NATIONAL BRIEFING

INSURANCE

AIG Cancels Resort Meeting

American International Group, the insurer that vowed to temper spending after hosting a conference at a California resort after a federal bailout, scrapped a similar event planned for next week at a $400-a-night hotel.

The conference, scheduled to be held at the Ritz-Carlton in California's Half Moon Bay, was canceled "after a re-evaluation of the costs under the new circumstances," AIG spokesman Joe Norton said. The White House, Congress and Barack Obama castigated AIG this week for spending $440,000 last month at the St. Regis resort in Monarch Beach.

AIG, which got an $85 billion loan from the U.S. government last month, was granted a new loan of $37.8 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to "replenish liquidity," the Fed said late Wednesday. The company said yesterday it has used $70.3 billion of the first line of credit.

AUTOMOTIVE

Toyota Won't Cut Production

Toyota's top U.S. sales executive, Jim Lentz, said the company would not make more production cuts this year despite a sales slump that may not end until after next year. Lentz said that car inventories are below the optimal 45-day supply and that while truck inventories are a little high, he expects that to fall in line by the end of the year.

In August, Toyota furloughed workers at its Tundra pickup truck plant in Texas because of slow sales. Lentz said they would return to work as scheduled in November. Toyota posted a 32 percent drop in U.S. sales in September as monthly sales industry-wide fell below 1 million for the first time in 15 years. But Lentz said credit availability isn't the problem for Toyota because its financial arm is making loans as usual.

INVESTING

Reserve Closes More Funds

Reserve Management said it was shutting down 15 more of its funds, with no promises when investors can expect money back, or how much.

The New York firm said it was in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission to permit the funds to take longer than the usual seven days to return money after investors place withdrawal orders. Reserve said fund trustees voted to liquidate the assets of the funds, including Reserve's $1 billion Yield Plus Fund, and 14 smaller Reserve money-market funds that invest mostly in local government debt.

Last month, the company's Reserve Primary fund became only second money-market mutual fund in history to "break the buck" when the value of its assets fell below the level needed to cover every dollar invested in the fund.

TECHNOLOGY