Wire reports

PG&E Corp.'s Pacific Gas & Electric Co., California's largest utility, ended its bankruptcy Monday with $2.4 billion in cash and plans to build power plants for customers who pay twice the average U.S. rate for electricity.

Three years after a 10-fold increase in energy prices and a deregulation system pushed Pacific Gas into insolvency, the utility emerged from bankruptcy with an investment-grade credit rating, the ability to make an annual 11 percent profit and plans to restore dividends by 2005.

DuPont to eliminate thousands of jobs

DuPont Co., the second-biggest U.S. chemical maker, said it will fire 3,000 workers, eliminate 950 other jobs and shut a spandex plant in Canada as part of a plan to trim annual costs by $900 million.

The job cuts, to be completed by Dec. 31, will reduce second- quarter earnings by 17 cents to 19 cents a share, DuPont said, without providing an earnings estimate. In addition to the firings, about 500 jobs will be eliminated through attrition and 450 contract positions will go. About 70 percent of the cuts will be in North America, spokesman Clif Webb said.

Crude oil futures reach 3-week high

Crude oil futures in New York rose to the highest in three weeks after the International Energy Agency boosted its forecast for global fuel consumption.

Demand for gasoline, diesel and other fuels will rise by 1.7 million barrels a day this year to almost 80.3 million barrels, the biggest gain since 1997, the agency said. It was the sixth straight monthly report to forecast an increase. The IEA, which advises 26 industrialized countries, also cut its estimate of oil supply from countries that don't belong to OPEC.

Standex plans to close N.Y. engraving plant

Standex International Corp., whose businesses range from aerospace manufacturing to operating a chain of religious bookstores, will close its industrial engraving plant in Rochester, N.Y., to cut costs.

Standex will offer relocation packages to some of the factory's 60 workers. The plant's operations will be moved to the recently acquired I.R. International facility in Richmond, Va., the company said in a statement.

Standex also owns Standard Publishing and Berean Christian Stores, both based in Mount Healthy.

Goodyear reduces net income reports

Goodyear Rubber & Tire Co. on Monday said it would lower net income for the past six years by another $65 million because of improper accounting at its overseas operations and other reasons.

The Akron-based company said an internal investigation of overseas accounting was complete. It said the entire results of the probe were still under review but that net income between 1997 and 2003 will have to be reduced by $10 million.

The other $55 million is because of understatement of workers' compensation claims at an undisclosed domestic plant, adjustment of profits tied to internal inventory and other issues, Goodyear said.

Toyota gear operation heads to West Virginia

Toyota Motor Corp. will spend $80 million and create 50 jobs to move production of transmission gears to a West Virginia factory from Japan as the company's U.S. sales increase.

The Buffalo, W.Va., plant will make gears starting in 2006 for models including Camry sedans, Sienna minivans and Lexus RX 330 sport-utility vehicles. The expansion is the fourth for the factory, which opened in 1998 and will have more than 1,000 workers and a total investment of $800 million.

Interest rates fall on Treasury securities

Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in Monday's auction.

The Treasury Department sold $16 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.915 percent, down from 0.930 percent last week. An additional $13 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.025 percent, down from 1.030 percent.

The three-month rate was the lowest since Jan. 26, when the bills sold for 0.890 percent. The six-month rate was the lowest since March 29, when the rate was 0.990 percent.