AP Executive Morning Briefing

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Wednesday, July 11, 2007:

Burkle, Web Exec May Unite on Dow Bid

Supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and Web entrepreneur Brad Greenspan, who had separately proposed ways that Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. could avoid a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., might cobble together an alternative bid for Dow Jones. A committee of Dow Jones directors, including a representative for the Bancroft family that controls the company, met Tuesday in New York with Burkle and Greenspan to discuss potential deals. But whether any offer ultimately emerges remains to be seen.

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Sheeps Being Trained to Weed Vineyards

HOPLAND, Calif. (AP) _ Call them mutton mowers. University researchers are training sheep to clean up vineyard weeds but stay off the grapes. Enthusiastic and unpicky eaters, sheep are already being used in some vineyards as a green alternative to tractors. They don't use gasoline and keep down weeds _ a necessary task to deter pests and keep vines healthy _ sans herbicides.

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Automatic Toilet Tissue Dispenser Ready

ROSWELL, Ga. (AP) _ Richard Thorne grins as he waves his hand under a toilet paper dispenser in a women's restroom. The machine spits five sheets of tissue into his grasp. A year in the works, the electronic tissue dispenser is being rolled out to the masses by Kimberly-Clark Professional as it seeks to capture more of the $1 billion away-from-home toilet paper market. The company believes most people will be satisfied with five sheets _ and use 20 percent less toilet paper.

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Chiquita Hopes for Less Tumultuous Year

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ Talk about a company with a boatload of bad luck. First, Chiquita Brands International Inc.'s biggest market for bananas, the European Union, slapped an onerous tariff on the fruit. Then a tainted spinach scare traced to a rival U.S. supplier tanked sales of Chiquita's bagged salads. Miscalculated hurricane activity led to costly inventory buildups while a record freeze wilted Arizona's lettuce crop. Finally, the company paid the U.S. government $25 million to settle allegations that one of its Latin American units had paid protection money to terrorists.

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Dow Drops 148 on Disappointing Outlooks

NEW YORK (AP) _ Stocks plunged Tuesday as investors, nervous about upcoming earnings reports, cringed at troubling forecasts from retailers Home Depot and Sears and at soaring oil prices. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 148 points. The market seemed to be following the pattern of previous earnings seasons, turning lower as second-quarter reports had a rocky start. Home Depot Inc., Sears Holdings Corp. and homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. offered dreary outlooks that suggested the sluggish housing market may dampen consumer spending.

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Oil Prices Fall in Asian Trading

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Crude oil prices declined Wednesday amid expectations that U.S. fuel supply data will show that gasoline stocks rose last week. Light, sweet crude for August delivery lost 32 cents to $72.49 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange mid-afternoon in Singapore.

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Ford: Hydrogen Cars Close to Production

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) _ The relatively quick-and-easy answer to foreign oil dependence and automotive greenhouse gas emissions is circling the grounds every day at Orlando International Airport in Florida, according to a top Ford Motor Co. official. It's a utilitarian 12-passenger parking lot shuttle bus powered by a 6.8-liter internal combustion hydrogen engine, which Ford officials said is their hydrogen technology that's closest to mass production. "We really believe this technology is ready to be evaluated at the consumer level," John Lapetz, the company's program manager for the buses, told reporters on Tuesday at an event staged to tout Ford's future vehicles.

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Home Depot Lowers 2007 Expectations

ATLANTA (AP) _ The Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home improvement store chain, on Tuesday cited continued weakness in the housing market and the sale of its wholesale distribution business as it issued a bleaker-than-expected financial outlook for the year. But the Atlanta-based company also said it was launching a tender offer for 250 million shares of its common stock at a price range of $39 to $44 per share as part of a larger program to buy back up to $22.5 billion of its stock.

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Sears Lowers Earnings Guidance

CHICAGO (AP) _ Sears Holdings Corp. surprised Wall Street Tuesday, warning its second-quarter earnings will likely fall well below expectations because of more disappointing sales at its Sears and Kmart. The news tanked Sears' stock, which fell more than 10 percent to a 10-month low before rebounding slightly. It would be the second earnings miss in a row for the department store chain led by Chairman Eddie Lampert, a hedge-fund guru who acquired Kmart in 2003 and Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 2005.

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Horton 3Q Sales Orders Plunge 40 Percent

DALLAS (AP) _ The traditional spring home-selling season was a bust for D.R. Horton Inc., one of the biggest nationwide homebuilders. Horton said Tuesday it will post a loss from operations for its latest quarter after net orders fell 40 percent and it wrote down the value of unsold houses. The report provided more evidence that the housing sector continues to sink.

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Gold Prices

HONG KONG (AP) _ Gold closed at $664.45 an ounce on Wednesday in Hong Kong, up $3.30 an ounce from Tuesday's close of $661.15.

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Japan Markets

TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese stocks fell a second day Wednesday, following Wall Street lower as the yen's renewed advance against the dollar weakened the outlook for exporters.

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Dollar-Yen

TOKYO (AP) _ The dollar fell below 121 yen the first time in nearly eight weeks Wednesday in Asia, and the euro posted a fresh record high against the dollar, as concerns over the U.S. economy weakened the greenback.

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