New York

Stocks rise following Citigroup profit report

NEW YORK Wall Street began the week with a strong start Monday as better-than-expected profits at Citigroup Inc. and a healthy increase in consumer spending renewed investors' optimism about the economy. The Dow Jones industrials soared more than 100 points.

Earnings reports begin arriving at a steady clip this week, giving investors fresh indications about companies and the overall economy. This week nearly half the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrials report results.

While investors have been girding for a slowdown in growth of corporate profits, they are hoping consumer spending will remain robust. The Commerce Department on Monday reported that consumers spent strongly last month, sending retail sales up by about 0.7 percent. The figure was close to what analysts predicted, and up from a revised 0.5 percent increase in February.

Investors also were pleased by news of a buyout of SLM Corp., the student lender better known as Sallie Mae. SLM agreed to be sold to two private investment funds and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. for $25 billion, or $60 per share. Sallie Mae rose $8.29, or 17.7 percent, to $55.05.

But analysts warned that Wall Street's good humor was unlikely to last. Robert N. Schaeffer, portfolio manager at Becker Value Equity Fund, contends that a pop in stocks is typical when earnings reports begin to flow in and are better than expected.

"The positive reaction to the earnings tends to be short-lived traditionally," he said. "There is also a tendency for companies with better earnings reports to report early. The companies that are going to disappoint tend to drag their feet a bit."

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 108.33, or 0.86 percent, to 12,720.46. The Dow's increase Monday put the blue chip average back above where it stood before the major U.S. indexes fell more than 3 percent on Feb. 27 as part of a worldwide selloff. The Dow is within about 66 points of its all-time closing high of 12,786.64, reached Feb. 20.

Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 15.62, or 1.08 percent, to 1,468.47, a 61/2-year high. The Nasdaq composite index rose 26.39, or 1.06 percent, to 2,518.33.

Wal-Mart reclaims Fortune 500 list's top spot

NEW YORK Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dethroned Exxon Mobil Corp. to win back first place on the 2007 Fortune 500 list after a confluence of economic forces led American companies to their most profitable year in the compilation's 53-year history.

The big retailer posted a more than 11 percent increase in revenue to $351.1 billion and profits of $11.3 billion, according to the magazine's annual ranking of the nation's largest companies. The discounter has topped the list five out of the past six years.

Fortune compiled the rankings based on companies' 2006 revenues.

Nipping at Wal-Mart's heels was 2006 title-holder Exxon Mobil, which had $347.3 billion in revenue and the highest profit in history by a U.S. company, reaching $39.5 billion.

Collectively, the Fortune 500 raked in profits of $785 billion in 2006, the highest since the list's inception in 1954. It marked a nearly 30 percent jump over 2005, and walloped the previous record of $444 billion, reached in 2000 at the peak of the technology boom.

Texas

ConocoPhillips, Tyson team on fuel from fat

HOUSTON Oil company ConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, said Monday they're teaming up to produce and market diesel fuel for U.S. vehicles using beef, pork and poultry fat.

The companies said they have collaborated over the past year on ways to combine Tyson's expertise in protein chemistry and production with ConocoPhillips' processing and marketing knowledge to introduce a renewable diesel fuel with lower carbon emissions than petroleum-based fuels.

ConocoPhillips planned to spend about $100 million over several years to produce the fuel, Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Mulva said at a news conference. It hopes to introduce the fuel at gas stations in the U.S. Midwest in the fourth quarter of this year.

Tyson said it also will make capital improvements this summer to begin preprocessing animal fat at some of its North American rendering plants. Tyson President and CEO Richard Bond said his company's potential investment likely would be less than that of ConocoPhillips.

The oil company and Tyson, based in Springdale, Ark., said the finished product will be renewable diesel fuel mixtures that meet all federal standards for ultra-low-sulfur diesel.

Washington, D.C.

FDA wants medical device firms to pay more

The medical device industry would pay 31 percent more in fees next year to defray the cost of having its products reviewed by the government, under a proposal released Monday.

The Food and Drug Administration floated the increase as part of its recommendations to Congress for reauthorizing the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act. The law allows the FDA to charge fees for reviewing medical devices seeking federal approval. It will expire Sept. 30 unless reauthorized by Congress.

The FDA said it needs the fees to allow its device review program to keep pace with both the rapidly growing medical device industry and changes in technology.

The agency proposes collecting 31 percent more in fees next year, and then 8.5 percent more each year thereafter through 2012. The $287 million in industry fees collected during that five-year period would account for only about 23 percent of the more than $1.2 billion the FDA estimates it will need to spend on reviewing medical devices during that period. Taxpayer funding would make up the balance.