AP Executive Morning Briefing

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Monday, October 15, 2007:

Oil Prices Hold Near Record Levels

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices were steady Monday after closing at a new record in the previous session on worries that supplies are insufficient for coming winter demand amid reports of declining crude inventories. Light, sweet crude for November delivery added 4 cents to $83.73 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midafternoon in Singapore. The contract rose 61 cents to settle at a record $83.69 a barrel on Friday after rising as high as $84.05, also a record.

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Wall Street Heads Toward Mixed Opening

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street tipped toward a narrowly mixed opening Monday as investors held positions ahead of a string of earnings reports set to be released, and news that major U.S. banks will set up a fund to bailout the credit markets. Investors receive third-quarter reports this week from more than 80 members of the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Posting results Monday are Citigroup Inc., Mattel Inc., Charles Schwab Corp. and Genentech Inc.

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Fox Business Network Ready for Its Debut

NEW YORK (AP) — Rupert Murdoch has entered a dark horse in high-stakes races before, and won. On Monday, the News Corp. media titan trots out the Fox Business Network. Two years in the making, the channel will challenge General Electric Co.'s highly profitable CNBC network as it seeks to redefine business news for average Americans faced with increasingly complex decisions about their financial futures.

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Banks Plan Joint Fund to Buy Risky Debt

NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup Inc. and other big banks are working on a plan to support the market for mortgage-backed securities and other investments by jointly creating a fund that would buy as much as $100 billion of the debt, according to published reports. The banks met three weeks ago at the Treasury Department, which is playing an advisory role, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

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Hitachi: Hard Drives Are Getting Better

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Multimedia stockpilers need not worry about laptops, digital video recorders or portable music players hitting a storage capacity ceiling any time soon. Hitachi Ltd. says its researchers have successfully shrunken a key component in hard drives to a nanoscale that will pave the way for quadrupling today's storage limits to 4 terabytes for desktop computers and 1 terabyte on laptops in 2011.

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Google Skimps on Its Own Advertising

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Like a gourmet chef who rarely eats out, Google Inc. feeds advertising services to hordes of other businesses while skimping on its own marketing. The recipe has been extremely fruitful. While the Internet search leader has sold more than $30 billion in advertising since 2001, Google has become a household name without buying expensive ad campaigns on television or radio or in print.

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Auto Supplier Collins & Aikman Closing

DETROIT (AP) — An auto supplier that once made pieces for almost every U.S.-built car is closing after completing the sale of its last major operations to a private equity group led by billionaire Wilbur Ross. Collins & Aikman Corp. got into trouble under the leadership of ex-Reagan administration budget director David Stockman, who took it on an expansion drive on the eve of a big downturn in the U.S. auto industry. He is awaiting trial on charges of hiding the company's woes from investors.

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GM Enjoying Success in Indian Car Market

NEW DELHI (AP) — After struggling for years to gain a foothold in India, General Motors Corp. is tasting some success lately. In the past six months, the U.S. automaker sold nearly 2 1/2 times the number of cars it sold in India in the same period last year, even as overall demand for new cars was hit by a sharp rise in interest rates. The numbers underscore GM's growing success in one of the world's fastest growing car markets, even though its sales in India — totaling about 21,000 vehicles in the April-September period — fall far short of the 293,000 units that market leader Maruti Suzuki sold during the same span.

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Pink Campaign Doesn't Tickle Everyone

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — October used to be shrouded in black and orange, but in recent years, pink has nudged into the palette. It seems just about every product you can buy — from Indianapolis Colts mini-helmets to M&M candies, from Avaya phone faceplates to Yoplait yogurt — is available in pink, or at least pink packaging, as part of a promotion to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research. The companies say the "cause marketing" campaigns do good for the world — and they're not bad for sales, either.

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Motor Trend Names Mazda CX-9 SUV of Year

DETROIT (AP) — Motor Trend magazine has selected the 2008-model Mazda CX-9 as its sport utility vehicle of the year. The award from a field of 11 finalists is to be featured in the magazine's Nov. 6 edition, Motor Trend said in an announcement prepared for release Monday. "We wondered if it would be possible for Mazda to inject its sports car DNA into their first-ever three-row crossover — a crossover that happened to be one of the largest in the lineup," said editor-in-chief Angus MacKenzie.

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Gold Prices

HONG KONG (AP) — Gold closed higher in Hong Kong Monday at $755.85 an ounce, up $7.10 an ounce from Friday's close of $748.75.

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Japan Markets

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese stocks were narrowly mixed Monday, with technology stocks like chip-makers Advantest and Tokyo Electron gaining ground following Friday's rally in U.S. tech stocks.

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Dollar-Yen

TOKYO (AP) — The dollar edged higher Monday in Asia as traders looked ahead to economic indicators coming out of the U.S. this week, including data on consumer prices and housing.

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