Tuesday morning headlines

Oil keeps climbing: It reached $113.93 a barrel, which is the highest since futures began trading in 1983. Rising global demand and a weakening dollar continue to be the culprits. (Bloomberg)

World's largest airline: Now that the Delta-Northwest deal is finally done (or at least announced), we're entering the what-does-it-mean phase. Basically, you can expect marginal domestic routes to be cut and fares to go up. Special attention will be paid to business travelers on international routes because that's where the airlines can actually make money. Delta CEO Richard Anderson said that any layoffs will be at the management level. From the WSJ:

The airlines have little route overlap, which could give the transaction a better chance of getting through. Mr. Anderson said he expected antitrust scrutiny would "be a relatively narrow look at the domestic market." Labor and political opposition is almost certain, however, despite the backdrop of industry conditions that have forced four smaller airlines into bankruptcy-court protection in recent weeks. Consumer advocates are likely to voice fears that fares will rise. Small communities will complain that they could lose air service. Airlines unions will worry that their members will lose their jobs in subsequent downsizing.

American pilots to picket: They'll be at LAX, John Wayne and other airports across the country to demand better treatment of passengers. The pilots say they want to draw attention to "inadequate service" and the "poor performance" of the carrier, which cancelled several thousand flights last week. It should be noted that their current contract expires May 1, but they plan to continue working. (Daily Breeze)

AFTRA turns down offer: Forget about joint bargaining by the two actors unions. The American Federation of Television & Radio Artists said no thanks to an invite by the Screen Actors Guild. AFTRA was supposed to negotiate with SAG on a new contract - as it's done for 27 years - but broke off a few weeks back over a jurisdictional dispute. So SAG gets started today on its own. From Variety:

SAG leaders have said repeatedly they don't want a strike, but the town has continued to worry about the guild's assertive stance. Those worries have led to the current ramp-up of feature production, with shoots now timed to finish by June 30 -- when the SAG contract expires -- as a hedge against a work stoppage.

Fresh & Easy defended: British grocery giant Tesco says sales at its U.S. chain are "ahead of budget," with sales of more than $20 per square foot in its best-performing stores. “While it is still early days, the response of customers to our offer has surpassed our expectations,” the company said. That, of course, is quite a different story than what U.S. analysts have been saying - that store sales at many locations are lower than expected. Tesco said in March that it was putting the chain's expansion plans on hold for three months, which added to the negative buzz. Tesco hasn't been providing much financial detail about F&E, so we can only go by the press release stuff – and that’s pretty flimsy.(Bloomberg, OC Register)

Linens ‘n Things working with creditors: The home furnishings retailer said it will defer paying $16.1 million in interest payments while it tries to avoid a bankruptcy filing. This is an interesting case because its majority owner is private equity giant Apollo Management, which acquired the struggling chain at a time when private money was buying up (or at least leveraging) lots of things. The party has long since ended, and now is the time to start cleaning up the mess. (DealBook)

Magazines take hit: And you thought newspapers were in trouble. Consider these first-quarter declines in ad pages: BusinessWeek down 19.4 percent, Forbes down 13.2 percent, Fortune down 1 percent, Newsweek down 13.9 percent, Time down 17.8 percent, U.S News down 37.5 percent.

Lacter on radio: This morning's business chat with KPCC's Steve Julian covers Wal-Mart's plans to add groceries to its local stores and condo projects in Bev Hills winning approval from the city.