Best Buy sales increase as Circuit City sales fall

The outlook for the holiday season appears murky, as the nation’s two biggest consumer electronics chains offered mixed third-quarter results on Wednesday.

Best Buy Co., the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, said earnings more than doubled in the third quarter on strong sales of notebook computers, flat-panel televisions and digital cameras and camcorders, matching Wall Street’s projections.

Meanwhile, rival Circuit City Stores Inc. swung to a profit for its third quarter even as sales fell slightly. However, when excluding results from its bank card operations, its results came in below analysts’ expectations.

Above, shoppers browse at a Circuit City store in Richmond, Va.

Wall Street

FedEx profits decrease

The FedEx Corp.’s second-quarter profits fell 63 percent from last year due to higher than expected costs of an early retirement and voluntary severance program. The results missed Wall Street expectations and company shares fell more than 3 percent.

The package delivery company reported Wednesday profits of $91 million, or 30 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Nov. 30, down from $245 million, or 81 cents a share, for the same period last year.

Agriculture

Farmland creditors to receive payments

A bankruptcy judge has approved Farmland Industries Inc.’s liquidation plan, but creditors won’t begin receiving money until the cooperative sells an oil refinery in Coffeyville.

More than 90 percent of creditors who voted supported Farmland’s plan to sell its assets to pay debts, Farmland’s attorneys told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Jerry Venters, who approved the plan late Tuesday.

Under the plan, Farmland expects to pay most unsecured creditors, who are owed about $1 billion, between 60 cents and 82 cents on the dollar.

Creditors won’t be paid until the Coffeyville sale, which is scheduled to be completed in January but may be delayed until March.