Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word costs. 6 news.

Soaring grain prices and export caps are driving many Argentine cattle ranchers to sell their herds and farm more lucrative crops instead

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- M/I Homes Inc. Monday said it has sold land located primarily in Florida to various buyers for $82 million and that it is exiting the West Palm Beach housing market. The home builder said as a result of the lot sales, it will book pretax land impairment charges of about $80 million in the fourth quarter, and expects to see a $50 million cash tax refund in the second quarter of 2008. M/I Homes said it is "likely" that further impairment charges will be recorded in the fourth quarter. The company said the land sold represented 3,700 lots; at the end of the third quarter, it owned 16,767 lots. "Today's announcement supports and advances our strategic objectives of strengthening our balance sheet, reducing our debt, reducing operating costs, and focusing on markets where we believe we have the best opportunity for acceptable and consistent returns," said Chief Executive Robert Schottenstein in a statement.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- IDM Pharma Inc. said Monday that Sanofi-Aventis has decided to stop participating in the development of investigational melanoma therapy Uvidem. As a result, IDM Pharma, an Irvine, Calif.-based biotechnology company, said it expects to restructure, cut its workforce and review the assets and costs associated with products under development. The board is expected to approve the final restructuring plan during the first quarter of 2008. Shares of IDM Pharma closed Friday at 94 cents.

Oil prices ended the year near $96 a barrel, or 57 percent higher than where they began, and analysts expect rising demand and geopolitical instability to keep upward pressure on energy costs early in 2008.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. computer and video game retailer Game Group said Monday that, following strong sales in the last few weeks, it now expects pretax profit excluding one-off items for the year ended Jan. 31 to be ahead of market expectations. The group said pretax profit should be at least 70 million pounds ($139.7 million), compared to 29.5 million pounds a year ago. As previously announced it expects non-recurring costs to be around 8 million pounds.

Gloria Ford began noticing a few months back that her grocery costs were spiking, particularly for milk and eggs.