BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

L.A. luxury homes still gain in value

Luxury home values posted slight gains in Los Angeles during the second quarter of 2006 as the market for residences over $1 million stabilizes, according to a report out Wednesday.

In Los Angeles, the value of luxury homes grew 3 percent over the quarter and was up 12.8 percent from a year ago, according to the First Republic Prestige Home Index, compiled by First Republic Bank.

The average luxury home in Los Angeles is now priced at $2.36 million, up $268,250 from the same period last year, according to the report.

According to Michele Hall of Coldwell Banker's Brentwood East office, the luxury-home market in Los Angeles above $10 million remains strong, although the midtier portion has slowed.

Lid on inflation sends stocks up

NEW YORK -- Wall Street emerged from the summer doldrums Wednesday as a second straight day of tame inflation data sent stocks sharply higher and pushed the Dow Jones industrials to its highest level in three months. Falling crude futures, which slid below $72 per barrel, also fueled the gains.

The consumer price index, which measures price increases at the retail level, rose 0.4 percent in July, slightly higher than June's 0.2 percent increase. But with food and fuel prices removed, so-called ``core'' CPI rose just 0.2 percent, less than the 0.3 percent economists expected.

Combined with Tuesday's producer price index, which showed a decline in core wholesale prices, the data point to a drop in inflation pressures. That would allow the Fed to stop raising rates, which would otherwise threaten economic growth and cramp corporate profits.

Wetlands are set for oil drilling

WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department is set to open a vast area of environmentally sensitive wetlands in Alaska to new oil drilling, even as opponents point to corroding pipelines to the east at Prudhoe Bay as a reason to keep the area off-limits.

The tens of thousands of acres in and around Lake Teshekpuk on Alaska's North Slope are part of the oil-rich Barrow Arch that also includes the Prudhoe Bay fields that have kept oil flowing for decades.

The lease sale, opposed by environmentalists and some members of Congress, comes as federal regulators and a House committee investigate inspection and maintenance programs of BP-Alaska where widespread pipeline corrosion forced the partial shutdown of Prudhoe Bay oil production Aug. 6.

U.S. demands passenger lists

WASHINGTON -- Airlines will soon be required to give the government passenger lists for all U.S.-bound international flights before takeoff, the nation's homeland security chief said Wednesday.

The new regulations, which could be in place by early next year, would make permanent a counterterror measure taken after last week's foiled plot to bomb trans-Atlantic flights.

Chertoff said the policy switch was already being discussed before British authorities said they had cracked a monthslong plot to bomb as many as 10 flights headed for the United States from London. In announcing the plot, the U.S. government demanded that airlines submit their passenger lists before taking off on all inbound flights from the United Kingdom.

Limited Brands shows good sales

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Limited Brands said Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings rose 39 percent, helped by strong sales at its Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works chains.

The retailer posted a profit of $113.1 million, or 28 cents a share, for the quarter ended July 29 compared with earnings of $81.5 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $2.5 billion from $2.3 billion.

Sales at stores open at least a year -- considered a key indicator of a retailer's strength -- rose 5 percent.

The company released some details of its report Tuesday, including its expectation that the third quarter's results would be flat with its break-even results of a year ago and that it expects to make $1.55 to $1.65 a share for the year.

Chinese Wal-Mart workers unionize

BEIJING -- An order by President Hu Jintao prompted China's state-sanctioned labor group to launch a campaign that led to the creation of Wal-Mart's first Chinese union, according to a newspaper report.

Such personal involvement by Hu in dealing with foreign companies is rare, and could help to explain the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' surprise success in forming a Wal-Mart union in July after the world's largest retailer resisted organizing efforts for two years.

The ACFTU responded by setting up an office targeting a Wal-Mart in the southeastern city of Quanzhou, where employees voted July 29 to form the company's first Chinese union, according to the newspaper's report Tuesday.