J. Pedro Reinhard, a senior adviser whom Dow Chemical Co. fired last week along with a company officer, said Monday he was not involved in any clandestine effort to take over the company, the reason given by Dow Chemical for their dismissal.

“I categorically deny that I have been part of any secret effort to take over or acquire Dow Chemical,” Reinhard said in a statement.

Andrew Liveris, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said Thursday that Reinhard, who retired as the Midland, Mich.-based chemical giant’s chief financial officer in October 2005, and Romeo Kreinberg, a divisional executive vice president, were dismissed with the approval of the board of directors.

Reinhard, a 37-year veteran of the company, remains a member of the board because only shareholders, not management, can remove directors.

Dow Chemical’s board took a step Monday toward having Reinhard removed from that body. The directors revised their slate of approved nominees for board election that will be presented May 10 at the annual shareholders meeting in Midland, and Reinhard was the only one of the 12 directors who was not approved for re-election./AP

Lilly Reports

Lilly down but beats expectations

INDIANAPOLIS — Pharmaceuticals maker Eli Lilly and Co. said Monday its first-quarter earnings slid 39 percent, hurt by charges related to restructuring and an acquisition. But the results exceeded Wall Street forecasts, and the company boosted its full-year financial targets.

Lilly, whose prescription drugs include Cialis, Cymbalta and Zyprexa, said net income totaled $508.7 million, or 47 cents per share in the first three months of 2007. That was down from $834.8 million, or 77 cents per share, in same period last year.

The latest quarter included a charge of 8 cents per share for costs from restructuring some manufacturing operations, mostly related to job cuts at its Lafayette, Ind., location and the company’s decision to halt construction of an insulin manufacturing facility in Prince William County, Va./AP

Biodiesel

ConocoPhillips, Tyson to team up

HOUSTON — Oil major ConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, said Monday they were teaming up to produce and market diesel fuel for U.S. trucking fleets using beef, pork and poultry fat.

The companies said they’ve been collaborating over the past year on ways to leverage Tyson’s expertise in protein chemistry and production with ConocoPhillips’ processing and marketing knowledge to introduce a renewable diesel fuel with lower carbon emissions than petroleum-based fuels.

Tyson said it will make capital improvements this summer to begin preprocessing animal fat at some of its North American rendering plants late this year. ConocoPhillips said it will begin the necessary capital expenditures to produce the fuel at several of its refineries. Production is expected to ramp up through spring 2009.

The companies gave no cost estimates in a joint statement./AP

Wall Street

Stocks rise based on retail sales data

NEW YORK — Wall Street began the week with a strong start Monday as better-than-expected profits at Citigroup Inc. and a healthy increase in consumer spending renewed investors’ optimism about the economy. The Dow Jones industrials at times had gains of more than 100 points.

Earnings reports begin arriving at a steady clip this week, giving investors fresh indications about companies and the overall economy. This week nearly half the 30 Dow component companies report results.

While investors have been girding for a slowdown in growth of corporate profits, they are hoping consumer spending will remain robust. The Commerce Department on Monday reported that consumers spent strongly last month, sending retail sales up by about 0.7 percent. The figure was close to what analysts predicted, and up from a revised 0.5 percent increase in February.

Investors were also pleased by news of a buyout of SLM Corp., the student lender better known as Sallie Mae./AP

Dollar down

Dollar loses ground to euro and pound

FRANKFURT, Germany — The dollar gave up more ground to the euro, which climbed to within one cent of its all-time high, and the pound neared $2 Monday. Movement against the dollar could drive up the price of exports and tighten the pinch for travelers to Europe just as the tourist season approaches.

Supported by crackling economic growth, falling jobless figures and interest rates much lower than those in Britain and the United States, the 13-nation euro bought $1.3549 by afternoon in Europe after climbing as high as $1.3576 — its highest point since January 2005 and near its record of $1.3667 from December 2004.

Kristian Siggaard-Jensen, a foreign exchange strategist with Saxo Bank in Copenhagen, Denmark, said markets had factored in the increases, noting the steady guidance by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England./AP

Cargill earnings

Agribusiness powerhouse Cargill said on Monday that its third-quarter earnings rose 49 percent on improving operations and tax savings. The privately held maker of food ingredients and other agricultural products said it earned $553 million during the quarter that ended Feb. 28, up from $370 million during the same period a year ago. The ethanol boom has proven a boon for ag companies like Cargill, but there is also a downside. Cargill has expanded ethanol production, but the company has been forced to pay higher corn prices for its other corn-based products. Cargill also runs a risk management and financial arm, which makes investments in commodity prices and other financial markets and trades in energy and real estate, too. Staley said its financial businesses had “outstanding performance” during the past year. Those businesses have grown in recent years and now provide 40 percent of Cargill’s operating profits, according to a March 27 report by Moody’s Investors Service, up from 28 percent in 2002. AP