Briefs: Prices may go up for food products

MINNEAPOLIS -- Charging more for Cheerios and Lucky Charms and Yoplait yogurt helped General Mills report an 8 percent increase in its first-quarter profit on Wednesday. The foodmaker said more price increases might be on the way if ingredient and fuel prices keep rising. Golden Valley-based General Mills announced in June it would shrink its cereal boxes slightly to make them more like competitors. Shoppers might have seen lower prices on each box, but the price for each ounce of cereal went up. General Mills said it earned $288.9 million, or 81 cents per share, during the quarter that ended Aug. 26, up from $266.9 million, or 74 cents per share, a year ago.

Oil inventory down, report finds

NEW YORK -- Oil prices reached record highs for the seventh straight session Wednesday after refineries in California and Texas said they had new outages and the government reported surprisingly large declines in oil inventories. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 42 cents to settle at a record $81.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

GM, union talks grind on

DETROIT -- Negotiations between General Motors and its major union ran through a fifth day of overtime Wednesday with the automaker suggesting a trust fund that would take over nearly $5 billion in annual health-care costs, according to a person familiar with the proposal.

Mattel's CEO defends company

WASHINGTON -- Mattel CEO Robert Eckert defended his company's toy safety record Wednesday as skeptical Democratic lawmakers accused him of stonewalling a congressional probe into production practices in China linked to millions of recalled toys. Eckert told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee his company was aggressively testing toys to make sure they were safe. On Tuesday, the subcommittee released a letter from Mattel disclosing the recent recalls included one toy that had nearly 200 times the amount of lead in paint allowed under U.S. law.