Natural gas company wants to build pipeline

BISMARCK, N.D. – A natural gas company wants to get into the crude oil business by building a 1,300-mile oil pipeline from North Dakota to the nation’s biggest storage terminal in central Oklahoma.

Tulsa, Okla.-based Oneok Partners LP said Monday the proposed Bakken Crude Express Pipeline would cost between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion. It would be able to move 200,000 barrels of crude daily from North Dakota’s rich oil patch to Cushing, Okla.

Avon replaces CEO; shares fall 3 percent

NEW YORK – Avon on Monday tapped longtime Johnson & Johnson executive Sherilyn S. McCoy as its new chief executive. The announcement ended a four-month search to replace embattled CEO Andrea Jung, who had come under fire for failing to stem the company’s declines and wrap up a bribery investigation.

Avon Products Inc. said Jung will remain executive chairman after McCoy takes over later this month. Shares of the New York-based company fell more than 3 percent Monday.

The announcement from Avon comes just a week after the company rejected a $10 billion takeover offer from beauty products-maker Coty Inc.

Sony Corp. to cut workforce by 6 percent

Sony Corp. will cut 10,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, as the Japanese electronics conglomerate and its new chief executive try to wiggle back into the black.

The company’s new head, Kazuo Hirai, will confirm the reductions in what is sure to be a heavily watched briefing on Thursday, the country’s Nikkei newspaper reported Monday.

Much of the employee scale-backs will come from Sony’s deeply unprofitable television business.

Roughly half of the job cuts will stem from recent deals, including Sony’s sale of a chemicals company last month and a spinoff of its LCD production capabilities into a joint operation with Hitachi and Toshiba last year.

The Nikkei was unclear whether the bulk of the payroll reduction would happen in Japan or overseas.

Stocks finish down after jobs report given

NEW YORK – Stocks closed sharply lower Monday after investors delivered their verdict on disappointing job growth in March. It’s only the second four-day losing streak of the year for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500.

The Dow finished down 130 points at 12,929, its first close below 13,000 since March 12.

The country added 120,000 jobs in March, about half the pace from December through February. Markets were closed Friday, so Monday was investors’ first chance to respond.