BUSINESS BRIEFS
Productivity slowed in 2005
Advertiser Staff
American worker productivity fell in the fourth quarter for the first time in nearly five years and grew in 2005 at the slowest annual pace in four years, the government said yesterday in a report that heightened some concerns that inflation might be brewing.
Productivity outside the farming sector fell 0.6 percent at an annual rate in the October-December quarter a 4.5 percent gain in the third quarter. It was the first decline since 2001.
TAPES SUGGEST ENRON DECEIT
Prosecutors in the trial of former Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling yesterday played recordings of conference calls and employee meetings from 2001 that seemed to show the executives hid $726 million in losses at Enron's retail energy services division.
In addition, the government elicited testimony that linked Skilling's surprise departure from Enron and the company's declining stock price.
TESORO SHARES SEE BIG DROP
Shares of Tesoro Corp. fell yesterday as its fourth-quarter earnings disappointed some investors and analysts.
Tesoro, the second-largest oil refiner on the West Coast, reported profit of $69 million, or 97 cents a share, after a break-even quarter a year earlier. San Antonio-based Tesoro fell $3.36, or 4.8 percent, to $66.65, the biggest drop since Nov. 28.
AMAZON PROFIT DISAPPOINTS
Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest online retailer, said fourth-quarter profit fell 43 percent on holiday discounts and rocked investors with a disappointing annual earnings forecast.
The shares tumbled 9.9 percent in after-market trading yesterday, the biggest drop since October.
