ROUNDUP
Sales of U.S.-made cars during the first 10 days of August plummeted 20.7 percent from year-ago levels, automakers said. During the period, Chrysler's car sales plummeted 38.6 percent, sales of GM's domestically made cars dropped 22.2 percent and Ford posted a 21.3 percent decline in car sales.</br></br>Sun Microsystems, the leading U.S. supplier of computer workstations, said it has received a letter from Texas Instruments alleging that a "substantial" number of Sun's products infringe on TI patents. Sun also disclosed that a tentative agreement reached with IBM to resolve an earlier patent dispute calls for the two companies to enter into a five-year cross-licensing agreement. Both disclosures were made in a registration statement filed with the SEC.</br></br>Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca confirmed that the firm had talked with Renault, Volvo and Fiat but said he didn't expect a full merger to take place. There has been speculation that Fiat would buy a stake in Chrysler, but Iacocca said no such arrangement is imminent.</br></br>Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel reached a tentative labor accord with negotiators for 5,500 union employees and agreed to a settle claims stemming from eight-year-old wage concessions. The union had planned to strike tomorrow if an agreement had not been reached.</br></br>Jiffy Lube proposed a 1-for-10 reverse stock split that it hopes will increase the value of its shares and strengthen the struggling company financially. Shareholders will vote on the proposal at the company's annual meeting Sept. 6.