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

NEW YORK (AP) -- Railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter earnings fell 19 percent, mostly due to one-time charges related to an environmental cleanup in Montana.

The company also issued a third-quarter profit forecast range mostly below Wall Street's expectations.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern earned $350 million, or $1 per share in the second quarter, compared with $433 million, or $1.20 per share, in the same quarter of 2007.

The 2008 period included charges of 31 cents per share in cleanup costs, and 3 cents per share resulting from a fatal grade crossing accident. Excluding these items, the company would have earned $1.34 per share.

Revenue rose 17 percent to $4.48 billion. The company attributed revenue growth mostly to an improvement in yields and higher fuel surcharges.

Analysts, who typically exclude one-time items, expected a profit of $1.30 per share on revenue of $4.43 billion, according to a Thomson Financial poll.

Agricultural products revenue increased 36 percent, due primarily to strong unit volumes in ethanol, corn, soybeans and wheat. Coal volumes grew 16 percent. Industrial products revenue rose by 10 percent, while consumer products revenue rose 12 percent.

Each of the business units also benefited from increased fuel surcharges the company passes on to its

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. managed to turn a profit in the most recent quarter -- despite fears that rising costs for ingredients and fuel would cut into The King Of Beers' bottom line.

But the St. Louis-based brewer, the nation's largest, said Wednesday that it has to raise prices to stay ahead of the higher costs. So drinkers of brews such as Budweiser and Bud Light will pay from 3 percent to 5 percent more beginning in September.

The hikes will affect about 85 percent of the company's U.S. beer sales, and average about 4 percent. It will be the first major price increase this year for Anheuser-Busch, which just last week agreed to sell itself to Belgian brewer InBev SA for $52 billion.

Even though consumers are grappling with rising prices for food and fuel, the company and analysts don't expect they'll cut back on the pricier beers.

"When you're in a recession, you cry in your beer anyway. It's the last thing you let go of," said Juli Niemann, an analyst for Smith Moore & Co. in St. Louis. "You don't turn out your lights. You don't let go of your beer."

She said the company will probably have to raise prices even more to maintain its margins.

Anheuser-Busch reported a 1.8 percent rise in second-quarter profit on higher sales of its main brands and the successful launch of Bud Light Lime. Net income rose to $689 million for the three months ending

NEW YORK (AP) -- Amazon.com Inc. showed Wednesday that it wasn't being hurt by economic weakness and high fuel prices, reporting second-quarter earnings that more than doubled and surpassed analysts' expectations. The Internet retailer also raised its full-year revenue projections.

Sales were strong in several sections of Amazon's massive marketplace, and the company was helped substantially by a $53 million non-cash gain from the sale of European DVD rental assets.

For the quarter that ended June 30, Amazon earned $158 million, or 37 cents per share. Amazon earned $78 million, or 19 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

The company's revenue climbed 41 percent to $4.06 billion, including a 35 percent leap in North American sales. The number of total active customer accounts also jumped, rising 18 percent to more than 81 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 26 cents per share on $3.96 billion in revenue in the quarter.

Amazon shares rose $5.87, or 8.3 percent, to $76.41 in after-hours trading, after finishing regular trading up $2.57, or 3.8 percent, at $70.54.

Sales of things like books, CDs and DVDs rose 31 percent to $2.41 billion in the second quarter, while

For retirees whose portfolios have been clobbered by the bear market for stocks, it's not going to be easy to make that money back.

But there are steps you can take to help get back on track, including some moves that can provide tax relief down the road.

With the latest downdraft in stock prices, the broad market indexes -- such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, hit the "official" definition of a bear market, dropping more than 20% from their peaks last October, before rallying to regain some ground. But there have been few places to hide.

Double Whammy

The problem for retirees is that the double whammy of stock-market losses and withdrawals of money to meet living expenses can put a serious dent in a nest egg.

It's generally not a good idea for investors to respond to short-term movements in the markets.

"You can't control investment returns -- sometimes they're good and sometimes they're not so good," says Kurt Brouwer, chairman of Brouwer & Janachowski, a San Francisco based financial advisory firm.

The first step should be to carefully weigh whether changes really need to be made. It may be that all that's required is a short-term pullback in spending and withdrawals, says Mr. Brouwer. That's especially

ATLANTA (AP) -- Customers are using UPS shipping services within the U.S. less amid a slumping U.S. economy and soaring fuel prices. The company's international business was affected as imports into the country declined in the second quarter.

As it reported a nearly 21 percent profit decline in the April-June period and lowered its outlook for the year, United Parcel Service Inc. said Tuesday it was working to cut costs.

"Brace yourselves for more tough times," Edward Jones analyst Dan Ortwerth said.

Even so, Ortwerth said the Atlanta-based company has the financial wherewithal to steer through the rough patch. UPS shares rose more than 4 percent in Tuesday trading.

"There is far too much long-term competitive pressure as the economy globalizes to meet customer needs and to meet them rapidly, and businesses cannot afford to walk away from the best services available to them," he said.

UPS, hit by an average daily volume decline in the U.S. and soaring fuel costs, said its profit was $873 million, or 85 cents a share, in the second quarter, compared to a profit of $1.10 billion, or $1.04 a share, for the same period a year ago. Revenue grew to $13 billion from $12.2 billion.

"We're feeling the impact of higher energy costs throughout the company," Chief Executive Scott Davis

Health insurers battered by rising costs and employer benefits cuts caught a break Tuesday when UnitedHealth Group beat Wall Street expecations and saw its stock jump nearly 8 percent, even though it reported a sharp drop in second-quarter profit.

Shares of the Minneapolis-based managed-care provider rose $2.38, or 10 percent, to $26.21 from Monday's closing price of $23.83, as the prices of other publicly traded insurers like Aetna Inc. and WellPoint Inc. also jumped several percentage points.

"The worst case didn't happen to managed care, and that was enough for people to jump back in," said analyst Les Funtleyder of Miller Tabak & Co. "The assumption is the worst is over."

UnitedHealth's net income fell to $337 million, or 27 cents per share, from $1.23 billion, or 89 cents per share, a year ago. Hefty lawsuit settlements and thinner margins in its health care services business contributed to the profit drop.

Tough economic conditions, including a competitive industry that's seeing fewer employers offering insurance, were among factors cited by company officials in a Tuesday morning conference call with analysts.

The company's UnitedHealthcare segment saw its second-quarter membership decrease less than 1 percent, partially due to a drop of 95,000 people in risk-based programs where the company provides the insurance.

"I think affordability is absolutely an issue that employers are very focused on," UnitedHealthcare

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc.'s profit slipped again in the second quarter, a recurring theme that has frustrated shareholders and raised doubts about the Internet company's future.

While the results released Tuesday missed analyst expectations, the performance wasn't as bad as many investors feared after Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc. disappointed Wall Street with its second-quarter earnings last week.

What's more, Yahoo management maintained its revenue outlook for the remainder of 2008. The confident stance eased concerns about Yahoo's financial erosion worsening amid the dreary economy in the United States and parts of Europe.

Yahoo shares rebounded 52 cents in extended trading after falling 27 cents to finish Tuesday's regular session at $21.40.

"They did better than the worst expectations," said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis. "It was a 'rice-cracker' quarter. It didn't taste great, but it wasn't totally horrible either."

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company earned $131 million, or 9 cents per share, from April through June. That was down 18 percent from $161 million, or 11 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Analysts had projected earnings of 11 cents per share in the most recent quarter, according to Thomson