Casual Male reports 85% lower profit in 4th quarter

Casual Male Retail Group, the owner of the Casual Male XL and Rochester Big & Tall brands, reported fourth-quarter profit fell and forecast 2008 earnings and sales that trailed analysts' estimates. Income from continuing operations slumped 85 percent to $1.3 million, or 3 cents a share, from $8.4 million, or 19 cents, a year earlier, the Canton-based company said. The earlier quarter excludes a $30.5 million tax benefit, the company said. Sales declined 7.5 percent to $133.9 million for the quarter ended Feb. 2. Sales at stores open at least 12 months slipped 0.3 percent, the second straight drop after 16 consecutive quarters of gains. (Bloomberg)

Oil futures rose modestly as investors focused on the dollar's latest decline rather than new worries about the economy. Gas and diesel prices, meanwhile, retreated further from their recent record levels. The US currency's protracted slide was a big contributor to oil's march to nearly $112 in recent weeks; many investors regard oil and other commodities as inflation hedges, and turn to such hard assets when the dollar is falling. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 36 cents to settle at $101.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The average US price of a gallon of gas fell 0.5 cent overnight to $3.255 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices slipped 0.3 cent to a US average of $4.026 a gallon. (AP)

Shares of Clear Channel Communications Inc. plummeted in late trading, following a report that the media company's private buyout is on the brink of collapse. Shares fell $1.89, or 5.5 percent, to end regular trading at $32.56, then fell 21 percent in after-hours trading to $25.82 - far below the $39.20 per share the buyout firms, led by Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners LLC, promised shareholders. The Wall Street Journal reported on its website that the private equity firms leading the $19.5 billion buyout were having difficulty reaching terms with the banks committed to financing the deal. The report cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. (AP)

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drug maker, sued India's Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. over claims it infringed patents for Lipitor and Caduet in an ongoing battle to prevent generic versions of the cholesterol drugs. Pfizer is seeking a court order barring Ranbaxy from selling a generic version of the medicines until two patents on a process to make the drugs expire in 2016, according to lawsuits filed Monday in federal court in Wilmington, Del. Ranbaxy already is banned from selling generic versions of Lipitor and Caduet until a patent expires in 2010. The new lawsuits seek to extend that ban another six years. Lipitor is the world's best-selling drug with $12.7 billion in sales last year. Caduet, which had $568 million in 2007 sales, combines Lipitor with Pfizer's Norvasc, a drug used to treat high blood pressure. (Bloomberg)

Warning lights will be installed at about 20 US airports under a $300 million federal plan to reduce runway collisions. The so-called runway status lights will alert pilots when it's unsafe to cross runways, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The systems will be in place by 2011. The FAA didn't disclose which airports will get the lights. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan International Airport, has been in discussions with the FAA about the lights, "but no final decision has been made," said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. (Globe staff and wire services)

United Airlines, the world's second-largest carrier, dropped a $10 round-trip fuel surcharge increase after less than a week because other US airlines didn't match it. United rescinded the change to "keep our fares competitive," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. United is a unit of Chicago-based UAL Corp. Delta Air Lines Inc., the third-largest carrier, initiated the increase last week and had already rolled back the fee after others failed to follow, Rick Seaney of airline ticket research website FareCompare.com said in an e-mail . . . General Dynamics Corp., the second-largest ship builder for the US Navy, won a contract valued at as much as $375 million to provide a tactical data network for the Marine Corps. Work on the network will begin in September and finish by March 2013, the Defense Department said. General Dynamics will perform the work in Taunton. (Globe wire services)