Also

* Countrywide Financial Corp. said loan volume for September totaled $31 billion, flat compared with August and down 6% from a year earlier. Third-quarter volume fell to $92 billion, down $8 billion from the second quarter and down 27% from the third quarter of 2003. Year-to-date loan volume reached $268 billion, a decrease of 25% from the first nine months of 2003.

* The Business Council said a majority of U.S. chief executives it surveyed projected 2005 economic growth of 2.1% to 4.5%, correcting its report last week that said growth would be no more than 2% next year.

* Starbucks Corp. said its chief executive, Orin Smith, would retire March 31. The head of its North American unit, Jim Donald, 50, will replace Smith, 62, as president and CEO.

* Occidental Petroleum Corp. agreed to buy four chemical plants from Vulcan Materials Co. for at least $214 million to boost production of chlorine and cut costs.