United Tech cutting forecast, workforce United Technologies Corp., saying the downturn in its core markets is worse than expected, cut its 2009 profit forecast 13 percent Tuesday and will reduce its global workforce by 5 percent -- 11,600 of its 223,100 workers. The maker of Otis elevators and Sikorsky helicopters says markets for commercial aerospace and global construction have worsened since December.
Inventories drop for fifth month in a row Businesses slashed inventories at the wholesale level for a fifth straight month in January, the longest stretch since the last recession in 2001. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that wholesale inventories fell 0.7 percent in January, or slightly less than the 1 percent fall economists had expected. It followed a 1.5 percent drop in December that was initially reported as a 1.4 percent decline. Sales at the wholesale level dropped 2.9 percent in January, the seventh consecutive decline.
Casino tycoon bets he'll weather tough times Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson says his company is on the right path in a rough economy -- even if Wall Street and an executive he ousted disagree. The 75-year-old CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Tuesday that his company doesn't intend to hire a restructuring firm to help it deal with outstanding debt -- $10.47 billion at the end of last year. Sands revealed Tuesday in a regulatory filing that it told William Weidner, its president and chief operating officer, that he'd be replaced four days before he resigned. Weidner, 63, said in a resignation letter dated Sunday that was included in Sands' filing that he disagreed with Adelson on how to run the company.
Dubai bank said to be out $501 million in scam Dubai Islamic Bank said Tuesday it has foreclosed on a real estate project and set aside cash to help cover losses after court papers indicated the bank was the victim of a half-billion dollar fraud. Documents filed with the Dubai public prosecutor's office name seven businessmen allegedly involved with the crime, which is said to have cost the bank $501 million. The suspects include three Britons, two Pakistanis, one Turk and one American. The amount of the alleged fraud is far larger than in two other cases referred to court since the booming Gulf city-state launched an anti-corruption investigation last year.
