Payless to close stores

        Payless ShoeSource Inc. will close 104 stores as part of an expense-cutting plan that will cost $43 million this quarter. The company will take a charge of about $1.94 a share for its fiscal fourth quarter. Same-store sales will decline in the “mid-single-digit” rate in the quarter, in which Payless expects a loss of $1.54 to $1.59 a share.

        The stock of Topeka, Kan.-based Payless has fallen 21 percent in the last year.

        The company plans to close 37 Payless ShoeSource stores and 67 Parade stores.
       

Feds probing ImClone

        ImClone Systems Inc.'s woes mounted Friday and its stock tumbled to the lowest level in a year after the company disclosed two federal investigations of the biotechnology firm.

        The New York City company said in a regulatory filing Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are probing allegations that ImClone executives misled investors about troubles surrounding its highly anticipated cancer drug Erbitux.

        A congressional panel announced last week it would investigate insider trading at ImClone, as well as the company's handling of its failed application for Food and Drug Administration approval.

        ImClone's stock fell $3.09, or 16 percent, to close at $16.49 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

        The company's stock has plummeted more than 70 percent from $55.25 a share since Dec. 28, when it disclosed that the FDA refused to consider its application to market Erbitux. At the time, the executives said they could overcome the FDA's concerns and expressed confidence Erbitux could be approved by the end of this year.
       

Gateway shares sag

        Shares of Gateway Inc. fell 18 percent on concern that declining shipments of personal computers and a price war with bigger rival Dell Computer Corp. will hurt profit.

        The shares fell $1.14 to $5.22. The shares declined 55 percent last year.

        Thursday, after the company reported its first profit in five quarters, Gateway Chief Financial Officer Joseph Burke said the company would return to promoting low-price PCs to challenge Dell. Gateway's PC shipments in the fourth quarter declined 17 percent to 681,000 units. The company said it expects pretax losses for several quarters.
       

New job for Welch

        Jack Welch, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., will become a contributor to CNBC, the cable news channel owned by GE's subsidiary NBC.

        Beginning Feb. 7, Mr. Welch will appear on CNBC's morning show Squawk Box once per quarter to provide commentary on business topics and trends. Mr. Welch will also make regular appearances on CNBC's evening show, Business Center with Ron Insana and Sue Herera.
       

Crowds want food and jobs

        Angry Argentines blocked highways and demanded jobs and food during demonstrations Friday, responding to calls from anti-government organizers for a nationwide protest over the persistent economic crisis.

        Through e-mails, Web sites, and word of mouth, neighborhood and labor groups called for citizens to fill streets and city plazas in a massive pot-banging protest after nightfall.

        President Eduardo Duhalde's government said it would strengthen security to prevent the kind of street violence and rioting that toppled the country's last elected government in December and left 26 people dead.

        Interior Minister Rodolfo Gabrielli warned protesters to be peaceful. “We are going to be inflexible with violent lawbreakers,” he said.

        Since taking office Jan. 2, Mr. Duhalde has devalued the peso by more than 30 percent.

Home sales set record for Tristate during '01
Barge company to leave port
Hoteliers to discuss tax plan
Retail vacancies shrink
Airlines call off alliance
Amtrak no closer to self-sufficiency, report says
Earnings
Kmart, SEC investigate questions about accounting
Business Digest
Tristate Summary
What's the Buzz?
HIGGINS: Enron lessons
Rate report
Savvy Strategies