Business

Monday
Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) kicks off the new trading week. The soup specialist has been colder than gazpacho over the past three quarters, when it slightly missed Wall Street's estimates. Analysts are looking for a profit of $0.44 a share, in line with the $0.45 it earned a year ago.

Up with Downey
The wonderful thing about exit strategies is that you don't always see them coming.

So far this year, the S&P 500 has fallen 1% or more on 20 different trading days. On three of those days, it dropped at least 2.5%. That's an index of 500 very large and well-known companies -- not some unknown individual micro-cap stock -- flopping around like a landed fish.

Fort Worth, Texas -- American Airlines is considering an 18-month contract for its mechanical staff, sources close to the Fort Worth, Texas, air carrier said.

Chicago -- Some Chicago vendors said they are selling controversial "Horry Kow" T-shirts, despite efforts by the Chicago Cubs to ban the offensive merchandise.

Washington -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday he believes the nation's financial crisis may be coming to an end, but warned a recovery may take time.

Chicago -- The Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed its doors at the close of the day Friday and traders move on to new digs Monday with many memories, traders said.

Detroit -- General Motors Corp. has reached a tentative agreement with a United Auto Workers local that has been on strike for more than a month, the U.S. automaker said.

Detroit -- New contracts between the Canadian Auto Workers and U.S. automakers might threaten the future of Canada's auto industry, analysts say.

New York -- U.S. market indexes closed mixed Friday as a wavering afternoon rally could not bring the Dow Jones index out of the doldrums.

Doha, Qatar -- The U.S. dollar's decline against foreign currencies is causing some Arab countries to consider switching to another currency exchange peg, economists said.

New York -- An 8.2 percent jump in U.S. housing starts in April couldn't stop a slide in U.S. markets Friday, as oil prices climbed sharply by midday.

British Airways Plc, Europe's fourth-largest airline by market capitalization reported on Wednesday that its annual profit increased to more than double, owing to strong demand for transatlantic business travel. The company said it is expecting the fiscal year to be money-spinning and announced a 45 percent increase in annual profit, saying it would pay its first dividend since 2001.