Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word quarter. 16 news.

The NYSE announced "circuit-breaker" trigger levels, which halt trading for certain large market declines, for the first quarter of 2008.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Credit-market turbulence, interest-rate intrigue, record high oil and a deflated U.S. dollar made for a white-knuckle quarter that capped a volatile year for bond mutual-fund managers. Their jobs may not get any easier in 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Projections for S&P 500 companies' fourth-quarter earnings swung to a 6.1 percent drop on Monday from an 11.5 percent rise on October 1, in the biggest quarterly move since Reuters Estimates started compiling analysts' forecasts in 1999.

Reuters - Projections for S&P 500 companies' fourth-quarter earnings swung to a 6.1 percent drop on Monday from an 11.5 percent rise on October 1, in the biggest quarterly move since Reuters Estimates started compiling analysts' forecasts in 1999.

It's a grim New Year for newspapers. As yet another rough quarter draws to a close, we witness the closing of a venerable Midwestern journal, The Cincinnati Post, as well as an alarming new trend: the outsourcing of advertising responsibilities to India.

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.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Penn Treaty American Corp. said Monday that it has retained Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. to assist its board in reviewing strategic alternatives, which could include partnerships or the sale of certain assets. Based on a preliminary report by its actuarial consultants, the Allentown, Pa., insurance company believes that it will have to increase claim reserves and that there may be offsetting or partially offsetting reductions in active life reserves. The valuation analysis is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2008. Shares of Penn Treaty closed Friday at $6.49.

They are a Christmas staple, but like those surplus socks and regrettable jumpers, many of the ?1bn of gift tokens received on December 25 will never be used. The Voucher Association, the industry's trade body, admits that a quarter of them are unlikely to be redeemed.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Merrill Lynch on Monday completed a previously announced deal with Aegon , where it's selling its life insurance unit for $1.25 billion in cash. Aegon's Transamerica companies will continue to supply insurance and investment products, including offering the flagship Merrill Lynch Investor Choice Annuity product through the acquired Merrill Lynch subsidiaries. Merrill Lynch expects to record a gain on sale during the fourth quarter of 2007 and anticipates the transaction to be slightly accretive to earnings per share and to have a positive effect on return on equity in 2008 after redeployment of proceeds. Aegon expects the acquisition to add scale to its existing business and to have a marginally positive effect on earnings per share.

More than a quarter of businesses in the United Arab Emirates expect to be less profitable in 2008 because of the weakness of the federation's dollar-pegged currency and rising inflation, a magazine survey found.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Philips Electronics said it's completed the sale of 800 million Taiwan Semiconductor , part of a staged plan to reduce its stake in the chipmaker to zero before the end of 2010. After the sale, which will result in a 530 million euro gain in the fourth quarter, Philips will still hold 5% of Taiwan Semi's shares.

CHINA'S Internet search firm Baidu.com said yesterday that its chief financial officer, Shawn Wang, died in an accident while on vacation in China. Wang, who joined Baidu in 2004 and helped the company successfully list on the Nasdaq stock market in 2005, died on December 27 during a Christmas-New Year holiday. Company officials declined to give further details. The company said it plans to replace him but also gave no further details. "Under Wang's leadership, this year Baidu became one of the four biggest firms in the US by stock transaction volume and the first Chinese company to join the Nasdaq 100 index," Baidu chairman and CEO Robin Li said in an e-mail to employees. "Besides his contribution to financial affairs, he also led the company's legal and human resources departments to fruitful achievements," Li said. Baidu had a 60.5-percent share of China's search engine market in the third quarter, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys

Ron Paul raised about $19 million in the fourth quarter, one of the best fund-raising totals for a Republican presidential candidate this year.

The chances for IPO markets to shake off the gloom of the fourth quarter could depend on relief from the credit problems that have dented investor confidence.

Savers were dealt a blow after it emerged that Halifax, Nationwide and Bradford & Bingley are to cut savings rates by more than a quarter-point after the base-rate cut this month.