IN THE COURTS

SCRUSHY FREE OF CRIMINAL CHARGES AS PROSECUTORS DROP APPEAL

HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy, acquitted last month of directing a $2.7 billion fraud, is free of all criminal charges after prosecutors today dropped their appeal of three perjury counts dismissed at his trial. Prosecutors will not seek a second trial in Birmingham, Ala., where jurors cleared Mr. Scrushy on June 28 of 36 charges, including conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering. During Mr. Scrushy’s five-month trial, U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre dismissed 10 counts, including the perjury charges. For Mr. Scrushy, 52, who was fired as chief executive officer in March 2003 and wants his job back, prison is no longer a possibility. He still faces dozens of investor lawsuits and a fraud suit by the SEC. “I think it was sour grapes when they said they were going to appeal,” said Scrushy attorney Donald Watkins. “I’m glad somebody finally called a halt to the endless expenditure of taxpayer dollars.”

– Bloomberg News

ECONOMY

AMERICAN TRADE DEFICIT NARROWS IN MAY ON OIL PRICE DIP

WASHINGTON – The American trade deficit narrowed during May as oil imports fell, but analysts expect the imbalance to resume deteriorating, given the resurgence in the price for crude. The American shortfall in international trade of goods and services shrank to $55.35 billion from a slightly revised $56.90 billion in April, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. American exports rose slightly and reached a new record, while imports fell as the cost per barrel of oil dropped in May. “The narrowing trade deficit was largely the result of lower energy costs, which we already know have rebounded,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland, Pa. Crude-oil futures topped $60 a barrel Tuesday. A Labor Department report yesterday showed petroleum import prices climbed 7.6% in June after falling 4.8% in May.

– Dow Jones Newswires

WALL STREET

S, SEARS’S STOCK TICKER FOR 77 YE ARS, WILL BE SPRINT NEXTEL’S

The letter S will have a new meaning at the New York Stock Exchange. Sprint will adopt the letter as its ticker symbol after buying Nextel for $36 billion, a transaction that stockholders of the mobile-phone companies approved yesterday. “We’ll be quickly and easily identified with this new S ticker symbol,” Scott Stoffel, a Sprint spokesman, said yesterday. S stood for Sears, Roebuck & Company, once the largest American chain of department stores, for 77 years. Sears surrendered the symbol in March when Kmart Holding took over the retailer. Shares of the combined company, Sears Holdings, trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Sprint Nextel, the company resulting from Sprint’s deal, will be the first in more than three years to list stock under a single letter. Class A shares of Liberty Media, controlled by cable-television investor John Malone, began trading under the symbol L in January 2002. G and T, standing respectively for Gillette and AT&T, may become available in the next few months if the takeovers of the companies are completed.

– Bloomberg News