Mass. foreclosure filings jump 72% in August

Foreclosure filings in Massachusetts rose 72 percent last month as a growing number of homeowners were put in financial distress by the housing market's sharp downturn. ForeclosuresMass.com, which tracks Land Court foreclosure filings against homeowners by mortgage lenders, said there were 1,812 filings last month against borrowers who were past due, up from 1,055 filings in August 2005. Foreclosures ``continue to escalate at levels we haven't seen since the housing crash of the early 1990s," said ForeclosureMass.com's president, Jeremy Shapiro. The August filings bring the total for the year to 11,214, just 279 filings short of the filings made in all of 2005, ForeclosuresMass said. (Kimberly Blanton)

Boston chemicals and materials company Cabot Corp. said it plans to cut 130 jobs as part of a restructuring effort and book about $15 million in pretax charges as a result. The company said it plans to pare sales, manufacturing, technical service, and other groups related in particular to its carbon black business. Cabot expects to log about $8 million of the charges in the fourth quarter and the rest in fiscal 2007, largely for severance payments. Job cuts are set to begin immediately and conclude in fiscal 2007. (AP)

Walgreen Co., the biggest US drugstore chain, said profit rose on sales of generic versions of the Zocor cholesterol treatment and the Zoloft antidepression drug. Fourth-quarter net income climbed 25 percent to $412.3 million, or 41 cents a share, from $329 million, or 32 cents, a year earlier, the Deerfield, Ill.-based company said in a statement. Sales at stores open at least a year gained 9.7 percent, the biggest increase in two years. (Bloomberg)

Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan and Renault, and General Motors chief Richard Wagoner plan to hold talks this week in Paris as they assess the possibility of an alliance among the three automakers, Nissan said. Kyodo News agency said it is unclear whether the meeting would happen before the opening of the Paris Motor Show, which starts Thursday. In July, Detroit-based GM, Renault SA of France, and Nissan Motor Co. of Japan disclosed a 90-day review of an alliance among them. GM has been stumbling amid competition from Asian rivals. (AP)

Murphy Oil Corp. has agreed to a $330 million settlement in a lawsuit over an oil spill that contaminated thousands of homes last year during Hurricane Katrina, a spokesman for the plaintiffs said. A federal judge still must sign off on the deal. Trial in the case was slated to begin next week in New Orleans. Murphy, based in El Dorado, Ark., said in a statement it had reached an agreement with the plaintiff attorneys over the spill from an oil storage tank at its Meraux refinery, in St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans. (AP)

FedEx Corp., the world's largest air cargo shipping company, will spend $2.6 billion to buy and upgrade almost 90 used Boeing 757-200s to replace its aging fleet of smaller Boeing 727s. The aircraft will begin service between 2008 and 2016, Memphis-based FedEx said in a statement. The bigger, more fuel-efficient 757s can carry 20 percent more cargo and cost 25 percent less to operate than the current jets, the company said. The company said it hadn't yet reached agreements to acquire the planes. (Bloomberg)

HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy, convicted in June of bribery, asked a federal judge for a new trial, claiming his guilty verdict was the result of jury misconduct. Scrushy's lawyers claimed the trial was tainted by two jurors who insisted others vote a guilty verdict. The misconduct led to Scrushy and former Alabama governor Don Siegelman being convicted of bribery and corruption, according to court papers filed in federal court in Montgomery, Ala. Jurors found Scrushy, 54, guilty of paying a $500,000 bribe to Siegelman's campaign to establish a state lottery, in exchange for a seat on the state's hospital regulatory board. (Bloomberg)

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