FEDEX DROPS EARNINGS FORECAST: FedEx Corp. expects fourth-quarter earnings to be below Wall Street expectations due to sluggish economic conditions. The courier said its earnings are expected to range from 50 cents to 60 cents a share for the quarter ending May 31, compared with 85 cents a share the previous year. Analysts had expected earnings of 69 cents per share for the fourth quarter. FedEx said it is taking steps to reduce expenses and capital spending but offered no details. Shares of FedEx fell $1 to $40.28.

WILLIAMS WINS BARRETT BATTLE: Williams Cos. said it will buy natural gas producer Barrett Resources for $2.5-billion in cash and stock, topping a $2-billion hostile bid by the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Shell said afterward it would drop its acquisition efforts. Barrett put itself up for sale last month after rejecting Shell's initial offer for the company. The deal would give Williams, a Tulsa, Okla., energy trader and pipeline operator, a boost by making it a significant producer and distributor of natural gas.

3COM CUTS SWELL BY 3,000: 3Com Corp. said it plans to cut another 3,000 jobs, or nearly a third of its work force. The reduction comes less than three months after 3Com let go 1,200 full-time and contract workers. In all, the network equipment manufacturer has shed more than 40 percent of its work force this year to save $1-billion annually. In recent quarters, 3Com has been constantly reinventing itself amid restructuring, layoffs and red ink. It has not posted a profit since it spun off its Palm handheld computing division last year. Shares of 3Com fell 38 cents to $6.52.

OIL REFINERY ACQUISITION: Valero Energy Corp. is buying rival Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. in a $4-billion cash and stock deal that would create the nation's second-largest oil refiner. Valero would have $32-billion in annual revenue, 23,000 employees, 13 refineries and more than 5,000 retail outlets. It would trail only Exxon Mobil Corp. in refining capacity in the United States. Ultramar has about $17-billion in annual revenues and more than 20,000 employees.

U.S. BANCORP, NOVA AGREE TO DEAL: U.S. Bancorp agreed to buy Nova Corp. for $2.1-billion, forming the third-largest processor of credit card payments to U.S. merchants. Buying Nova, with its stable fees, will reduce U.S. Bancorp's dependence on lending, which fluctuates with interest rates, analysts said. It's the first purchase by U.S. Bancorp chief executive Jerry Grundhofer since his Firstar Corp. bought the bank for $22.2-billion in February. Combined, the companies will process more than $100-billion in electronic payments in 2001.

APPLE TO OPEN ITS OWN STORES: Apple Computer Inc. plans to open the first Apple store May 19 in McLean, Va., to establish new outlets for promoting its computers. Apple is opening stores to show consumers how its products compare with personal computers running on Microsoft Corp. software. Merchants who sell a wide range of products have sometimes failed to describe the advantages of Apple's computers, which are generally easier to use and more expensive than other PCs, said David Bailey, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison. Apple has plans for a store in New York City, the New York Post reported. It also plans a shop for Palo Alto, Calif., CNBC said.

CONSUMER BORROWING SLOWS: Consumers, bombarded by gloomy economic news, tightened their belts in March, borrowing money at the slowest pace in 17 months. Total consumer credit increased by a seasonally adjusted $6.2-billion in March, or a 4.7 percent annual rate, the Federal Reserve reported. The increase was less than what many analysts had forecast. A weak job market, stock market volatility, eroding consumer confidence and higher energy prices are factors that tend to make people feel less inclined to spend, economists say.

DOCTORS SEEK CLASS STATUS: Attorneys for 600,000 doctors who claim the managed care industry has cheated them out of more than $1-billion have asked a federal judge to certify their claims as a single class-action lawsuit. Health care industry attorneys said it would be too unwieldily to combine virtually the entire medical community in one case and argued that the legal claims are so different they must be pursued individually. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who plans to issue a written decision later, must decide whether to create a vehicle for physicians to pursue their allegations of racketeering and conspiracy. A companion case seeking class certification against the industry would cover patients. Doctors accuse the leading managed care providers of stealing from them by systematically denying claims, delaying payments and cutting the intensity of billed procedures without reviewing medical records.

PRICELINE CEO OUT: Priceline.com named chairman Richard Braddock to replace Daniel Schulman as chief executive, effective immediately. Schulman led Priceline.com as it tried to recover from breakdowns in its customer service, the failure of an affiliated business and the departure of chief financial officer Heidi Miller. In a statement, Priceline said its board concluded a management change was needed "based on the company's future objectives and the significant progress it already has made in its turnaround plan." Schulman joined the company in June 1999 from AT&T Corp., where he had been president of its $22-billion consumer markets division. The company also said chief operating officer Jeffery Boyd was appointed president.

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES SLIDES: Shares of Computer Associates International Inc. dropped 8.5 percent, the first time the stock has traded since the company announced it had mistakenly overstated its annual earnings. CA issued a statement after the close of trading Friday, blaming a "typographical error" for the overstatement of its earnings. The software company said it earned 16 cents per share in the year ended March 31. It earlier reported earnings of 40 cents per share. CA shares fell $2.50 to $28.20 at the close of regular trading.

P&G ACQUISITION: Procter & Gamble Co. has purchased the assets of Moist Mates LLC, a privately held company that makes moistened toilet paper on a roll. Financial terms weren't disclosed. P&G, which makes consumer products including Charmin toilet paper, said it plans to launch the Moist Mates product in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states under the name Charmin Fresh Mates in July.

TREASURY AUCTION: Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in Monday's auction. The Treasury Department sold $10-billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 3.660 percent, down from 3.885 percent last week. An additional $9-billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 3.620 percent, down from 3.860 percent. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors: 3.745 percent for three-month bills and 3.738 percent for a six-month bill. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills rose to 3.90 percent last week from 3.82 percent the previous week

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