IBT Staff Reporter

Waning consumer confidence and soaring fuel costs caused Delta Air Lines Inc to warn of a possible operating loss on Tuesday, while Southwest Airlines Co said it would restrict capacity growth to brace for tougher times ahead.

Dow Chemical Co will shut a number of plants and eliminate about 1,000 jobs to cut costs and direct capital toward businesses with better growth prospects, the largest U.S. chemical maker said on Tuesday.

Crude oil fell more than Tuesday amid expectations that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may boost production for 2008.

The holiday tug-of-war is under way. U.S. retailers want to rack up sales now, not later. Consumers, however, are resisting, playing the waiting game for bigger discounts closer to Christmas. To win the battle, many retailers are enticing shoppers with so-called limited-time sales, hoping a deadline will convince them to spend money now -- and help stores avoid profit-crunching price cuts later in the season.

Leslie Moonves is hopeful but not terribly excited about resuming talks between CBS Corp. and the striking Writers Guild of America (WGA).

Implementing the proposed bailout of subprime borrowers who face foreclosure may be so difficult that it will turn out to be no better than the loan modification efforts already underway, analysts said.

U.S Stocks fell for a second day Tuesday, as major stocks fell on news of deteriorating credit markets.

Insurer Swiss Life raised its targets on Tuesday, aiming to boost earnings per share by at least 12 percent annually, and said the credit crisis will not hit its results, lifting its shares.

Lehman Brothers said on Tuesday it would buy assets from Dutch specialist market maker Van der Moolen Holding including its New York Stock Exchange portfolio.

Prudential Financial Inc, one of the largest U.S. life insurers, and India's most valuable real estate firm, DLF, are to set up an asset management joint venture, the two firms said in a statement.

EBay Inc and Yahoo Japan will link up their auction sites to make cross-border bidding easier, in a deal that gives U.S. auction titan eBay another chance to woo lucrative Japanese consumers.

Singapore's Temasek, Asia's pioneer sovereign wealth fund with stakes in Barclays and Standard Chartered, looks to be calling the top of the China stock boom and is scouting for cheaper targets in the West.

Deutsche Telekom scored a victory in a legal battle with rival Vodafone over sales conditions for the coveted Apple iPhone, which T-Mobile sells exclusively in Germany.

Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would disable the two primary methods used by software pirates to illegally copy Windows Vista software in the next major update of the operating system.

Nokia Oyj said on Tuesday it has agreed with the world's largest music group Universal to offer free 12-month access to Universal artists' music for buyers of Nokia's music phones.

Jitters about the U.S. economy and the credit crisis kept investors away from riskier assets on Tuesday, sending stocks sharply lower and boosting the Japanese yen against higher-yielding currencies.

Oil fell more than $1 to stand near $88 a barrel on Tuesday, awaiting a clear signal from OPEC as a chorus of opinion within the exporting group spoke against an output increase.

The yen gained against the dollar and higher-yielding currencies for a second day on Tuesday as escalating concerns about credit turmoil prompted investors to cut back on risky positions.

Stocks fell on Tuesday after a brokerage cut its earnings outlook for major Wall Street companies and as uncertainty about the outlook for a credit crisis recovery mounted.

Hollywood star Will Smith had the producer of his latest film holding his head in anguish on Tuesday after the actor gave away the ending of I Am Legend.

President Vladimir Putin's supporters will enjoy complete control over Russia's next parliament, a tally from Sunday's election showed, giving him a solid power base after he leaves the Kremlin.

Consolidation for the U.S. Airline Industry should happen before the end of the Bush administration, UAL Corp's CFO says.

Merck & Co on Tuesday forecast earnings would rise in 2008 as sales of new medicines offset the loss of exclusive U.S. rights to its Fosamax osteoporosis drug.

Dow Chemical Co said on Tuesday it would shut down a number of plants and eliminate about 1,000 jobs to cut costs and direct capital toward businesses with better growth prospects. The largest U.S. chemical maker said it would incur a related charge of $500 million to $600 million, which includes severance costs and asset write-downs.

Gillian Gibbons, the teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her students name a teddy bear Mohammed arrived in Britain on Tuesday morning after being pardoned and said she was sorry to leave the country and never imagined this would happen, according to news reports.

Top China steelmaker Baosteel is weighing a bid to counter BHP Billiton's $125 billion takeover offer for Rio Tinto Group Baosteel Chairman Xu Lejiang told a Chinese business newspaper.

OPEC's big Gulf producers are leaving open the option of an oil supply increase that could influence whether crude prices head back towards $100 a barrel or not.

Nokia said on Tuesday it expects to reach an operating profit margin of around 20 percent over the next one to two years from its cellphone and services business. Shares in Nokia fell more than 4 percent on the news as many investors had expected a more upbeat profit forecast for the Finnish firm's key business, which has reached a margin of 19 percent so far this year.

U.S. intelligence agencies have showed independence from the Bush administration with a skeptical assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities that is far from the slam dunk case against Iraq before the war.