Business briefs

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Strong sales at CVS

CVS Caremark Corp. said Tuesday that charges and higher costs outweighed a boost in the drugstore operator’s pharmacy sales, pushing first-quarter profit down slightly.
But overall, CVS’ results showed some resilience to the tough economy, which has battered even sales of essential items like prescriptions.
CVS said revenue from both prescriptions and discretionary items increased, with most products selling well aside from cough and cold treatments.
CVS Caremark employs about 400 at its Hanover Crossings prescription fulfillment facility.
ADM posts weak results
Archer Daniels Midland Co., a major corn and soybean processor and ethanol maker, said Tuesday its fiscal third-quarter profit tumbled an unexpectedly sharp 98 percent due to a drop in sales along with an unexpected tax payment and a loss on equity investments.
Sales fell 21 percent to $14.8 billion from $18.7 billion a year ago and well below analysts’ average estimate of $16.9 billion.
ADM opened a cocoa processing plant in Hazle Township last year that is expected to employ 200 when in full operation.
Microsoft speeds layoffs
Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it is pulling the trigger on thousands of the 5,000 job cuts it announced in earlier this year. And in an e-mail to employees, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer left the door open to even more cuts.
When Microsoft announced its first-ever companywide layoffs in late January, the software maker immediately cut 1,400 positions, with the remaining 3,600 cuts to come over an 18-month period.
After making the cuts disclosed Tuesday, the software maker said it will be almost finished with the 5,000 layoffs.
Failed fund execs charged
Federal regulators on Tuesday accused Reserve Management Co. Inc. and its two top executives of fraud, saying they withheld key facts from investors when its big money-market fund “broke the buck” last fall.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Reserve Management, its chairman Bruce Bent Sr., 71, and its vice chairman and president Bruce Bent II.