MAINLAND

Chicago union, hotels work to avoid strike

CHICAGO >> A Chicago hotel workers union and hotel companies reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, averting a strike against properties run by Hilton Hotels Corp. and other lodging companies, the union said.

Bloomberg News reported the negotiating committee of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 1 voted 57 to 1 in favor of the new pact, which will pay employees a total of $3.27 an hour more over the life of the agreement, said Local 1 research director Lars Negstad. The contract will be voted on by the union's 7,000 members later this week, he said.

Members of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union Local 1 authorized a strike when their contracts expired at the end of last month.

R.J. Reynolds selected to join S&P 500 index

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc., the second-biggest U.S. cigarette maker, will be added to Standard & Poor's 500 index to fill the slot left vacated by the purchase of Conoco Inc.

The tobacco company will be added to the S&P 500 after the close of trading today. Phillips Petroleum Co. completed its planned purchase of Conoco, an oil and gas company, on Friday.

Stocks of companies added to the S&P 500 often rise because managers of the approximately $800 billion in funds that track the index buy them for their portfolios. Charles River Laboratories International Inc., which provides research services to drug companies, will replace R.J. Reynolds in the S&P MidCap 400.

JAPAN

Sept. 11 costs Japan travel agents billions

TOKYO >> Japan's travel agents lost a total of about &YEN400 billion ($34 billion) in sales to date from the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States away from overseas trips, the Japan Association of Travel Agents said.

Overseas travel demand in Japan "will recover in the second half of the business year" ending March 2003, said JATA Chairman Koji Shinmachi, who is also president of Jalpak, Japan Airlines Co.'s travel affiliate.

Demand to Hawaii and other parts of the United States may lag the recovery in travel to other destinations, according to a Bloomberg News report. "The terrorist incident was not the only reason" for the big decline in the number of Japanese tourists there, Shinmachi said.

"Disney (theme parks) and Las Vegas no longer attract travelers" from Japan, he said. More Japanese travelers will now choose Asia-Pacific holiday destinations such as Australia because they feel safer traveling there, he said.

Tokyo stocks close at 19-year low

TOKYO >> Tokyo's key stock index sank more than 3 percent today to a 19-year-low, despite government reassurances that Japan's economy has bottomed out. The dollar fell against the Japanese yen.

The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 304.59 points, or 3.12 percent, to close at 9,217.04. That was the Nikkei's lowest close since Sept. 19, 1983, when it was at 9,141.25.

Stock market traders said banking shares led the market plunge, as investors tried to lock up profits before the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

In other news ...

TOKYO >> Fuji Photo Film Co., the world's second-largest photography company, said it delayed plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange because of the slump in U.S. stocks. The company had planned to apply to list sponsored American depositary receipts next year. Fuji Photo's move follows Porsche AG's decision last month to put a planned New York listing on hold because of a new U.S. law requiring chief executives to certify the accuracy of financial statements.