U.S. AVERAGES

Retreating crude oil prices relieved some of the pressure from stocks, after earlier reaching a record $68 per barrel in overnight electronic trading.

The housing sector is up, following the release of better-than-expected new home sales report for July. The broker/dealer sector is close to its lowest level in more than 2 weeks. Energy sector is slightly down in the early trading.

General Electric Co. (GE: chart) has agreed to pay $1.55 billion for a 25% stake in Turkish bank Garanti Bank AS. According to reports, GE agreed to acquire the stake from Turkish conglomerate Dogus Holding AS, which owns 51% of Garanti, Turkey's No.3 privately owned bank. General Electric shares lost a penny.

Shares of Six Flags Inc. (PKS: chart) climbed 12% after the board of the theme park operator decided to put the company up for sale.

Eastman Kodak (EK: chart) continued its job-cutting program, saying it planned to reduce about 900 jobs as the result of shuttering some facilities and expects to take charges worth $153 million. About half the job cuts will take place in Rochester, N.Y., where Kodak is based.

Vonage Holdings Corp., provider of residential phone services over the Internet, is planning an initial public offering to raise as much as $600 million, according to reports. Vonage provides discounted local and long-distance phone services to about 800,000 households. The Edison, New Jersey-based company declined comments on the matter.

Toll Brothers, luxury homebuilder, said its 3Q profits more than doubled on strong land position and pricing power in its affluent markets. Toll Brothers’ shares added 85 cents to $50.85.

Johnson Controls said it agreed to pay $2.4 billion for York International, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment and services suppplier.

JoS. A. Bank Clothiers (JOSB: chart) said it plans to open about 46 new stores in the second half of fiscal 2005, giving it a full-year total of 60. At least 25 of these are expected during the third quarter, according to the company. Over the next 4 years, JoS. A. Bank Clothiers plans to grow the chain to about 500 stores.

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC: chart), the fifth largest U.S. bank, will also be in focus on news that it was interested in bidding for British bank Lloyds TSB.

Motorola shares shed 7 cents at $20.89 while U.S.-listed shares of Ericsson dropped 47 cents to $33.74 in morning dealings.

ECONOMIC NEWS

First-time filings for state unemployment benefits declined by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 315,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. This is the lowest level since the week ended August 6. The growth in claims met economists' expectations. The four-week average of new claims advanced by 1,250 to 315,000, the highest since July 3.

INTERNATIONAL MARKET NEWS

European shares slipped in mid-day dealings after oil prices hit record levels in electronic trading, dragging airlines and auto makers down. The German DAX 30 Index dropped 1.2% to 4857.9 and the French CAC 40 Index lost 1.1% to 4375.3. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.2% to 5253.5.

Indonesian shares climbed after a week of declines on expectations that the central bank and government would soon unite to defend the rupiah, which dropped to a 3 1/2-year low. The Jakarta Stock Exchange's Composite Index closed up 2.6% at 1,061.847. The Indonesian currency closed at 10,340 vs. the dollar from 10,280 Wednesday.

Brazil's currency and stocks advanced in early trading Thursday. The real added 0.9% to 2.418 per U.S. dollar, while the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange's benchmark Bovespa index was up 0.71% at 26,901 points.

Tokyo's benchmark stock index dropped from a four-year high Thursday. The Nikkei 225 index closed at 12,405.16 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange; down 0.78% vs. Wednesday.

Markets elsewhere in Asia closed mixed Thursday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index finished almost flat at 14,887.71. Australia's All Ordinaries index slid 0.5% to 4,403.80. Singapore's Straits Times index added 0.4% to 2,287.56, while in Taipei, the Weighted index shed 0.3% to 6,109.66. In Seoul, the Kospi index closed up 0.3% at 1,097.29, trimming earlier losses.

ENERGY, METALS AND CURRENCIES MARKETS