New York

Investors await Consumer Price Index report

NEW YORK Wall Street closed narrowly mixed Monday after investors, uneasy about the government's upcoming inflation data, cashed in some of their gains from the market's monthslong rally.

Blue chip stocks managed a modest increase following DaimlerChrysler AG's announcement that it will sell 80.1 percent of money-losing Chrysler Group to Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity group, for $7.4 billion. The deal, which lifted stocks in the automotive sector, undoes a 1998 merger aimed at creating a global auto giant.

The news buoyed the Dow Jones industrial average briefly to a new trading high, but the overall stock market dipped, with many investors wary ahead of today's release of the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation.

The market expects the April CPI to have risen 0.5 percent, slower than in March, but it anticipates the core figure which strips out food and energy prices will have risen 0.2 percent, a slightly larger jump than March's 0.1 percent increase. A report that suggests consumer costs are climbing much faster could frustrate investors hoping for an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve later in the year.

The Dow advanced 20.56, or 0.15 percent, to 13,346.78, after rising in the morning to a trading record of 13,383.76.

Broader stock indicators fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 2.70, or 0.18 percent, to 1,503.15, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 15.78, or 0.62 percent, to 2,546.44.

Washington, D.C.

FDA ban on weight-loss supplements stands

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal by dietary supplements maker Nutraceutical International, which sought to overturn a federal ban on the weight-loss aid ephedra.

The court's decision, issued without comment, lets stand a 2006 ruling by a federal appeals court that upheld the Food and Drug Administration's 2004 ban.

Shares of Nutraceutical rose 3 cents to close at $16.15.

Ephedra was marketed in the 1980s and 1990s as a weight-loss supplement and an aid to athletic performance. The FDA began receiving reports in the late 1990s, however, of major side effects from ephedra use, including heart attacks, strokes and death, according to court papers filed by the government.

The FDA banned the supplement after determining that it presented an unreasonable risk of illness or injury at any dose.

In challenging the ban, Park City, Utah-based Nutraceutical International Corp. argued that ephedra did not present significant risks at the low dosage levels it recommended, and charged that the FDA did not fully investigate the herbal supplement's effects at lower levels of use.

California

Platinum sees first supply surplus in 8 years

SAN FRANCISCO Global platinum supplies outpaced consumption in 2006 for the first time in eight years, as world jewelry demand dropped more than 18 percent, according to a report released Monday by a distributor and refiner of precious metals.

The high price of platinum and an increase in recycled jewelry cut overall world jewelry demand for the metal by 18.3 percent, or 360,000 ounces, last year, to 1.61 million ounces, according to the report from Johnson Matthey PLC of Britain.

Global demand for the metal climbed by 80,000 ounces to 6.78 million ounces last year. But expansions in South African mining capacity lifted supply to a record level of 6.79 million ounces resulting in a surplus of 10,000 ounces for the year. Johnson Matthey characterized the data as showing that supply and demand for platinum "were effectively in balance" but noted that the figure followed seven successive years of supply deficits.

South Korea

Flat-panel display makers to work together

SEOUL South Korea's four leading makers of flat-panel displays have agreed to work toward cross-licensing patents, buying products from each other and cooperating in research and development, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said Monday.

Samsung Electronics Co., Samsung SDI Co., LG Electronics Inc. and LG.Philips LCD Co. also agreed to buy more panel components and equipment from South Korean manufacturers, while reducing purchases from abroad, the ministry said in a statement.

The four South Korean companies also agreed to try to standardize flat-panel sizes to enhance competitiveness in global markets, the ministry said.

Samsung Electronics and LG.Philips LCD, the world's two largest makers of liquid crystal displays, make LCDs in different sizes so they cannot be used for each other's flat TVs.

China

Nation reports decreased inflation in April

BEIJING China's inflation slowed to 3.0 percent in April, the government reported Monday, amid efforts to rein in the sizzling economy.

That rate is down from the 3.3 percent increase in consumer prices in March, the highest level in 25 months, and in line with the government's 3 percent target for inflation this year.

Overall consumer prices in April were lifted by a 7.1 percent jump in food prices from a year ago, the National Statistics Bureau reported on its Web site.

Chinese leaders are worried that rapid economic growth, which is expected to top 10 percent this year, and a boom in construction and investment could set off a surge in inflation.

The government has raised interest rates and forced banks to buy bonds and increased the amount of money they must set aside in reserves in an effort to rein in overinvestment in real estate and other industries.

Intel settles copyright infringement dispute

BEIJING Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, said Monday it had settled a copyright infringement dispute with Shenzhen Donjin Communication Technology Co., a Chinese maker of telecommunications and network equipment.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel sued Shenzhen Donjin in 2004 for alleged copyright infringements on technology used for touch-pad telephone systems. In 2005, a unit of Shenzhen Donjin countersued, saying that the chipmaker engaged in monopolistic practices. The companies have agreed to keep the terms of the out-of-court settlement confidential.

Beijing Donjin Xinda Technology Co., the Shenzhen Donjin unit that filed the countersuit, also signed the statement.

The settlement comes a week before the second meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in Washington, where Chinese protection of intellectual property rights will likely be discussed.

Last month, the U.S. filed two complaints to the World Trade Organization, challenging China's lax protection of copyrights, as well as its restrictions on the distribution of foreign movies, music and printed materials.

From wire reports