AP Executive Morning Briefing

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Wednesday, August 22, 2007:

Flooding Damages Organic Farmers' Crops

MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Richard de Wilde estimates he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this week when a foot of rain inundated his organic beef and vegetable farm in southwestern Wisconsin. "Out of our 100 acres of vegetables, we had easily 30 under water," de Wilde, one of the state's largest organic farmers, said in a phone interview Tuesday. "If that was all a loss, it's $300,000. I'm thinking we're going to be able to salvage some out of there, but certainly it's more than $200,000 just counting crops."

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Oil Prices Rebound in Asian Trading

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Crude oil prices rebounded in Asian trading Wednesday after dropping below $70 overnight as Hurricane Dean weakened and it appeared the storm would have no lasting effect on Mexican oil production. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 19 cents to $69.76 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midmorning in Singapore. The contract fell $1.39 to $69.57 a barrel Tuesday.

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Shoe Firms Unite, Form Collective Brands

NEW YORK (AP) _ It's time for the casual shoe industry to grow up, and Matt Rubel is prodding it on its way. As president and chief executive of Collective Brands Inc., a footwear giant formed last week with Payless ShoeSource Inc.'s $800 million acquisition of Stride Rite Corp., Rubel will head a company that some say points to the future of how casual shoes will be distributed worldwide. Big, sophisticated players like Nike Inc. already have consolidated the athletic sneaker business. But the other side of footwear is still dominated by smallish manufacturers that serve thousands of mom-and-pop chains.

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Japan Central Bank to Hold 2-Day Meeting

TOKYO (AP) _ Recent turmoil on global financial markets and worries about a slowdown in the U.S. economy are on Japanese central bankers' minds as they begin a two-day meeting Wednesday to decide on interest rates. Before the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis sent global stock markets nose-diving in recent weeks, expectations had been high that the Bank of Japan would raise a key interest rate, now at a relatively low 0.50 percent.

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Paper: Ameritrade, E-Trade Discuss Merge

NEW YORK (AP) _ Online brokerage giants TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and E-Trade Financial Corp. have been holding talks for weeks about a possible merger, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The discussions currently are focused on making sure both companies agree on strategy, and the companies aren't yet close to a deal, the Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

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Stocks End Erratic Session Mostly Higher

NEW YORK (AP) _ Wall Street ended another erratic session mostly higher Tuesday as investors, waiting for the Federal Reserve's next move to steady the markets, made few big commitments to stocks. Comments from policymakers and government officials tugged at a market looking for any evidence the Fed will cut rates to help contain the credit crisis that began with the failure of subprime loans.

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Wal-Mart: Melamine Traces in Dog Treats

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ Tests of two Chinese brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores found traces of melamine, a chemical agent that led to another massive pet food recall in March, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July, after customers said the products sickened their pets.

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Delta Names Richard Anderson As CEO

ATLANTA (AP) _ Delta Air Lines Inc. fought hard during bankruptcy to avoid being taken over by another carrier. Less than four months after exiting Chapter 11, it reignited speculation Tuesday about a future merger by naming former Northwest Airlines Corp. CEO Richard Anderson as its next chief executive. Anderson, currently a board member at Atlanta-based Delta and an executive at UnitedHealth Group Inc., will replace Gerald Grinstein on Sept. 1. Grinstein, 75, who had said he would leave Delta once his successor was named, will retire from Delta and from its board.

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Gas Station Owners Allege Price Fixing

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Nearly two dozen gas station owners in California sued Shell Oil Co., Chevron Corp. and Saudi Refining Inc., on Tuesday, claiming the companies conspired to fix prices for 23,000 franchise owners nationwide. The case filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeks class-action status for the plaintiffs. It is similar to another lawsuit filed in 2004 by other California gas station owners that was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The new group of plaintiffs hopes the court will consider a slightly different argument.

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Tribune Shareholders OK $8.2B Buyout

CHICAGO (AP) _ Tribune Co. shareholders consented to the $8.2 billion buyout of the media conglomerate on Tuesday, an expected but noteworthy milestone in a drawn-out transaction that still awaits federal approval and billions of dollars in promised financing. The shareholder meeting in Tribune Tower, the last scheduled for the 160-year-old company, was marked by unions' complaints that employees of the soon-to-be employee-owned firm will have no formal role in running it. Some shareholders also voiced concerns about its ability to operate in a struggling newspaper industry under a mountain of debt.

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Gold Prices

HONG KONG (AP) _ Gold closed at $657.65 an ounce on Wednesday in Hong Kong, up $1.0 an ounce from Tuesday's close of $656.65.

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Japan Markets

TOKYO (AP) _ Japanese stocks finished flat Wednesday as worries over subprime loans and foreign exchange rates continued to pressure financial stocks and auto makers.

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Dollar-Yen

TOKYO (AP) _ The dollar fell slightly against the yen in Asia Wednesday as the U.S. subprime mortgage woes continue to discourage risky investments that involve selling yen.

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