Diebold sets dates
for '07 reporting

Diebold Inc., the Green automated teller machine maker whose accounting practices are under U.S. investigation, said it will report preliminary financial results for 2007 and the first two quarters of 2008 in four to six weeks.

Diebold will announce details for an analyst conference call one or two weeks before the financial reports are released, the company said.
Bad 2008 first half
ends mixed for stocks

Wall Street ended a grueling first half of 2008 quietly, closing mixed as investors again based their trades on what has become the dominant force in the market: the price of oil. The major indexes closed out the first six months of the year with double-digit declines, and are perilously close to the levels of a bear market.

This was the worst first half for the Dow Jones industrials since 1970, when the country fell into recession. The more diverse Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes had their worst first half since 2002, when Wall Street was still suffering through the aftermath of the dot-com bust, the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and a recession.

The Dow rose 3.50, or 0.03 percent, to 11,350.01.

In June, the Dow dropped 10.19 percent; the S&P fell 8.60 percent, and the Nasdaq lost 9.10 percent.

For the first half, the Dow is down 14.44 percent; the S&P lost 12.83 percent; and the Nasdaq has fallen 13.55 percent.

Since their high point last October, the Dow gave up 19.87 percent; the S&P dropped 18.22 percent; and the Nasdaq is down 19.80 percent. A 20 percent drop from a market peak is considered the start of a bear market.

Light, sweet crude, which began the year at $96 a barrel, fell 21 cents Monday to settle at $140.
Ore pellet producer
sets stock record

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., North America's largest producer of iron-ore pellets, rose to a record in New York after Deutsche Bank said the company's price increases will boost earnings.

Cleveland-Cliffs gained $7.87, or 7.1 percent, to $119.19. The shares have tripled in the past year.
Plastic bottle maker
to be taken public

An investment fund led by Texas Rangers owner Thomas O. Hicks has agreed to buy Graham Packaging Holdings Co. of York, Pa., and take the maker of plastic juice and beer bottles public for $700 million plus the assumption of $2.29 billion in debt and other costs.
Campbell Soup
sees higher profits

Campbell Soup Co. said its 2008 profit will be at the upper end of the range it had previously expected, a hopeful sign for a company coming off a down quarter.
MillerCoors starts
brewing today

SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors Brewing Co. said they closed on their transaction combining operations into MillerCoors, which will begin operating as a combined entity today. They have not said where the headquarters will be.
World's 5th largest
steel maker created

Two Chinese steel companies combined to form the world's fifth-largest producer, the latest in a series of government deals.

The new state-owned company was formed through a combination of Tangshan Iron & Steel Group and Handan Iron & Steel Group. It is called Hebei Iron and Steel Group Co. and replaces Baosteel Group Co. as the nation's biggest.
Floods help lower
2008 corn harvest

The government says farmers will harvest nearly 7 percent fewer acres of corn than last year in part because Midwest flooding has damaged the crop.