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Reuters Canada Business Summary

10/10/07

Chrysler and UAW negotiating as strike deadline nears

DETROIT (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union and automaker Chrysler LLC remained locked in contract talks on Wednesday morning just hours ahead of a strike deadline set by the union that could trigger the industry's second major work stoppage in as many weeks. The UAW has warned it will go out on strike at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday if the two sides fail to agree on a new deal on wages and benefits for 49,000 U.S. factory workers and over 77,000 families of Chrysler retirees.

Menu Foods raises recall costs, to cut staff

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Menu Foods Income Fund said on Wednesday it will cut between 10 and 15 percent of its staff as it raised the cost of its tainted pet food recall to C$55 million ($56 million) from $45 million. Menu Foods said the volume of customer returns and associated costs had been greater than anticipated. The company halted shipments of many of its pet foods in March after discovering they contained Chinese vegetable proteins that were contaminated with melamine or related compounds.

Yellow Pages says in pact with Google

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Yellow Pages Group , Canada's largest phone book publisher, said on Tuesday said it had a deal with Google Inc. to market its customer advertisements on-line through Google AdWords. AdWords will allow Yellow Pages customers to be associated with certain keywords so that their adverts will appear beside search results for Google and Google Maps Internet searches.

Costco net rises, September sales beat expectations

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Costco Wholesale Corp reported a nearly 5 percent increase in quarterly profit on Wednesday, and the No. 1 U.S. warehouse club operator said September sales at stores open at least a year rose a better-than-expected 6 percent. The September sales results show a rebound from August, when Costco reported weaker-than-expected sales, hurt by a decline in store traffic that it attributed to extremely high temperatures in California.

Daimler open to cooperation but silent on Fiat report

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daimler AG is ready in principle to work with other carmakers on projects of mutual interest, a spokesman said on Wednesday, but he declined comment on a report it could develop compact cars with Fiat . Speculation has swirled for weeks that Daimler could seek a partner to work on the next generation of Mercedes-Benz A-Class and B-Class compact cars, whose importance is being highlighted by the debate on cars' contribution to global warming.

Open borders sought for virtual worlds

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM and Linden Labs, the operator of the Second Life virtual world, said on Tuesday they will work on ways to eventually let people use a single online persona in different online services. Interoperability is emerging as a key goal of the nascent virtual world industry, which attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment on the hopes that video-game graphics and rich 3-D environments will supplant flat Web pages.

Cadbury to demerge North American drinks unit

LONDON (Reuters) - Cadbury Schweppes, the world's largest confectionery group, said it will focus on demerging its 7 billion-pound ($14.2 billion) North American soft drinks unit and list the business in New York rather than sell it off. The London-based company, maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Trident gum and Halls cough drops, also said on Wednesday in a trading statement that it had seen very strong third-quarter worldwide confectionery revenue growth of 10 percent.

New chief renews World Bank focus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In his first 100 days as head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick has worked quickly to give the poverty-fighting institution a sense of direction after the storm surrounding his predecessor Paul Wolfowitz. Zoellick marks his first 100 days at the World Bank on Wednesday with a policy speech in which he will outline a strategic direction for the institution that would position it to better deal with challenges in the developing world caused by globalization.

Economists cut 2008 forecasts for U.S. growth

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economists have chopped their forecasts for 2008 economic growth for a third straight month, saying the housing slump will be deeper and last longer than earlier expected, a survey released on Wednesday showed. The consensus of economists surveyed by the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter sees the U.S. economy expanding 2.4 percent in 2008. That's down from a 2.6 percent projection made last month and a 2.8 percent gain forecast in August.

Alcoa's third-quarter profit rises

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc on Tuesday posted a 3 percent rise in third-quarter earnings, as a gain on the sale of its stake in a Chinese aluminum company offset weaker aluminum prices. Alcoa also raised its share buyback program -- from 10 percent to 25 percent of outstanding shares, or about 217 million shares. At the current share price, that is worth more than $6.7 billion.

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