HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil reported the fattest operating profit in U.S. corporate history Thursday but took a beating anyway -- from politicians railing against Big Oil, drivers bleeding cash at the pump and investors who expected more.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company turned a profit of $11.7 billion for the second quarter, lifted mostly by meteoric crude prices. Its earnings were up 14 percent from a year ago.

Total sales: $138 billion -- roughly the gross domestic product of Hungary.

Henry Hubble, Exxon Mobil's vice president for investor relations, said the record profits "highlight the quality of our integrated business model and disciplined investment approach."

For the most part, the plaudits ended there.

Despite their heft, Exxon's profits were a disappointment on Wall Street, and the company's stock slumped nearly 5 percent. Almost the entire energy industry was walloped by investors Thursday.

European rival Royal Dutch Shell posted its own record profit across the Atlantic, with earnings of $11.6 billion. Its American depository receipts tumbled nearly 4 percent in afternoon trading.

Growing investor apprehension can be found at the heart of what the oil industry does -- finding and

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. plans to cut 15 percent of its U.S. and Canadian salaried work force -- or around 5,100 jobs -- by Nov. 1 as part of a plan to slash billions of dollars in costs and help the automaker ride out a slump in U.S. sales.

A GM official declined to confirm the specific numbers Wednesday but indicated they were generally accurate. The official asked not to be named because the company had not planned to release the numbers until later.

Word of the cuts came two days before GM plans to release its second-quarter earnings. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are predicting a loss of $2.63 per share on revenues of $44.6 billion amid plummeting U.S. truck and sport utility vehicle sales and restructuring costs.

GM's sales outside North America grew 10 percent in the first half of this year thanks to strong growth in Russia, Brazil and other emerging markets. But it wasn't enough to keep Toyota Motor Corp. from taking the sales lead, or to offset losses at home. GM's U.S. sales fell 16 percent in the first six months of this year, sharper than the industrywide decline of 10 percent.

GM also is expected to incur heavy losses because of its share in GMAC Financial Services, which said this week it was suspending leasing incentives in Canada because of a steep drop in used vehicle values. GMAC was scheduled to report earnings Thursday.

GM announced a $15 billion cost-cutting and cash-raising plan July 15 after its shares hit a 54-year low.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Starbucks Corp., which already plans to shut 600 stores, said Tuesday it is also cutting almost 1,000 office jobs as part of its bid to re-energize the brand and boost its profit.

Of the new cuts, 550 of the positions are layoffs and the rest are unfilled jobs.

The announcement came a day before Starbucks was set to report its third-quarter financial results, which analysts expect to show a substantial decline in profit because of slower traffic and a drop in sales at established stores.

For the company's investors, the store closures and layoffs offer some hope that the chain's declining traffic, profit and stock price may all rise again.

But optimism is absent among many of the company's employees, who say Starbucks is hurting its workers and customers to save its stock price. The shares have sunk 47 percent in the past year.

"Closing stores is definitely not for the employee or customer's benefit," said Dave Ebert, a 21-year old barista in Minneapolis whose store is closing. "It seems like a lot of their business decisions lately have been shareholder-focused."

The latest round of job cuts are in addition to the layoffs from the store closures, although not all employees at stores that are closing will lose their jobs. In a letter to employees Tuesday announcing the

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices tumbled more than $2 a barrel Tuesday, finishing at their lowest level in seven weeks as a stronger dollar and beliefs that record prices are eroding the world's thirst for energy sparked another dramatic sell-off.

The drop -- which surpassed $4 a barrel at one point during the day -- was a throwback to oil's nosedive over the past two weeks and outweighed supply concerns touched off by a militant attack Monday on two Nigerian crude pipelines. It was oil's seventh decline in the last 10 sessions.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $2.54 to settle at $122.19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest settlement price for a front-month contract since June 10. Earlier, prices fell to $120.42, also the lowest level since June 10. Oil has now fallen more than $25 from its trading high of $147.27, reached July 11.

More concerns that crude's run-up over the past year has pushed prices to unsustainable levels fed Tuesday's decline. The U.S. Transportation Department said Monday that U.S. drivers logged 9.6 billion fewer vehicle miles in May -- or 3.7 percent -- compared to the same period last year, the biggest drop ever for the historically busy summer driving month.

And demand for oil in the U.S. -- the world's thirstiest consumer -- continues to fall, dropping by 891,000 barrels per day in May compared the same month a year ago, the Energy Department's Energy

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Railroad giant CSX said it has asked two nominees of activist hedge fund shareholders TCI and 3G Capital to join its board, but said it will await a vote review and court action before seating its two remaining members.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp. said Friday that nominees Gilbert H. Lamphere and Alexandre Behring will join the board immediately.

Lamphere is managing director of private investment firm Lamphere Capital Management and a former director at Canadian National Railway Co.and Behring is 3G managing director.

"We look forward to welcoming our new board members and working together to continue delivering record performance for all our shareholders," said Michael Ward, CSX chairman.

Ward said the continuing legal fight over control of the board being waged by CSX against TCI and 3G was not hurting the company and pointed to a second-quarter earnings rise of 19 percent.

"That's not an issue," Ward said after the meeting.

The vote to elect two other hedge fund board candidates, TCI Founder Chris Hohn and Timothy T. O'Toole, managing director of the London Underground, remains too close to call.

Ward said the most recent preliminary draft report of an independent inspector of elections shows that the candidates competing for those seats have a difference in votes that is now less than one-fifth of 1

TOKYO (AP) -- Honda Motor Co. reported record profit for a fiscal first quarter Friday as sales growth in new markets offset the damage from a stronger yen and soaring material costs.

The results came a day after U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. reported its worst quarterly loss ever.

Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, earned a better-than-expected 179.6 billion yen ($1.68 billion) in the April-June quarter, up 8.1 percent from the same period the previous year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast 131.3 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in quarterly profit.

Sales for the quarter dipped 2.2 percent from a year ago to 2.867 trillion yen ($26.79 billion), largely because the rising yen eroded the value of overseas earnings. If the yen's value had held at levels of a year ago, sales would have jumped about 7 percent, Honda said.

Riding on its reputation for making cars with good mileage, the Tokyo-based manufacturer of the Civic and Accord compacts has racked up solid results despite worries among the world's automakers about a U.S. slowdown and rising steel prices.

Honda sold more vehicles worldwide than in any other fiscal first quarter at 962,000 vehicles, up 1.7 percent on year.

Cost-cutting, the decrease of auto discounts in North America and a lift from equity-related income from

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- General Electric Co., which owns businesses ranging from light bulbs to NBC television, on Friday said it will restructure into four businesses from six, a move that Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt says will focus the company on growth.

Immelt has been under pressure to shake up GE since it shocked investors with disappointing first-quarter earnings. GE's share price has since dropped nearly 22 percent.

Friday's move follows GE's recent plan to consider spinning off its iconic lighting and appliance businesses, a brand familiar to Americans for generations.

The new structure includes GE Technology Infrastructure, led by Vice Chairman John Rice, which includes Healthcare, Aviation, Transportation and Enterprise Solutions.

GE Energy Infrastructure, headed up by John Krenicki, includes Energy, Oil & Gas and Water.

GE Capital, led by Vice Chairman Mike Neal, brings together all the financial service businesses, including Commercial Finance, GE Money, industry verticals and Corporate Treasury.

NBC Universal, headed by Jeff Zucker, will remain unchanged.

In the reorganization, GE's Commercial Finance, GE Money, GE Industrial and GE Healthcare were folded

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Canadian oil and gas company Petro-Canada reported Thursday that its second-quarter earnings surged 77 percent higher from a year ago.

The integrated oil company said its April-June net income was just under $1.5 billion Canadian dollars ($1.49 billion), or C$3.10 ($3.07) per share, up from C$845 million ($838 million) or C$1.71 ($1.69) per share in the year-earlier period.

With operating profit rising 43 percent to $1.15 billion Canadian dollars, Chief Executive Ron Brenneman told analysts that it was "another strong quarter, both operationally and financially."

Brenneman said a healthy boost to upstream, or oil-producing operations, came from record-breaking crude prices and a rebound in natural gas.

But he added that the refining business was much tougher, with its downstream operating earnings coming in at zero, down by $249 million Canadian dollars ($245 million) over the same quarter in 2007 as margins tightened in the distribution and retailing business.

Petro-Canada's fuel-selling business maintained its No. 1 market share position in the urban retail market despite easing in demand from both retail and wholesale customers in response to higher prices.

"The falloff in demand is putting a lot of downward pressure on gasoline margins. But distillate margins are