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Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Gas prices take slight downturn

Southland gasoline prices fell this week as demand declined - a consumer reaction to the price spikes that followed hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Automobile Club of Southern California reported Friday.

The average self-serve price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.957 in the Los Angeles region this morning, 2 cents less than last week and 3 cents less than last month, but 63 cents more than at this time last year.

Crude prices dip as refineries open

Crude-oil futures fell below $63 a barrel Friday, extending their losses amid signs of weak U.S. gasoline demand coupled with reports that more refineries in the U.S. Gulf region were back on line after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery slipped 45 cents to settle at $62.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month crude futures are down 10 percent from their record settlement price of $69.47 on Sept. 1.

Nymex gasoline futures fell less than a penny to $1.7486 per gallon - well below the settlement peak of $2.6145 per gallon set on Aug. 31. Heating oil futures declined by 4.69 cents to to $1.95 per gallon.

On London's International Petroleum Exchange, November Brent crude futures lost 79 cents to settle at $59.35 a barrel.

Embattled Refco tries to stay afloat

NEW YORK - Weighed down by an accounting scandal, a former chief executive under indictment and the possibility of serious trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission, commodities broker Refco Inc. appears to be struggling to hold on to as many customers - and as much cash - as possible.

There was more evidence Friday that the $545 million accounting scandal in a Refco subsidiary that led to the arrest of ex-CEO Phillip Bennett was spilling out into the company's other businesses. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said the situation was getting so bad, the company was likely to default on its debt payments due to a lack of cash.

Refco said Friday it would begin ``winding down'' its stock, bond and credit portfolios within its Refco Securities LLC subsidiary, selling all its holdings to pay off its customers and, hopefully, preserve some of its capital to potentially use to help keep the company going.

Combined with the company's previous move to freeze customer accounts in its Refco Capital Markets subsidiary, an offshore broker/dealer, analysts said.

GE profits up 15% in spite of storms

STAMFORD, Conn. - General Electric Co. said Friday profits rose 15 percent in the third quarter as its global growth offset hurricane losses.

Net income at GE, with businesses from building jet engines and power plants to making loans and operating the NBC television network, rose to $4.67 billion, or 44 cents a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30 from $4.07 billion, or 38 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue climbed 9 percent to $41.9 billion.

The results matched analysts' expectations for profit of 44 cents a share, a Thomson Financial survey showed.

In a conference call with analysts, Jeff Immelt, GE's chief executive, said GE expects profit growth of 10 percent to 15 percent next year. He said he hopes to cut costs by about $1 billion in coming years and that the company was not planning major acquisitions.

U.S. deficit down, without Katrina

WASHINGTON - The federal deficit hit $319 billion for the budget year just ended, down from last year's record red ink though a surge in Katrina-driven spending threatens to drive it up again.

The improvement from the record $413 billion recorded in the 2004 budget year, which the Treasury Department reported on Friday, is largely due to a surge in federal revenues from an improving economy.

The figures were released three days before Congress returns from a recess and commences a struggle to cut $35 billion from federal benefit programs over the next five years to help defray hurricane recovery costs. Friday's deficit figures underscored that even if lawmakers agree to such savings, they would have a barely visible effect on the overall red ink figure.

Auto sales sagged in early October

DETROIT - U.S. auto sales fell precipitously in the first part of October, as employee-discount incentives ended and gas prices made consumers jittery, the results of a survey released Friday suggested.

The numbers also showed a possible fallout from strong summer sales, according to Power Information Network.

New-vehicle sales were down 33 percent in the first nine days compared with the same period a year ago, and down 44 percent compared with the first nine days of September, the survey found.

Sales at No. 1 automaker General Motors Corp. were down 57 percent compared with early October 2004, while Ford Motor Co.'s sales were down 45 percent.