IN BRIEF

Officer resigns from Reno slot giant

Maureen Mullarkey has officially submitted her resignation as executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer of Reno-based International Game Technology, the company said Monday.

Mullarkey announced her intent to retire in February, and will continue to work for the slot machine and casino systems maker in a transitional, nonexecutive capacity until her contract expires early next year, the company said.

IGT’s board of directors appointed Daniel Siciliano as treasurer and chief accounting officer. He will serve as principal financial officer until the company finds a replacement for Mullarkey.

ATLANTIC CITY

Union push adds security officers

The move to unionize more workers at Atlantic City’s casinos is expanding to include security officers.

Guards at Bally’s Atlantic City voted Sunday to join a union which has announced plans to organize about 2,500 workers at all 11 of the city’s casinos. The drive comes as the United Auto Workers union also is trying to organize dealers at each casino here.

By a vote of 151-71, security workers voted to join the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America.

NEW YORK

Oil prices jump as cyclone nears gulf

Oil futures rose more than $1 a barrel Monday as a cyclone bore down on the Persian Gulf, even as retail gasoline prices continued their slow retreat from their recent highs.

Concerns about refinery capacity also supported oil prices.

The average national price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump dipped to $3.158 Monday, down 0.6 cents overnight and off 6.9 cents from its May 24 high, AAA and the Oil Price Information Service reported.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery, however, rose $1.13 to settle at $66.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures for July fell 0.66 cents to settle at $2.238 a gallon on the Nymex.

SHANGHAI, China

China stock market dip exceeds 8 percent

China’s volatile stock market took another beating Monday, with the Shanghai composite index plunging more than 8 percent. It was the second-biggest drop in a decade after an 8.8 percent decline in late February helped trigger a global sell-off.

Stock markets in Asia largely shrugged at the latest rout in Chinese shares, suggesting that investors overseas don’t see the decline as a bad omen for the nation’s booming economy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was in positive territory.

The Shanghai composite index has tumbled more than 15 percent since Wednesday, when the central government tripled its tax on stock trades to curb rampant speculation. Yet even after Monday, the Shanghai index is still up 37 percent for the year, on top of a 130 percent increase in 2006.

PartyGaming talks with Justice officials

PartyGaming Plc, the world’s biggest Internet poker company, said it has held discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice relating to its activities prior to October last year when the country outlawed Internet gambling.

The Gibraltar-based company is “voluntarily” responding to a request for information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the southern district of New York, PartyGaming said in a statement, adding that it’s too early to say what the outcome will be.

Online gambling industry executives were arrested in the United States last year after the country’s government cracked down on Internet betting. David Carruthers, then chief executive officer of Betonsports Plc, was detained in July. Peter Dicks was arrested in September, when he was chairman of Sportingbet Plc.

NEW YORK

Music, tech searches may bring spyware

Search terms related to music and technology are most likely to return sites with spyware and other malicious code, a new study finds.

Some 42 percent of the results using the term “screensavers,” for example, led to sites flagged with a “red” warning or a cautionary “yellow” by Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee’s SiteAdvisor service. Other keywords McAfee deemed risky include names of file-sharing software — “BearShare,” “LimeWire” and “Kazaa.”

WASHINGTON

Interest rates decline in Treasury bill auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday’s auction with rates on six-month bills dropping to the lowest level in three weeks.

The Treasury Department auctioned $15 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.71 percent, down from 4.78 percent last week. Another $14 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.79 percent, down from 4.805 percent last week.

NEW YORK

Bond prices rise amid financial data dearth

U.S. government bonds Monday made the most of a light data session to recoup some of the previous week’s losses, with the longer-dated issues the main beneficiaries.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note was up $1.88 per $1,000 in face value, or 0.19 points, from its level at 5 p.m. Friday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 4.93 percent from 4.96 percent.