Business briefs

Sony Corp. on Thursday cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console in the United States and announced an even cheaper model that will arrive before the holiday shopping season. The top-line PlayStation model, with an 80-gigabyte hard drive, now costs $499, down from $599. That effectively eliminates the lower-end model, which has a 60-gigabyte drive and sold for $499. A new low-end model with a 40-gigabyte drive will go on sale Nov. 2 for $399.

WaMu shares tumble 8 percent

Washington Mutual Inc. shares fell nearly 8 percent Thursday, a day after reporting fallout from the housing slump drove its third-quarter profit down 72 percent. Shares of the nation’s third-biggest home lender fell $2.55, or 7.7 percent, to close at $30.52 Thursday after briefly sinking to a new 52-week low of $30. After the markets closed Wednesday, Washington Mutual said sagging home prices made it harder for borrowers to pay their bills and hurt the value of its portfolio of mortgage loans. After the markets closed Wednesday, Washington Mutual said sagging home prices hurt the value of its mortgage portfolio.

Google profits climb 46 percent

Google Inc.’s third-quarter profit soared 46 percent, hurdling the enormous expectations that have elevated the Internet search leader’s stock price by more $100 during the past month. The Mountain View-based company said Thursday that it earned $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share, for the three months ended in September, up from net income of $733.4 million, $2.36 per share, at the same time last year. If not for the cost of awarding stock to its steadily expanding work force, Google said it would have earned $3.91 per share. That topped the average estimate of $3.78 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Oil prices at record, over $90 a barrel

Oil prices surged Thursday, rising to new records over $90 a barrel, as the falling dollar drew new foreign investors and speculators to dollar-denominated energy futures. “The main driving factor today is … the dollar making an all-time low against the euro,” said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Fla. While oil prices have risen sharply in dollar terms in recent days, the steadily weakening dollar means oil futures are seen as a bargain overseas. Data released in recent weeks shows speculative buying of oil futures is on the rise. Buying by foreign investors sends prices up, which draws more speculators into the market.

Airline profits rose in summer

The summer vacation season was very good to Southwest Airlines Co. and Continental Airlines Inc., which reported record passenger loads and higher profits despite rising fuel prices. Southwest reported Thursday that its third-quarter profit more than tripled from a year ago. Continental posted higher earnings thanks to heavy traffic on international routes. And people are still lining up to fly, even with several rounds of recent fare hikes and was quickly matched by Delta Air Lines Inc. and by Continental on some routes.

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