Business digest

IBM PONDERS JOB CUTS, REPORT SAYS: IBM will slash an estimated 8,000 jobs by July to counter a slowdown in technology spending, the Wall Street Journal reported. The cuts represent about 2.5 percent of IBM's worldwide work force, the paper said. IBM's sales have missed forecasts by $1-billion in each of the past two quarters, and chief executive Sam Palmisano is trying to weather the slowdown by planning the company's biggest job cuts in at least eight years. IBM shares fell 25 cents to $79.68.

PITT REJECTS RESIGNATION CALL: Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt rejected a request by watchdog group Common Cause that he resign on the grounds that he is plagued with industry conflicts of interest. "Absolutely not," he said on CNBC. "I will serve as long as the president has confidence in me." Common Cause said Pitt showed "poor judgment and disdain for the public trust" when he agreed to an April 26 meeting with Eugene D. O'Kelly, the new chairman of KPMG LLP while the SEC staff is investigating whether the firm approved accounting irregularities at Xerox.

DILLARD'S GETS NEW CREDIT LINE: Dillard's Inc. closed on a $400-million credit facility, replacing a five-year-old credit line that was expiring, the department-store chain said. The revolving credit line replaces a $750-million facility that was never used and ended Thursday. A spokeswoman said Dillard's has taken steps during the past five years to increase its financial liquidity and didn't require as big of a credit line. The retailer's shares fell 78 cents to $23.22.

WHOLESALE PRICES FALL: The biggest drop in food costs in nearly three decades helped to drive down wholesale prices by 0.2 percent in April. The decline in the Producer Price Index, which measures prices paid to factories, farms and other producers, marked a big turnaround from the sharp 1 percent increase registered in March, the Labor Department reported. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the "core" rate of wholesale inflation nudged up by just 0.1 percent for the second-straight month.

HOUSEHOLD EXPANDS STAFF: Household International Inc. will add more than 500 local jobs over the next three years, the company said. One of the nation's largest consumer credit companies, Household has 1,250 employees in Brandon and Tampa working in its mortgage services and consumer lending operations. The company plans to hire 130 additional employees this year and 190 in both 2003 and 2004, said Kimberly Crum, group director of human resources for Household in Tampa. More than half the new jobs will be phone center positions, with the rest ranging from clerical to professional, she said.

ORANGE FORECAST LOWERED: Florida growers will harvest 226-million boxes of oranges this season, less than analysts expected. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's forecast for the harvest that ends next month is down 0.9 percent from last month. The government said fruit has dropped to the ground prematurely because of hot and dry weather. Analysts and growers surveyed by Bloomberg News expected an estimate of 227.8-million. A box of oranges weighs 90 pounds.

GREENSPAN DISCUSSES RISK: Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said commercial banks and banking regulators need to rely more on the emerging field of risk management to control loan defaults during periods of economic weakness. "To the majority of banks, the environment of contagious optimism makes more and more proposals seem bankable" during times of prosperity, Greenspan said. And on the other side of the ledger, when the economy begins to weaken, banks and their regulators will overreact, he said. Greenspan told his audience at a banking conference in Chicago that the long-term outlook for business investment is "increasingly, persuasively good" even though the short-term prospects for a rebound in capital spending are still "rather mixed."

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