Rising oil prices
cut into stock gains

Wall Street turned in a mixed performance Monday as investors watched the price of oil regain ground and decided to cash in some of their gains from the stock market's big rally last week.

Crude rose $2.16 to settle at $131.04 a barrel and the rise offset initial market enthusiasm after Bank of America Corp. posted results that beat expectations, raising hope the credit crisis might be easing for the nation's biggest retail banks.

With Bank of America's results, four of the nation's five biggest banks have now reported better-than-expected earnings, and that's raising hopes that the financial sector is starting to recover from the year-old credit crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 29.23, or 0.25 percent, to 11,467.34 after moving in and out of positive territory.

Apple's earnings
jump 31 percent

Macintosh and iPod sales helped boost Apple Inc.'s fiscal third-quarter earnings 31 percent, beating Wall Street's expectations, but profit margins contracted and the company issued soft guidance for the current quarter.

Apple earned $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share, 11 cents ahead of Wall Street's expectations, according to a Thomson Financial survey of analysts. Revenue jumped 38 percent to $7.46 billion, ahead of analysts' average view for $7.37 billion in sales.
Telecommunications
company buying firm

Akron-based telecommunications company First Communications will acquire GCI Globalcom Holdings Inc. in Chicago for $58.5 million.

Globalcom provides voice and data services to small and medium-sized businesses in the Chicago market, First Communications said.

In a related move, First Communications closed on $50 million in incremental term loan commitments that will be used to finance the Globalcom purchase. Akron utility FirstEnergy Corp. is a shareholder in First Communications.

Saint-Gobain set
to open new facility

Saint-Gobain Crystals will inaugurate its new headquarters and production facility in Hiram on July 29.

The 110,000-square-foot building replaces the company's operations in Newbury. The new building also will let the company expand production of its Scintillation business. The unit designs and fabricates detectors that are used for medical diagnosis, gas and oil exploration, and lighting, aerospace and security applications.

More than 250 people are employed in Saint-Gobain's Northeast Ohio Scintillation business unit.

Paris-based parent company Compagnie de Saint-Gobain approved the Hiram project in September.
Time Warner Cable
shares fall 4.1%

Shares of Time Warner Cable Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable-television operator with operations in Northeast Ohio, fell the most in more than five months after Pali Capital analyst Richard Greenfield recommended that clients sell.

Time Warner Cable, which is being spun off from Time Warner Inc., fell $1.14, or 4.1 percent, to $26.77 on Monday, the most since Feb. 5.

Increased competition and the weakening economy are driving people to review offers from other providers, Greenfield wrote in a note, pointing out regulators' approval last week of Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS digital TV service in New York City.

Company boosts bid
for Continental AG

Schaeffler Group said it raised its takeover offer for tire maker Continental AG of Germany. Schaeffler said it will offer 70.12 euros (or $111.30) a share after Germany's financial services regulator determined the company's average three-month value. The previous offer was 69.37 euros (or $110.13).

Smucker declares
dividend of 32 cents

J.M. Smucker Co. of Orrville declared a dividend of 32 cents a share, payable Sept. 2 to shareholders of record Aug. 15.