Business in Brief

Markets continue slide, Dow nears 5-year low\nNEW YORK -- Unnerved by a profit warning from Sears, investors sold stocks for a fourth straight session Monday and extended six weeks of selloffs on Wall Street. \nInvestors also were uneasy in light of a shutdown of the nation's West Coast ports and the possibility of war with Iraq. Selling accelerated in the final hour of trading, with the Dow Jones industrials dropping more than 100 points, their second straight triple-digit loss. \n"There is just no good news to trigger anybody's enthusiasm to buy stocks,'' said Bill Barker, investment strategy consultant at RBC Dain Rauscher in Dallas. \nThe Dow closed down 105.56, or 1.4 percent, at 7,422.84, for a four-day loss of 515.95. The Dow is near a five-year low, having not had a weaker finish since Nov. 12, 1997, when it stood at 7,401.30. \nThe market's broader gauges also stumbled for a fourth day. The Nasdaq composite index fell 20.50, or 1.8 percent, to 1,119.40, having closed last week at a six-year low. Monday's slippage made for a four-day loss of 94.32 and a new six-year low. The Nasdaq last finished lower on Aug. 1, 1996, when it stood at 1,098.85. \nBush looking to lift lock\nWASHINGTON -- President Bush will seek an 80-day cooling-off period that would reopen West Coast ports crippled by a labor dispute, government officials said Monday, marking the first effort in a quarter century to end a work stoppage under the Taft-Hartley Act. \nBush created a special board of inquiry to determine the impact of the lockout, and planned to petition the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Tuesday to halt the lockout for 80 days, a Labor Department official said. \nMonday's move came hours after contract negotiations between workers and management collapsed. Port operators and manufacturers' groups applauded the move, but the longshoremen accused the administration of trying to break the union. The workers have been locked out, without pay, by management. \nIn an executive order, Bush gave the board of inquiry one day to report back to him, and the Labor Department official said the administration would ask the U.S. District Court in San Francisco for an 80-day cooling-off period. Though the administration promised an unbiased examination of the lockout, Bush appeared to have made up his mind that it was hurting national security and the economy, and merited federal intervention.\nAirline's parent company to take $900 million charge\nFORT WORTH, Texas -- The parent company of American Airlines says it will take a one-time charge of about $900 million after taxes to write off the airlines' goodwill balance due to new accounting rules. \nIn a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AMR Corp. said the charge would be recorded effective Jan. 1. \nThe Fort Worth-based company, which also owns the American Eagle commuter airline, said the move would have no impact on cash flow. \nAMR said it calculated the charge based on new rules from the Financial Accounting Standard Board covering the handling of goodwill and other intangible assets. \nGoodwill is the extra, intangible value that a company pays -- beyond the firm's assets minus its debts -- when it acquirers another company. Companies used to amortize goodwill over many years, but regulators required companies to end the practice this year. \nCritics said the amortization of goodwill allowed companies to understate the value of their acquisitions and overstate earnings. \nIn trading on the New York Stock Exchange, AMR shares fell 56 cents, or 13 percent, to close Monday at $3.76. \nFDA Cracks Down on Ephedra Product\nWASHINGTON -- Health regulators have stopped imports of an herbal product promoted as an alternative to illegal street drugs, and have informed operators of an Internet site selling "Yellow Jackets'' that they were breaking the law. \nYellow Jackets contain the herb ephedra and other stimulants, such as caffeinated kola nut extract. \nThe Food and Drug Administration has shut down previous ephedra sellers who marketed the herb as a legal alternative to cocaine and other illegal drugs, saying dietary supplements cannot be marketed as street-drug alternatives. \n"There does not appear to be any legitimate use for this product,'' the FDA said in a warning letter e-mailed to the Dutch operator of the Yellow Jackets Web site. \n"Consumers should not purchase or use these or similar products available through the Internet or elsewhere,'' said FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford. \nWhile the FDA can't shut down foreign Web sites that violate U.S. health regulations, it can stop imports of their products -- and has ordered inspectors at U.S. borders to do just that, said FDA spokesman Brad Stone. \nEphedra is an herb that is legal to sell as a dietary supplement -- popular for weight loss and bodybuilding -- as long as that street-drug claim isn't made. But even legal ephedra is highly controversial, linked to dozens of deaths. Some critics have asked FDA to ban all ephedra, and the government has begun a criminal investigation of whether one U.S. manufacturer lied about the herb's safety.\nRent-A-Center to Pay $47M to Women\nEAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- A judge approved a $47 million settlement Friday for thousands of women who claim they were unfairly denied or driven out of jobs with the nation's largest operator of rent-to-own stores. \nRent-A-Center Inc. also will hire the plaintiffs and make sweeping changes to its employment practices in settling two sex-discrimination lawsuits emanating from federal courts in East St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn. \nThe plaintiffs alleged the Plano, Texas-based company drove women out by demoting or firing them, making them work in high-crime areas and subjecting them to "intrusive tests'' about sex, religion and personal bathroom habits. \nMale managers have said that after a change in ownership in 1998, they were told to do what was necessary to get rid of women employees, said Mary Anne Sedey, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. \nRent-A-Center attorney Dan Dargene said the management supports the settlement. "They know it's good for their business,'' he said. \nThe company agreed to make several changes to encourage women workers, from a discrimination hotline to diversification of its all-male board of directors. \nSedey said that out of 6,000 current and former female employees and 10,000 female applicants who were denied jobs, more than 5,000 made class-action claims. \nRent-A-Center operates about 2,400 stores in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.