U.S. cotton acreage hits quarter-century low

U.S. cotton acreage hits quarter-century low U.S. cotton acreage has hit its lowest level in 25 years as farmers have continued to shift to higher-priced corn and soybeans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a report released Monday, estimated total cotton acreage at 9.25 million, down from 10.8 million acres last year and the lowest level since farmers seeded 7.9 million acres in 1983. For cotton to be competitive with corn and soybeans, the price would have to exceed $1 a pound, said Jess Barr, executive vice president of the Louisiana Cotton Producers Association. Late Monday morning, the December futures price was under 80 cents a pound.

Budweiser maker plans benefit reductions Anheuser-Busch Companies plans to cut pension and health care benefits for its salaried employees as part of an effort to slash $1 billion in costs by the end of 2010 and fend off an unsolicited $46 billion bid from Belgian brewer InBev. The nation's biggest brewer laid out its benefit-cut plan in a memo sent to salaried employees Friday morning and provided to the Associated Press by the company Monday. The memo says employees' individual, lump-sum payouts under the pension plan will be reduced by approximately 5 percent to 6 percent in 2009 and approximately 15 percent by 2012. Workers also will have to make a bigger contribution to their health insurance plan, rising from about 21 percent today to 25 percent of the cost beginning in 2009.

Wachovia to end criticized loan-payment plan Beleaguered consumer bank Wachovia Corp. said Monday it will quit offering a mortgage payment option that allows borrowers to pay less each month than the bank charges in interest. The choice to pay less was one of the options of the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's controversial Pick-A-Payment mortgages, which offer customers four payment options each month. Wachovia said it will no longer offer the less-than-full interest payment option on all new home loans. Critics have said paying less than the amount of interest charged can lead to negative amortization -- where the borrower owes more than the value of the home, increasing the chance of foreclosure.