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ST. CLAIR, Ont. - Ottawa invests in Suncor ethanol plant

Suncor's ethanol plant in St. Clair, Ont., has received $25 million from the federal government to double its ethanol production from 200 million to 400 million litres per year.

Construction is already underway at the Sarnia-area plant and is expected to be completed by September 2009.

The plant will bring 60 full-time jobs to the area.

The government made an initial investment of $22 million, bringing the total investment in the ethanol plant to $47 million.

Ethanol is a cleaner-burning, biodegradable fuel.

Mattel profit falls to US$11.8 million

NEW YORK - Toy making giant Mattel Inc. said Friday its second-quarter profit fell by nearly half as higher costs offset strong sales of toys related to summer movies like Kung Fu Panda and the latest Batman film and the benefit from the weaker U.S. dollar.

The results still beat Wall Street's expectations. That, combined with Mattel's legal victory in a case against the maker of Bratz dolls, sent the shares soaring nearly 12 per cent. The company also said it may raise prices again this spring.

Mattel, which makes Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price toys, said quarterly profit dropped 48 per cent to US$11.8 million, or three cents a share, from $22.8 million, or six cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 11 per cent to $1.11 billion, including a 15 per cent rise in international sales that came mainly from the benefit of a weaker dollar. U.S. sales grew just three per cent.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected profit of two cents per share on revenue of $1.04 billion.

"Although the second quarter, like the first, is relatively small for us, we are pleased to generate some positive top-line momentum and see clean retail inventory levels as we enter the second half," Mattel chairman and CEO Robert Eckert said in a conference call with investors.

Citigroup posts $2.5B quarterly loss

NEW YORK - Citigroup has become the latest big bank to assuage Wall Street's worries about the financial sector, posting a US$2.5 billion second-quarter loss that was smaller than the market expected.

Citi rose nearly 10 per cent Friday and helped lift other financial stocks, having joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. in convincing investors that the prospect for the sector, while gloomy, may not be as dire as the market feared.

The biggest U.S. banking company by assets lost the equivalent of 54 cents per share in the April-June period. In the same timeframe last year, the bank earned US$6.23 billion, or $1.24 per share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had predicted a larger loss of 66 cents share.

Citigroup Inc.'s securities and banking division wrote down the value of its assets by $7.2 billion, before taxes, and an asset revaluation cost its consumer lending business $745 million. Those writedowns totalling about $8 billion are significantly lower than writedowns taken in the first quarter and in last year's fourth quarter.

However, credit costs jumped to $7.2 billion as more consumers defaulted on their loans.

Sources: The Canadian Press and The Associated Press