IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Fiat slides

Fiat SpA dropped to the lowest in at least 24 years in Milan trading after analysts said the automaker's planned alliance with Chrysler LLC may increase costs and saddle it with a share of the US company's losses.

Italy's largest carmaker fell as much as 4.8 percent to 4.21 euros, the lowest since at least Jan 2, 1985, and was priced at 4.26 euros as of 12:12 pm local time. Fiat lost 1.3 percent on Tuesday after earlier jumping 6 percent on news that it had agreed to take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler.