Dragged down by plummeting sales at its Manhattan flagship stores, Federated also projects that sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, will decline 15 to 20 percent for September. Ohio Phar-Mor Inc. and some of its affiliates on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the second time the discount drugstore chain has gone into bankruptcy court since 1992. As part of its restructuring, Phar-Mor plans to close approximately 65 of its 139 stores over the next several weeks. It intends to operate the remaining stores, while reducing corporate costs. E nergy futures take a tumble NEW YORK Energy futures tumbled Monday amid worries that a dramatic slowdown in the global economy will lessen demand for crude and other products.
Gasoline is refined from crude oil.
As for natural gas, the price continues to fall amid growing supplies at a time when demand remains weak among manufacturers and power generators. Producers of natural gas drilled frenetically earlier in the year to cash-in on high prices. But once demand began to dry up, the market became flooded. The decline in energy prices came as OPEC oil ministers readied to meet in Vienna, Austria this week to review their crude production quotas. As suppliers of almost 40 percent of the world s oil, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have the power to help shore up the buckling global economy or speed its descent into recession.