MCJEANS? GUESS AGAIN: McDonald's is looking at selling items beyond food, taking advantage of its household name and its vast network of 13,000 locations around the country. "Maybe someday we'll be selling things beyond what we sell today," said Matthew Paull, McDonald's Corp.'s chief financial officer. What kind of retail sales might spring up besides Big Macs and fries is not yet known. This much is clear: Clothing apparently is out, nixed by the notion that most folks wouldn't enjoy buying apparel with that deep-fried smell. A McDonald's spokesman cautioned that any venture into retailing would not happen for at least two years.

ENERGY MOVES: El Paso Corp. is cutting its trading staff by about half, as it seeks to reduce its dealings in the embattled energy trading sector. The company said it will increase investment in its core natural gas businesses and sell off other assets. El Paso hopes to cut costs by at least $300-million in the process; the severance expenses will be about $70-million. Separately, CMS Energy Corp. said it plans to sell its oil and gas exploration and production unit. The company said it expects to conduct a competitive auction process for its CMS Oil and Gas Co. unit, but provided no estimate of how much it might get for the business. The move comes a few days after its chief executive resigned in the wake of questionable power trades. Shares of CMS fell 49 cents, to $18.05. El Paso fell $8.26 to $27.01, a 31/2-year low.

TREASURY AUCTION: Yields on two-year Treasury notes fell in Wednesday's auction. The Treasury Department sold $27-billion of the notes at a yield of 3.274 percent, down from 3.375 percent at the previous auction April 24. The notes will carry a coupon interest rate of 3.25 percent. The Treasury also sold $16-billion in four-week bills at a discount rate of 1.69 percent, unchanged from the previous week.

RELOCATION TO ADD NEW JOBS: Bredel Corp., a Clearwater medical services company, is relocating its headquarters to Tampa and expanding its staff. The company is hiring about 200 new employees, including people with accounting, legal and technical skills for the new location in the Westshore area. The new office is expected to open as early as July. Bredel employs about 150 people in Pinellas County, including staff at its behavioral health and family practice clinics. A spokeswoman for the company said the expansion is a result of an increase in demand for Bredel's consulting services by health care providers nationwide.

HALLIBURTON SUBJECT OF INQUIRY: Halliburton shares slid amid news that federal regulators are investigating its accounting practices. The company received a letter Tuesday from the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing the agency intended to launch a formal investigation into how the company accounts for cost overruns on construction jobs. The New York Times reported that the company altered its accounting policy in 1998 to start booking revenue from cost overruns in big construction projects before customers agreed to pay the excess costs. The policy change, which occurred while Vice President Dick Cheney was the company's chief executive, was approved by then-auditor Arthur Andersen, and wasn't disclosed to investors for more than a year. Halliburton shares dropped 63 cents to $18.72.

WORLDCOM RETHINKS WIRELESS: WorldCom Inc. has quietly decided to pull the plug on its ailing wireless unit, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In a letter to some key sales agents, the company said it plans to stop signing up new customers in coming months. "Unfortunately, the company has decided that the wireless resale business is not consistent with its core strategic business interests, and that WorldCom Wireless will not be playing a role in the company's long-term plans," said the May 15 letter, signed by the firm's general counsel. WorldCom declined to comment on the letter. The company has roughly 1.7-million subscribers nationwide.

NORTEL RETRENCHES: Nortel Networks Corp. will cut 3,500 jobs and may sell its optical-components business to pare costs. Nortel now expects its work force to bottom out at 42,000. The latest job cuts will result in charges of about $600-million, mainly in the second and third quarters. These charges are in addition to the expected second-quarter charge of about $150-million for previous job cuts. The telephone equipment company said the measures will help reduce the amount of quarterly sales it needs to break even, to $3.2-billion from $3.5 billion. Shares of Nortel fell 17 cents to $2.35.

EVICTION AT TAMPA PORT: The Tampa Port Authority has taken possession of the former Winner Metals scrap recycling operation at Hooker's Point in an eviction proceeding. The authority plans to remarket the 14-acre site near Berth 219 to other tenants. Winner Metals missed a court-imposed deadline to come up with $315,000 in missed rent and other fees. Officials with Winner could not be reached for comment.

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