NStar business customers to receive 21% cut in rates

NStar's largest business customers can expect a 21 percent drop in electricity costs in the fourth quarter, due to a recent decline in the price of oil and natural gas, the company said. Boston-area customers, most of whom use more than 50,000 kilowatt-hours a month, will see the price drop to about 11 cents per kilowatt hour, from about 14 cents, a spokeswoman said. More than 1,000 large customers, such as CambridgeSide Galleria, will see the price cuts. New rates take effect Oct. 1 if approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. (Erin Ailworth)

State Street Corp., the world's biggest money manager for institutions, hired former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive David Puth to run trading and securities lending. Puth, 51, will report to Jay Hooley, president and chief operating officer, the Boston company said. His position is new. (Bloomberg)

Mortgage application volume fell last week to its lowest levels in nearly eight years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. The drop is the latest sign of a struggling housing market. On Tuesday, a Commerce Department report showed construction of homes and apartments fell in July to the lowest level in more than 17 years. And while fewer new homes are being built, fewer customers are also refinancing existing mortgages. A sharp drop in refinance volume in recent weeks has been the leading driver of declining application volume. (AP)

CME Group Inc. said it reached a definitive settlement agreement with the Chicago Board Options Exchange, ending a two-year dispute over trading rights. CME, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, said the settlement is still subject to approval by CBOE members and the Delaware Chancery Court. The settlement clears the way for the CBOE to become the third Chicago-based financial exchange to demutualize and go public. (AP)

The Federal Aviation Administration said it is conducting an unusual 30-day review of the Eclipse 500 very light jets in response to reports of safety problems when the jets were certified for flight in 2006. The FAA said it put together a review team on Aug. 11 to look at the jets' safety and certification, including issues that have been the subject of complaints from aircraft operators involving aircraft trim, flaps, screen blanking, and stall speeds. In the last 10 years, the agency has conducted only six similar special reviews of a particular model of aircraft, said an FAA spokeswoman. Eclipse Aviation, the aircraft's manufacturer, said it welcomes FAA's review. (AP)

Nintendo Co., the maker of the top-selling video game console, was sued by a Maryland electronics laboratory that claims its motion-control inventions are being used in the Wii system. Hillcrest Laboratories Inc. seeks to block imports of the Wii and Wii remotes, according to a complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission in Washington. Hillcrest also filed a civil suit in federal court in Greenbelt, Md. "We haven't received any notice of the lawsuit and therefore are not in a position to comment at this time," a Nintendo spokesman said. (Bloomberg)

Interstate Bakeries Inc., the bankrupt Twinkie maker, will survive bankruptcy and exit court protection as a stand-alone company under an agreement brokered by the Teamsters Union, the union said. "After what looked like a drop off in negotiations, I'm pleased to announce that we were able to broker a settlement very late last night," Richard Volpe, director of the Teamsters Bakery Workers Conference, said. (Bloomberg)

American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, began selling wireless Internet service on some of its cross-country flights. American is offering access through Aircell LLC on 15 Boeing 767-200 jets that make 25 daily flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles or San Francisco and between New York and Miami. The service costs $12.95 a flight. American's parent AMR Corp. and Aircell, a closely held company, haven't disclosed terms of their revenue-sharing agreement or how much total revenue they expect the service to generate. (Bloomberg)