A round up of today's other stories in brief...

Levi Strauss posts 98% drop in profits

US jeans maker Levi Strauss posted a 98 per cent drop in quarterly net profit yesterday, slammed by costs from the roll-out of a new business support system that caused shipping delays and hurt sales in the United States.

The results abruptly ended about two years of robust profit gains for the company with roots in the California Gold Rush which had recovered from years of slumping sales.

Levi Strauss cited weak consumer spending in major global markets, including the US, and said the rest of the year would be challenging.

Levi Strauss reported a second-quarter net profit of $1 million compared with $46 million a year earlier.

British consumer confidence falls

British consumer confidence fell for a sixth month running in June as the economic outlook darkened, but Britons showed little sign of reining in spending, a survey showed.

The Nationwide consumer confidence index fell four points to 61, taking it to the lowest since the series began in May 2004.

Nevertheless, the spending sub-index remained steady at 60 and the percentage of respondents who thought now was a good time to make a major purchase rose four points to 18, the highest level since July 2007.

There was also little sign that the economic gloom was translating into greater job insecurity. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents thought jobs would be plentiful in six months' time, the second consecutive monthly rise.

Drop in oil supplies on US west coast

Crude oil was little changed after a US energy department report showed that an inventory drop occurred mostly on the west coast, where the distribution system is isolated from the rest of the country.

Nationwide oil supplies declined 5.84 million barrels to 293.9 million barrels last week, the report showed.

Stockpiles on the west coast, known as PADD 5, fell 4.82 million barrels to 53.6 million.

Inventories of gasoline and distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, rose. "The decline was mostly in PADD 5, so the market reaction was muted," said Nauman Barakat of global energy futures at Macquarie Futures USA in New York. Crude oil for August delivery rose one cent to $136.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. - (Bloomberg)

AIB subsidiary raises stake in BPH

The investment arm of AIB's Polish subsidiary, Bank Zachodni WBK SA, raised its stake in General Electric's bank, BPH SA, to 5.004 per cent. BPH rose 8.8 per cent to 69.6 zloty, giving the former unit of UniCredit SpA a market value of two billion zloty (€612.7 million). The WIG index rose 1.4 per cent.

Funds belonging to Zachodni increased their stake above the 5 per cent threshold at which Polish law requires shareholders to disclose their holdings, BPH said. - (Bloomberg)