Wealth Finance

Shares in Darden Restaurants rose 6.1% to $52.79 yesterday after the owner of LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants and The Olive Garden projected 2011 earnings above analysts’ expectations.

Darden said it will start a new round of cost cuts and promotions to beef up Olive Garden profits. Olive Garden was the only one of Darden’s three big brands to show a drop in monthly visits.

Tech Shopping spree

A group including Apple, Research In Motion and Microsoft will pay $4.5 billion to snatch Nortel Networks’ patents from under the noses of Google and Intel.

The price was about three times the expected amount, underlining the defensive value of intellectual property in the fast-changing world of telecommunications, where established players are seeking to keep out newer rivals.

Bankrupt Nortel had put up for sale 6,000 patents and patent applications in the largest public sale of its kind, a potential treasure trove for latecomers to the market such as Apple, Google and Intel.

Tarnished jewel

Gold is looking less glittery.

Gold futures settled at their lowest level in six weeks yesterday as investors turned away from commodities. Prices fell to $1,482.60 an ounce, bringing weekly losses to 1.2%.

School cheer

Shares in Apollo Group, operator of the University of Phoenix and the biggest U.S. for-profit college, rose 6.4% to close at $46.46 yesterday after quarterly earnings and revenue beat analysts’ estimates.

Profit, excluding one-time items, for the three months ended May 31 was $1.45 a share, beating the $1.34 average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Apollo, which runs the University of Phoenix, said new enrollment fell 40.5%, while total enrollment fell 16.4%.

Building profits

KB Home’s shares rose nearly 4% to close at $10.17 yesterday. The Los Angeles-based homebuilder that targets first-time buyers said it doesn’t plan to issue equity and forecasts “more than ample” liquidity at the end of its fiscal year.

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