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U.S. markets slide Tuesday

NEW YORK, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Major U.S. stock indexes slipped in Tuesday trading on mixed results in financial concerns.

Shares of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp, fell 19 percent, while Citigroup gained 2.22 percent, Bank of America rose 3.5 percent and Washington Mutual went up 3.49 percent.

Oil prices fell to $113.13 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gas prices fell to a nation average price of $3.799 per gallon, prompting Travel and Tourism stocks to rise 4.98 percent as a group Tuesday morning.

In midmorning trading Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 67.01 points to 11,715.34, off 0.57 percent. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.46 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,429.64. The Standard and Poor's 500 lost 6.50 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,298.82.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 15/32 to yield 3.943 percent.

The dollar fell. The euro traded at $1.4930 against Monday's close of $1.4903, while the dollar traded at 109.85 yen from Monday's 110.16 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average lost 127.31 points to 13,303.60, down 0.95 percent.

Canadian international trade up in June

OTTAWA, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Buoyed by energy exports, Canada's international exports rose 3.1 percent in June to $43.2 billion, the Statistics Canada agency reported Tuesday.

The improvement gave Canada a $5.8 billion trade surplus, up from $5.2 billion in May, the agency said.

"Imports rose 2 percent to $37.4 billion, the third monthly increase in a row and the eighth in the past 12 months," the report said.

Exports of energy products such as petroleum, coal and natural gas reached $12.8 billion in June, up 11.5 percent from May, and was the eighth consecutive monthly increase, StatsCan said.

While exports of passenger autos remained well below levels reached in 2007, automotive product exports increased 7.7 percent to $5.3 billion in June following three months of decline.

Canada's trade surplus with the United States rose to $9.6 billion, up from $8.1 billion after a 5.3 percent monthly jump in exports worth $32.8 billion, the report said.

United pilots call for CEO to resign

CHICAGO, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Pilots at Chicago's United Airlines are calling for a change of leadership at the country's second largest airline, a union official said.

Steve Wallach, chairman of the United Master Executive Council, which leads the Air Line Pilots Association, said United Chief Executive Officer Glenn Tilton had neglected the airline's day-to-day functions in favor of a merger, the Chicago Tribune reported. United has explored possible mergers with Delta, Continental and US Airways.

"I think that there's been a lack of leadership, which is why our airline has been dragged to the bottom of the industry," Wallach told the Tribune.

"Glenn's only plan outside of bankruptcy was to merge," Wallach said.

The union has posted a Web site at www.GlennTilton.com, which details what it feels is mismanagement at the airline, the Tribune reported.

The airline called the move an "obvious and predictable attempt to deflect attention from ALPA's illegal activity cited in our lawsuit," company spokeswoman Jean Medina said.

In July, United filed a suit against the union for allegedly organizing a sick-out in protest of 1,450 pilot jobs the company plans to cut this fall, the newspaper reported.

Wextrust owners charged with Ponzi scheme

NEW YORK, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The owners of WexTrust Capital LLC targeted Orthodox Jews in a real estate Ponzi scheme worth hundreds of millions of dollars, authorities in New York allege.

Charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission say the Chicago firm raised $255 million from around 1,200 investors, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

But, owners Steven Byers and Joseph Shereshevsky of Norfolk, Va., didn't invest the funds as they said they would, authorities said.

At one point, Byers and Shereshevsky raised $9 million to purchase nine buildings. But, the company never bought the buildings and $6 million from the fund was diverted to other uses, the Sun-Times reported.

Shereshevsky, previously convicted on bank fraud, owns 20 percent of WexTrust through a trust established in his wife's name, the Sun-Times reported.

Associate director of enforcement at the SEC Andrew Calamari said Shereshevsky used his ties to the Orthodox Jewish community to raise funds.

"Affinity frauds are especially pernicious because the victims tend to let their guards down," Calamari told the Sun-Times.

Byers and Shereshevsky of Norfolk, Va., have been arrested with criminal and civil charges filed, the newspaper reported.