business

Supervalu Inc. is lowering the everyday prices of certain items that shoppers stock up on when put on sale in response to the spending habits of penny-pinching consumers. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, Supervalu Chief Executive Jeff Noddle said that shoppers at some of its traditional-format stores, such as Shaw's and Acme, have grown so accustomed to buying items such as cereal when they go on sale that they won't buy them at full price. As a result, the grocer has been selling these products at lower everyday prices at some of its stores and will likely do the same at other stores, Noddle said.

DOW JONES NEWS SERVICE

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern said he is "not unalterably opposed" to reducing the federal funds rate below 1 percent, while noting that bad news about the economy won't necessarily prompt policy makers to cut rates at their Dec. 16 meeting. "The meeting is still a month away, so we've got another month more of evidence that will accumulate, and some of that evidence may be things that do or don't happen in Washington as well," Stern, who votes on rates this year, said Tuesday.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Siemens, Europe's largest engineering company, told jurors in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif., that it invented "essential" technology for reading computer data as the company seeks as much as $366 million from Seagate Technology. Siemens' lawyers, in opening statements last week, said the company is entitled to as much as 3 percent of Seagate's $12.2 billion in sales of hard-disk systems that use the invention. U.S. District Judge James Selna already found infringement, leaving jurors to decide whether the patent is valid and whether damages should be awarded. Seagate, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., has plants in Shakopee and Bloomington.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Security software maker McAfee Inc. completed its acquisition of Secure Computing Corp. for $462 million in cash. Secure Computing is based in California but employs 335 people in St. Paul. Company officials said in September, when the deal was announced, that they did not expect any effect on St. Paul employment.

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