NEW YORK (AP) -- Crude oil prices dipped to their lowest levels in more than a month Friday, falling below $89 a barrel as investors sold amid signs of weakening demand and expectations that OPEC will boost production next week.

The slide in oil may mean consumers will see relief at the pump soon, analysts said. Gasoline and heating oil futures also dropped.

It was quite a turnaround for crude, which began the week pushing $100 a barrel but ended it by falling to its lowest levels since Oct. 25.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $2.30 to settle at $88.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude prices are more than $10 below Monday's high of $99.11 a barrel and the all-time high of $99.29 a barrel set last week. Prices continued falling Friday after the Nymex closed, dropping as low as $88.45 in electronic trading.

Oil's downturn is good news for consumers, who will likely see lower gas prices in coming days, said Tom

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. confirmed its plans to bid for a prized piece of the airwaves in an upcoming government auction, further underscoring the Internet search leader's determination to shake up the wireless market and plumb more profits from mobile phones.

Friday's announcement wasn't a bombshell because the Mountain View-based company previously signaled it might participate in the Federal Communications Commission auction scheduled to begin Jan. 24.

In a mild surprise, Google will enter the competition without a partner more experienced in the wireless industry.

Going it alone will be expensive and potentially risky, even for a company as rich and technologically adept as Google, which ended September with about $13 billion in cash.

The bidding for the swath of 700 megahertz spectrum that Google wants will start at $4.6 billion, with analysts predicting the final price will be substantially higher. Building out the network for national coverage might cost an additional $5 billion to $7.5 billion, based on estimates from Citigroup Global markets analyst Michael Rollins.

Lingering questions about how the possible wireless expansion might affect Google's finances and focus

NEW YORK (AP) -- E-Trade Financial Corp., which flirted with collapse amid the growing mortgage crisis, said Thursday it is getting a $2.55 billion cash infusion from Citadel Investment Group in a bid to revive the battered discount brokerage.

Citadel, one of the nation's largest hedge funds, plans to buy E-Trade's troubled asset-backed securities portfolio and take it off the brokerage's books. Hemorrhaging in that portfolio caused massive writedowns since the summer, and triggered panic that further losses would push E-Trade into bankruptcy.

The deal also forced E-Trade's embattled chief executive, Mitch Caplan, out of the job he's held since 2003. He'll be replaced on an interim basis by President and Chief Operating Officer Jarrett Lilien. Former JPMorgan Chase & Co. vice chairman Donald Layton will become non-executive chairman.

It is the latest managerial shakeup at a financial house in the past few months as Wall Street suffered dramatic losses when borrowers with shaky credit began defaulting on their loans, sending credit markets into disarray. Earlier this month Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal and Citigroup Inc. head Charles Prince were forced out of their jobs.

Lilien said the deal with Citadel will not impede any future strategic moves, and that he's still quite

Today, I want to look at three top industries and the stocks in those industries that represent the best opportunities for investors. Some industry groups feature a plethora of high, PowerRatings stocks. However it is more often the case that even the most attractive industries, those industries with PowerRatings of 9 or 10, have only one or two stocks with similarly high, 9 or 10 PowerRatings.

When we find a top rated industry, we have two main options when looking to take advantage of that industry's prospects. One option is to keep a watch list of stocks that have good, but not great PowerRatings, such as a 7. The idea here is to keep an eye out to see if these 7-rated stocks will make it to the Recent Upgrades list that we publish daily at PowerRatings.net. Often, investors can catch a great opportunity by waiting for a 7-rated stock in an attractive industry to get upgraded to an 8, a 9 or even a 10.

The second option is, of course, to simply look to skim off the top of a given high-rated industry. Look at the "View All Stocks" option and see what stocks in that industry are "in the green" with PowerRatings (for Investors) ratings of 8, 9, or 10. Those are the "best of breed" stocks in that industry, and where your focus as an investor should go and remain until the stock's PowerRating slips from the "green end" back

How to earn more money after you've retired

Ready to retire but worried that you won't have enough money? Don't play the "woulda, coulda, shoulda" game. Even now it's not too late to increase your income and your financial security.

1. Consider working a little longer. For the average worker, staying on the job for just two more years lowers the amount of savings you need to finance your retirement by about 25%, estimates the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Not only do you get the benefit of the additional income, but you also get a few more years to sock away money and accrue pension and Social Security benefits.

2. Build tax-free retirement income. Contribute to a Roth IRA while you're working. If you're 50 or older next year, you and your spouse can each contribute up to $6,000 to Roth accounts--$5,000 in basic contributions plus a $1,000 catch-up-as long as you meet income requirements (in 2008, your income can't exceed $169,000 if you're married filing jointly or $116,000 if you're single). [link to Roth stories]

3. Downsize. Financial advisers generally recommend that you assume you'll need about 85% of your pre-retirement income after you leave your job. But it pays to do a budget dry run. By paying off your

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures eked out a small gain Thursday, rebounding from two days of sharp declines after a fire at a pipeline serving the Midwest raised new supply concerns.

The fire late Wednesday along the Enbridge Energy Partners LP Lakehead pipeline in northern Minnesota, which carries crude oil from Saskatchewan to the Chicago area, killed two repair workers. After a brief shutdown, most of the pipeline was quickly returned to service and the fire-damaged section was expected to be back up in days.

An offer by the government to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if needed, helped calm markets.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose 39 cents to settle at $91.01 a barrel in choppy trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but that was down from an overnight spike of $95.17 on early reports of the fire. The gain followed a two-day downturn on concerns about weakening economic growth and a view that supplies are on the rise.

The Enbridge pipeline actually consists of four separate conduits. After the fire, all were shut down for a while, but two carrying a total of 680,000 barrels of crude a day were restarted Thursday morning, said

DALLAS (AP) -- Dell Inc. said earnings grew 27 percent in the third quarter, buoyed by growth in overseas markets like Brazil and by prices falling for memory chips and other components.

The results fell just shy of analyst expectations.

Dell, which posted results after markets closed Thursday, earned $766 million, or 34 cents per share, in the three months ended Nov. 2. That was up from $601 million, or 27 cents per share, in revised figures from the same quarter a year ago. Revenue grew 9 percent to $15.64 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting the Round Rock company to post profits of 35 cents per share on revenue of $15.34 billion.

Shares in Dell rose almost 2 percent in regular trading Thursday to close at $28.14. But trading was heavy after hours, with shares falling almost 10 percent, reaching $25.33 at one point.

In the company's first earnings conference call with analysts in over a year, Dell CFO Don Carty and founder and CEO Michael Dell both predicted more restructuring costs for the future. These will include

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday hinted that another interest rate cut may be needed to bolster the economy. The worsening credit crunch, a deepening housing slump and rising energy prices probably will create some "headwinds for the consumer in the months ahead," he said.

Bernanke said he expects consumer spending will continue to grow and suggested the country can withstand the current problems without falling into a recession. But he indicated that consumers could turn more cautious as they try to cope with all the stresses.

The odds have grown that the country could enter a recession. A sharp cutback in consumer spending could send the economy into a tailspin. Against this backdrop, Fed policymakers will need to be "exceptionally alert and flexible," Bernanke said.

That comment probably will be viewed as a sign the Fed may lower interest rates when it meets on Dec. 11, its last session of the year.

Twice this year the central bank has trimmed rates to keep the housing collapse and credit crunch from