Also. . .

* General Motors Corp. said it will increase production in the third quarter by 1%, building an additional 6,000 cars and 7,000 trucks, to meet rising U.S. demand. GM reported a 63% jump in July sales from a strike-crippled year-earlier level, but its share of the U.S. market was 28.4%, below its target of 30%.

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* Corning Consumer Products Co. said it will buy Ekco Group Inc. for $133.7 million, or $7 a share, adding Baker’s Secret and Farberware cookware lines to Corning’s Revere and Corelle products. Corning, a unit of buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., will also assume about $150 million in debt in the deal, its second this week.

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* Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. reported a 33% rise in pro forma profit from operations to $85 million, or 43 cents a share, matching estimates, as revenue edged up 2% to $968 million. The company benefited from raising room prices at the Sheraton and Westin chains but said a decline in group business travel slowed revenue growth.

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* Mirage Resorts Inc.’s profit from operations dropped 37% in the second quarter to $21.1 million, or 10 cents a share, as its new gambling resort in Mississippi got off to a slow start and its Bellagio casino resort in Las Vegas began losing out to even newer properties. Revenue rose 82% to $575.2 million. The results were within the 7-to-10-cent range Mirage forecast last month.

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* Drug wholesaler Cardinal Health Inc. said it will buy Automatic Liquid Packaging Inc. for about $390 million in stock, adding a company that packages medicines for major drug makers in an expansion beyond its main business of distributing drugs to pharmacies.

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