NEW YORK - Bear Stearns Cos., the sixth-largest U.S. securities firm, is examining whether executives in its brokerage unit approved improper mutual fund trades, company records show.

The firm is checking e-mails from 109 employees, including Steve Dantus and Vincent Dicks, who oversee the private-client brokerage group, according to internal documents obtained by Bloomberg Business News.

Bear Stearns is seeking details of trades by dozens of brokers and hedge funds to determine whether high-ranking executives approved transactions that diluted the returns of long-term fund investors.

Bear Stearns disclosed last October that it faced regulatory probes, and in June said the Securities and Exchange Commission warned the firm of possible sanctions for improper fund transactions.

Saudi Arabia ready

to raise oil output

SAUDI ARABIA - The world's largest oil exporter stands ready to add about 3.2 million barrels of oil a day to its production capacity to meet rising global demand, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, said in an interview.

The kingdom produces 9.5 million barrels a day, and it has no customers looking for more oil from its 1.5 million barrels a day of idle capacity, al-Naimi said.

Saudi Arabia last month said that it had boosted its output capacity to 11 million barrels a day from 10.5 million barrels.

The country is capable of expanding and developing six oil fields that would add a further 3.2 million barrels a day of capacity, al-Naimi said.

"There is absolutely no justification for prices to be at current levels," al-Naimi said.

Teens' wish list

puts iPod near top

MINNEAPOLIS - After clothes, money and a car, an iPod is what U.S. teenagers want most this holiday season.

A survey of 600 high school students by Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster found Apple Computer Inc.'s digital player No. 4 on their wish list. And the iPod wasn't even among the items Munster suggested - the kids wrote it in.

"It was really surprising," said Munster in an interview from his office in Minneapolis. "They didn't say music player. They said iPod. Teens want to be cool, they want their music; and the iPod is a cool way for them to get their music."

Demand for the iPod, unveiled by chief executive Steve Jobs in October 2001, has helped make Apple the third-best performing stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index this year. A surge in iPod sales will help Apple report a 25 percent gain in fourth- quarter sales, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Vuitton investing in new accessories

PARIS - LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world's largest luxury-goods company, is betting that monogrammed denim handbags, eyewear created with a hip-hop music star and bags with cherry prints designed by a pop artist will boost the company's most profitable business.

Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs created LV monogrammed jeans and denim handbags trimmed with crocodile skin for his spring-summer 2005 collection, which also previewed eyewear designed with hip-hop music producer Pharrell Williams and bags decorated with cherry prints by pop artist Takashi Murakami.

"The ready-to-wear show is a good way to bring energy to our bags and accessories businesses as well," said Yves Carcelle, director of LVMH's fashion division, in an interview after the show Sunday.

UAW, supplier reach multi-plant agreement

DETROIT - The United Auto Workers and an automotive supplier have reached an agreement that covers current hourly workers and possibly those at yet-to-open factories, the first multi-plant pact negotiated by the UAW in 20 years.

The UAW and Axle Alliance Co. announced the deal Monday. The two sides negotiated a four-year pact in February covering workers at Axle Alliance's plant in Redford, a Detroit suburb, and struck the national agreement two weeks ago.

Staff/wire reports