UPI NewsTrack Business

U.S. markets slide Friday morning

NEW YORK, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes started sharply lower Friday in New York as oil prices began a new march upward.

Concerns over the inflation-pushing commodity have been linked to performances in other stock sectors. "Whatever happens with oil will tell the tale of what happens in the other areas of the market," portfolio manager for Paradigm Capital Management Walter Prendergast told The Wall Street Journal.

In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 61.55 points to 12,564.07, off 0.49 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index lost 12.18 points to 1,387.40, down 0.49 percent. The Nasdaq composite index lost 12.18 points to 2,452.47, also down 0.49 percent.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note gained 10/32 to yield 3.883 percent.

The dollar fell. The euro traded at $1.5775 from Thursday's $1.571, while the dollar traded at 103.23 yen from Thursday's 104.21 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 33.74 points to 14,012.20, off 0.24 percent.

Ford to cut 300 Canadian jobs

WINDSOR, Ontario, May 23 (UPI) -- The Ford Motor Company's Canadian truck engine plant in Windsor, Ontario, will slice 300 jobs by the third week in July, the company announced.

Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, told the London (Ontario) Free Press the bad news wasn't a surprise.

"We knew if the sales kept going the way they were -- half-ton truck and SUVs have been dropping like a lead balloon in the U.S. -- that they were going to take production out, and that of course meant our engines as well as trucks," he said.

The plant employs about 1,600 people, the Windsor Star said.

Ford announced Thursday it was cutting North American production by 15 percent this quarter, 15 percent to 20 percent in the third quarter and 2 percent to 8 percent in the fourth quarter.

Ford spokesman Mark Truby told the Star from Dearborn, Mich., layoff notices have been sent to 430 people, but the company doesn't expect to ultimately lay off that many.

Record high gas prices have hit truck and SUV sales hard, with consumers turning to smaller vehicles and passenger cars, the Free Press said.

10 plaintiffs seeking $950 million from BP

GALVESTON, Texas, May 23 (UPI) -- An attorney in Galveston, Texas, asked jurors to consider $950 million in damages for 10 plaintiffs suing oil giant BP after a 2005 refinery explosion.

The company has said it would set aside $2.1 billion to settle claims over the 2005 explosion that killed 15 people, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday.

BP has already settled many of the 4,000 lawsuits stemming from the incident and has spent more than $1 billion overhauling the plant and installing safety systems, the Chronicle said.

Two cases have gone to trial but were settled before jurors heard any evidence, the newspaper said.

Bank blames managers in rogue trading case

PARIS, May 23 (UPI) -- Managers at French bank Societe Generale failed to act to stop the biggest trading fraud in history, an internal bank report said.

A source, who said he read the report, told the International Herald Tribune that two of accused rogue trader Jerome Kerviel's supervisors, Eric Cordelle and Martial Rouyere, would be fired.

"They had a 9-in-10 chance of discovering what was going on. It was an enormous management failure," the source said.

The report also says Kerviel's assistant, Thomas Mougard, made several of the fraudulent trades, although it doesn't clarify whether he was an accomplice or a unwitting helper.

In January, it was discovered that Kerviel had made $7.2 billion in unauthorized trades.

Auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers are expected to approve of steps the bank has taken to improve internal controls, the source said.