DIGEST
IBM said its second-quarter earnings rose less than 1 percent, to $1.46 billion, from a year earlier as revenue fell slightly. It blamed price cuts on personal computers, weak demand for mainframes and declining sales in Asia. Still, the per-share earnings of $1.50 beat analysts' estimates by a penny.</br></br>McDonald's profit dropped 47 percent to $233.8 million in the second quarter largely because of the cost of installing a new food preparation system in restaurants nationally. Without the $350 million charge for the new system and for home office layoffs, profit would have risen 7 percent to $468.8 million.</br></br>Fairchild Semiconductor, whose chips are the building blocks for electrical components in everything from toasters to cars, said it plans to fire about 200 workers because of the worldwide slowdown in the electronics industry. Closely held Fairchild, spun off last year from National Semiconductor, said it plans to trim payroll costs by 10 percent. The company employs about 7,000 workers worldwide, and the 200 being dismissed are based in the United States. The company also plans to reduce the payroll through attrition and cutbacks in contracted services.</br></br>T-bill rates were mixed. The discount rate on three-month Treasury bills auctioned yesterday fell to 4.950 percent from 4.980 percent the previous week. Rates on six-month bills rose to 5.045 percent from 5.025 percent. The actual return to investors is 5.081 percent for three-month bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,874.90, and 5.250 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,744.90. Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable-rate mortgages, rose to 5.36 percent last week from 5.34 percent the previous week.</br></br>SPX is buying General Signal, a maker of industrial and electrical controls, for about $2 billion. SPX, an automotive supply and parts company, said it will pay $45 per share in cash and stock for the larger General Signal, which is based in Stamford, Conn. Muskegon, Mich.-based SPX also will assume about $335 million in General Signal's debt.