NEW YORK - Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday after briefly surpassing $54 a barrel amid nagging concerns in the market that the global supply buffer is too thin to handle a significant output disruption.

Light sweet crude for November delivery sank $1.13 to $52.51 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $54.45 earlier in the day. Nymex oil futures settled Monday at a record $53.64 per barrel.

"You can't go up every day. Eventually you have to have some kind of correction," said Tom Bentz, a trader at BNP Paribas Futures in New York.

Voting machine maker cuts earnings forecast

NORTH CANTON - Voting machine and automated teller machine maker Diebold Inc. cut its third-quarter earnings forecast 5 cents a share Monday.

The company blamed problems in California with a Diebold voting system that has been criticized as shoddy and liable to hackers.

Diebold said it was now forecasting earnings of about 67 cents a share and expects full-year earnings of $2.54 to $2.59 a share.

Gannett's earnings rise 11 percent

NEW YORK - Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, reported an 11 percent increase in third-quarter earnings Tuesday. Gains in classified real estate and help-wanted ads outweighed higher costs for paper and hurricane expenses.

The McLean, Va.-based parent company of the Enquirer earned $310.2 million in the three months ending Sept. 26, up from $279 million in the same period a year ago. Earnings were $1.18 per share, up 15 cents from a year ago but a penny below the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. Gannett shares fell $1.75 to $83.25 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

PeopleSoft guarantee fights Oracle takeover

WILMINGTON, Del. - PeopleSoft Inc. said Tuesday it is extending a money-back guarantee program that it says is designed to protect customers in event of a takeover by Oracle Corp.

The announcement came as testimony continues in a Delaware court weighing Oracle's legal attack on the customer program, which it says adds a potential $2 billion liability to the $7.7 billion acquisition it has been pursuing.

Oracle co-president Safra Catz testified Monday that the uncertainty around the potential cost of the customer program is one of the factors Oracle is weighing in a potential revision of the value it places on PeopleSoft.

Oracle's offer stands at $21 per share.

Johnson & Johnson profits up 13 percent

NEWARK, N.J. - Profits at Johnson & Johnson, which makes surgical devices at its Ethicon Endo-Surgery division in Blue Ash, rose 13 percent for the third quarter on a 10.5 percent increase in worldwide sales, the health care giant reported Tuesday.

The New Brunswick-based maker of contact lenses, surgical products, contraceptives and baby and skin care products had net income of $2.34 billion, or 78 cents per share, for the July-September quarter, compared to $2.07 billion, or 69 cents a share, for the same 2003 period.

Krispy Kreme to pay new directors in cash

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. will pay each of its two new outside directors conducting an internal investigation more than $90,000 for their services, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a filing late Friday, Krispy Kreme said directors Michael Sutton and Lizanne Thomas will receive about $54,000 in cash rather than 10-year stock options other board members receive as part of their compensation.

Krispy Kreme pays directors who aren't employees $30,000 a year, plus expenses.

Krispy Kreme announced the new directors last week, saying they would investigate matters raised by the SEC and by shareholders in a recent lawsuit. An outside consultant to the board's compensation committee recommended they be paid in cash, the filing Friday said.

Enquirer staff and wire reports