BRIEFLY IN BUSINESS

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.BRIEFLY IN BUSINESS

BANKINGU.S. banks post profitsSeveral major U.S. banks posted second-quarter earnings Monday that met or exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

Confident consumers charged up their credit cards, bought or refinanced their homes and took advantage of the gravity-defying stock market - all to the benefit of the banks' bottom lines.

COMPUTERS

IBM profits surge

IBM's second-quarter profits jumped 65 percent, reflecting strength in personal computers, computer services and the sale of its data networking business, as it beat analysts' expectations.

IBM said Monday it earned $2.39 billion, or $1.28 a share, in the three months ended June 30. That was up from a profit of $1.45 billion, or 75 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Microsoft profits climb

Microsoft Corp., buoyed by healthy sales of the latest upgrade to its Office suite of business software, reported Monday that its fourth-quarter profits rose 62 percent from a year ago.

Microsoft had net income of $2.2 billion or 40 cents a diluted share, compared with profits of $1.36 billion or 25 cents a diluted share a year earlier.

AUTOMOBILES

Used car web site grows

AutoConnect.com and Auto Trader Online, two of the largest used-car buying sites on the Internet, will join forces in one of the fastest-growing segments of electronic commerce.

The merger, announced Monday and planned for the fall, will provide consumers one stop on the Internet to find nearly 1.5 million used car and truck listings from dealers and individuals nationwide.

RESTAURANTS

Steak chain sells shares

Ruth's Chris Steak House, which originated in the New Orleans area and has grown to 68 restaurants worldwide, is selling a majority share of the company to a private investment firm.

Majority control will be held by Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners, the two groups announced Monday. A price was not disclosed.

NEWS FROM ABROAD

Russia could receive as much as $3.8 billion in foreign loans this year, allowing the government to stop borrowing from the Central Bank to meet foreign debt payments, a top financial official said Monday. The International Monetary Fund is expected to decide soon on releasing the first installment of an 18-month, $4.45 billion loan program to Russia. ... Thousands of Argentine farmers plan to converge on Buenos Aires on Wednesday to protest what they see as the government's failure to help them weather slack crop prices and rising debts.

NAMES IN THE NEWS

One of the telecommunications industry's most powerful women will be the new president and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. Carleton Fiorina, 44, is replacing Lewis Platt, 58, who is retiring at the end of the year, the company announced Monday. Fiorina has been president of Lucent Technologies' global service provider business, that company's fastest-growing division. ... French oil company Elf Aquitaine, the target of a hostile bid by TotalFina, turned the tables Monday in announcing plans to launch its own $50.97 billion cash-and-stock offer to acquire TotalFina. ... Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. has formed a joint venture in Cambodia to begin making about 10,000 motorcycles a year, a Japanese newspaper reported.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Business-to-consumer gets all the press because people like to read about it. Business-to-business is really the backbone of the U.S. and the world economy and that's where probably 80 percent of this business is coming from," -Intel Corp. CEO Craig Barrett predicting the number of Internet users will increase six-fold to 1 billion within five years, due largely on the growth in business-to-business transactions.

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION.