Oil traded most recently at $118.39 per barrel, continuing a fall from the record above $145 per barrel set in early July.

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. shares fell 18.91 percent Wednesday, after a loss of $821 million in the second quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average, gained 40.30 points Wednesday to close at 11,656.0, up 0.35 percent. The Nasdaq composite index rose 28.54 or 1.21 percent to 2,378.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 was rose 4.31 or 0.34 percent to 1,289.37.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,724 stocks advanced and 1,398 declined on a volume of 1.197 billion shares traded.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note lost 6/32 to yield 4.044 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5411 against Tuesday's close of $1.5464, while the dollar traded at 109.84 yen from Tuesday's 108.25 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average gained strongly, up 340.23 points to 13,254.89, up 2.63 percent.

The FTSE 100 index in London gained 31.60 to 5,486.10, up 0.58 percent.

Weyerhaueser to trim 1,500 jobs FEDERAL WAY, Wash., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Lumber and shipping giant Weyerhaeuser said it would trim its workforce by 1,500, most of the losses affecting white collar jobs in Washington state.

Two-thirds of the job cuts -- 1,000 of them -- would take place at the company's Federal Way headquarters south of Seattle, The Seattle Times reported.

The cuts should save the company $375 million a year, Weyerhaeuser Chief Executive Officer Dan Fulton said in a conference call.

But, the cuts mark a shift from Weyerhaeuser's integrated business approach, the Times reported.

"Wall Street is telling (Weyerhaeuser) that the trees are where our value is and we'd better focus on what we're really, really good at," D.A. Davidson analyst Steve Chercover told the Times.

Weyerhaeuser is "becoming a land-based company … they're about exploiting what grows above the land and also what exists below the land, Chercover said.

Federal judge overturns $300 million award PHOENIX, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A federal judge has overturned a $300 million jury award against Arizona's Apollo Group, parent company to the University of Phoenix.

Information was withheld from investors concerning a 2004 Department of Education report, but a previous trial failed to prove it harmed them, U.S. District Judge James Teilborg said in an 11-page ruling, The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.

The 2004 report said the private school "systematically engages in actions designed to mislead the Department of Education" concerning its pay to recruiters.

Colleges that receive federal aid are not allowed to base their pay to recruiters on the number of students they recruit, the Republic said.

After the report, Apollo Group paid the Department of Education $9.8 million and told investors it had done so. But, it withheld many of the details of the report, the newspaper reported.

The new ruling "validates the arguments … namely, that the ultimate disclosure of the initial report's contents caused no significant movement in Apollo's stock price," said Apollo's outside attorney, Wayne Smith.

Plaintiffs, however, will likely appeal Monday's ruling. "Obviously this thing ain't over till it's over," Jeff Silber of BMO Capital Markets in New York told the Republic.

Big Three face big risks in turnarounds DETROIT, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- All three U.S. auto giants face the possibility of bankruptcy as they adapt to current consumer trends favoring smaller vehicles, industry analysts said.

General Motors Corp. reported a $15.5 billion net loss in the second quarter, which ate up $3.6 billion of its available cash, CNNMoney.com reported Wednesday.

GM has about $26 billion in cash and credit available, while Ford Motor Co., has about $38.2 billion, the report said. Chrysler had about $9.4 billion in unrestricted funds at the end of the quarter, the report said.

Shelly Lombard, an analyst for GimmeCredit, said GM had "four or five quarters to get their act together."

As consumers turn toward fuel-efficiency, the Big Three are watching their more profitable large vehicle segments decline. But turning things around to a focus on small car production could take years, analysts said.

The chances of bankruptcy "are uncomfortably high," Bob Schnorbus, chief economist with J.D. Power & Associates told CNNMoney.

Bankruptcy would cut two ways. By filing for Chapter 11, a company can still operate and cut costs considerably while it reorganizes.

At the same time, bankruptcy risks losing large numbers of customers, wary the company would not be able to make good on service plans, analysts said.

Story Source: United Press International