NEW YORK
Weyerhaeuser breaks even in 3Q on timberland sale
For the second time in two years, lumber and wood products producer Weyerhaeuser Co. dodged a quarterly loss by selling properties.
The company said Friday it broke even in the third quarter, partly on after-tax proceeds of $98 million from the sale of 143,000 acres of Oregon timberland. The last time it posted a quarterly profit was a year ago when it sold a packaging business worth $6 billion.
The last time Weyerhaeuser posted a profit without a major asset sale was the third quarter of 2007.
Nearly half of last year’s revenue came from selling wood products to residential home builders, among other customers.
Weyerhaeuser’s break-even results in the third quarter, which were also helped by a $74 million federal tax credit, compared with net income of $280 million, or $1.33 per share, in the third quarter of 2008.
HONG KONG
China’s small-company stock market starts trading
A new Chinese stock exchange meant to nurture small and high-tech enterprises, modeled on the U.S.-based Nasdaq market, started trading Friday and all 28 listed companies soared in price.
Chengdu Geeya Technology Co., a digital equipment provider, vaulted 210 percent to 35 yuan on the ChiNext exchange in the southern city of Shenzhen. Film studio Huayi Bros. Media Corp. rose 148 percent.
The new exchange is intended to help smaller Chinese companies in a financial system that has long favored big, state-owned companies.
NEW YORK
Prosecutors: Madoff accountant to enter plea
Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s longtime auditor is expected to plead guilty next week in a cooperation deal, federal prosecutors told a judge Friday.
Prosecutors said accountant David Friehling was expected to plead guilty at a conference Tuesday.
They said Friehling will enter the plea to charges of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and obstructing or impeding the administration of the Internal Revenue laws. The charges carry a potential prison term of up to 108 years.
NEW YORK
Chevron 3Q profit slumps 51 percent; production up
Chevron said Friday it pumped its way through a weak third quarter, producing more oil as prices recovered from a plunge earlier in the year.
The nation’s second-largest oil and gas producer boosted revenues by increasing oil production by 11 percent. Its average sale price for crude and natural gas liquids over the past three months was $62 per barrel which is better than the previous quarter, but well below the $103 it fetched during the same period last year.
