Also . . .

* Nabisco Holdings Corp., the nation’s No. 1 cookie and cracker maker, plans to raise prices on many of its biscuit brands by an average of 2% this year. The maker of Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers said it will make the move to recover some of the increases in labor costs. “Over the past two years, food companies have not taken many price increases,” analyst Nomi Ghez of Goldman Sachs said. “This could be changing, which would be a positive for the industry since some non-ingredient input costs have been rising.” The effect on the company’s earnings before interest and taxes, however, is expected to be neutral. Parsippany, N.J.-based Nabisco said the price hike, the first since October 1998, will be on selected products, but it did not disclose which ones. Nabisco shares closed up $2.06 at $43.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.