countries nominated candidates.

___

BP Looks to Emerge From Rough Few Years

PRUDHOE BAY, Alaska (AP) _ Lowry Brott briefly closes his eyes as if he were listening to the first sounds of oil flowing 30 years ago from Alaska's North Slope into a pipeline that weaves 800 miles through several mountain ranges and hundreds of rivers and streams to Valdez. "It was pretty robust," he said. "I'd compare it to a fast-moving freight train; that's what the sound was."

___

Wall Street Awaits Fed's Rate Decision

NEW YORK (AP) _ After weeks of stock market turbulence caused by soaring bond yields, Wall Street will now be able to gauge the chance of an interest rate hike straight from the source: the Federal Reserve. The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee meets Wednesday and Thursday to discuss interest rates. The Fed is widely expected to keep the benchmark rate steady at 5.25 percent, as it has done since last summer, but the policy statement it releases Thursday will be parsed for clues about future moves.

___

Oil Prices Drop in Asian Trading

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Oil prices fell Monday after labor unions halted a strike in Nigeria, where the work stoppage had shut down most major economic activity in Africa's biggest oil producer. Light, sweet crude for August delivery lost 51 cents to $68.63 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract rose 49 cents to settle Friday at $69.14 a barrel.

___

US Apple Growers Brace for China Rivals

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) _ Farmers have been growing apples here since before the Civil War, and as times have changed, they have changed with them, planting smaller trees to speed up harvests and growing popular new varieties to satisfy changing tastes. But the growers who have made this mountainous region the core of apple-growing in Pennsylvania worry that they face a new challenge that may be too big to overcome and could change their way of life.

___

Release of iPhone Has Industry Abuzz

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) _ There's hype. There's hysteria. And there's history. The hype around Apple Inc.'s upcoming iPhone is abundantly clear. So is the hysteria. But how the iPhone will leave its historical mark after Friday's launch is to be seen. Will the gadget _ which triples as a cell phone, iPod media player and a wireless Web device _ be as "revolutionary" as Apple CEO Steve Jobs has claimed?

___

Beckham Advertising Blitz About to Begin

NEW YORK (AP) _ It's already time to brand it like Beckham. Adidas is launching an advertising campaign this week featuring English soccer star David Beckham and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush swapping sports during practice in "Futbol vs. Football." "There's very few people whose names transcend their own sports. People know the name of David Beckham, whether they follow soccer or not," said Stephen Pierpoint, vice president of brand marketing for Adidas America.

___

Ohio City Tries Shrinking Back to Health

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) _ The panoramic view from the front steps of Loretta Bares' modest hillside home says a lot about this old, industrial city. The houses, generally well kept, are a testament to a time when steel jobs were abundant. But two abandoned houses with broken out windows near some tall weeds reveal her Brier Hill neighborhood's sad reality _ advancing urban decay and population decline, tied to jobs that were never replaced. Nearby is Youngstown's last remaining steel plant.

___

IBM Corp. Hunts for Ways to Trim the Fat

ARMONK, N.Y. (AP) _ John DeFazio won't miss the 2 a.m. conference calls. Along with colleagues in IBM Corp.'s huge technology services division, DeFazio used to be summoned to the phone whenever a client's computing center hiccuped in the middle of the night. Because of the way IBM handled trouble reports, sometimes 20 different experts _ a server specialist, a database guru, a networking maven, etc. _ got paged to join a conference call. Once everyone finally dialed in and the problem was hashed out, those who weren't needed could go back to sleep.

___

Many in U.S. Don't Have Bank Accounts

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Grandma stuffing money under the mattress isn't the only one living outside the banking system. As many as 28 million people in the United States are forgoing traditional financial institutions because of mistrust, cultural and language barriers or a belief that by the time all the bills are paid there will be nothing left for an account.

___

Gold Prices

Hong Kong (AP) _ Gold closed at $651.65 an ounce on Monday in Hong Kong, down 80 cents an ounce from Friday's close of $652.45.

___

Japan Markets

TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese stocks fell Monday for a second straight session in the wake of Friday's drop on Wall Street and as investors took profits following last week's rise to a seven-year high.

___

Dollar-Yen

TOKYO (AP) _ The dollar rose against the yen in Asia Monday on receding speculation of an imminent rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

A service of The Associated Press. Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.