CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Bank of America Corp.'s plunging profits shocked Wall Street Thursday and prompted a clearly frustrated chief executive Kenneth Lewis to say that changes loom in its investment banking business.

"I've had all of the fun I can stand in investment banking at the moment," said Lewis, who heads up the nation's second largest bank. "So to get bigger in it is not something I really want to do."

As the last of the nation's top three banks to report results this week, Bank of America's news suggests that the problems in the credit market may yet be closer to the beginning than an end. But while Lewis blamed some of his bank's problems on those market conditions, he admitted his traders also made plenty of mistakes.

"What I can't say is that we'll stay the course," Lewis said on a call with analysts, after his company posted a 32 percent profit drop in the third quarter. "The probability of changes and eliminations of some businesses and infrastructure ... is very high."

Bank of America's shares fell $1.18 to $48.85 Thursday, after the Charlotte-based bank said net income declined to $3.7 billion, or

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. rode the Internet advertising wave to another sparkling quarter, justifying the investor confidence that lifted its stock price by more than $100 during past month to establish the online search leader as Silicon Valley's most valuable company.

Overcoming a traditionally slow season for Web surfing, Google said Thursday that it earned $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share, for the three months ended in September. That was a 46 percent improvement from net income of $733.4 million, or $2.36 per share, at the same time last year.

If not for the cost of awarding stock to its steadily expanding work force, Google said it would have earned $3.91 per share. That topped the average estimate of $3.78 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Revenue for the period totaled $4.23 billion, a 57 percent increase from $2.67 billion last year.

After subtracting commissions paid to its thousands of advertising partners, Google's revenue stood at

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices surpassed $90 a barrel for the first time Thursday as the falling dollar drew new foreign investors and speculators to dollar-denominated energy futures.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery hit $90.02 in electronic trading Thursday evening before returning to around $89.60. Earlier, prices had risen $2.07 to settle at a record $89.47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

While oil prices have risen sharply in dollar terms in recent days, the steadily weakening dollar means oil futures are seen as a bargain overseas. Data released in recent weeks shows speculative buying of oil futures is on the rise. Buying by foreign investors sends prices up, which draws more speculators into the market.

"It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Brad Samples, commodities analyst at Summit Energy Services Inc. in Louisville, Ky.

Many analysts feel that the underlying fundamentals of supply and demand do not support oil prices of $90 a barrel. On Wednesday, the Energy Department reported that oil and gasoline supplies rose more