LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: The business news starts with a first on Wall Street. In early trading today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 12,000 for the first time in its history. It has since fallen back, though at this hour it remains in positive territory. The early rally on Wall Street may have been spurred by new figures on consumer prices and housing starts. The Consumer Price Index fell in September by half a percentage point, which is the largest amount in 10 months, and construction of new homes showed an unexpected rebound.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: All these figures come as many high-profile companies are reporting earnings. NPR'S Windy Kaufman reports.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: IBM's quarterly profit rose 47 percent over the same period last year. The figure was better than analysts had predicted. A lower tax bill and strong gains in both software and hardware sales were largely responsible. But another big name, Intel, reported sharply lower quarterly profits. The 35 percent drop in its third quarter stems in part from a nasty price war with chip rival AMD.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: Intel, the world's largest maker of PC microprocessors, is hoping its new core chips will restore the firm to glory. Meanwhile, the company is restructuring and reducing its workforce by about 10 percent over the next two years. Motorola, the world's number two cell phone maker, also posted sharply lower profits. The 45 percent drop in earnings came despite the fact that revenue from its cell phone division was up sharply. The company shipped nearly 54 million phones.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: And finally, we turn to Yahoo. Net income for the online media company fell 37 percent as online advertising has slowed. In a conference call with analysts, the company's chief executive said he wasn't satisfied with the current financial performance and intended to improve it. But, he added, the company was lower in its fourth quarter business outlook. Apple computer and eBay will report their earnings later today. On Thursday, it's Google's turn.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
The latest Consumer Price Index numbers are due, one day after producer prices were reported to have fallen sharply. The drop in producer prices stems largely from sizeable declines in gasoline and energy prices.