Hundreds of components of Concorde went up for auction today in southern France.

The supersonic airliner’s 1.2-tonne landing gear is expected to prove the highlight of the four-day auction in Toulouse, the home to Airbus and the French aviation industry and the city where the Anglo-French collaboration took place from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The 834 lots for sale also include a Mach-monitoring speedometer, temperature sensors, a windshield and even a Concorde toilet seat.

The auction would have included five smoke detectors, but they were withdrawn after complaints that they could be radioactive.

Auctioneer Marc Labarbe said the smoke detectors were withdrawn because they were “contentious” - suggesting there could be liability issues involved.

“This sale is aimed at two types of buyers: collectors who are crazy about the Concorde, but also nostalgic people looking for a last souvenir of the supersonic jet,” said Mr Labarbe.

He said the components “aren’t just mechanical parts, they also have an aesthetic dimension - all while bearing one of the best trademarks: Concorde”.

The auction is expected to raise about 250,000 (174,466). Most items have been valued at between 50 and 300. Proceeds will go towards a planned airplane museum and park in Toulouse.

The first item to go was a filling valve, which sold for 450, more than double the estimate.

The nose landing gear, 3.8 metres (12.ft) in height and sold with its wooden box, and the main landing gear are both valued between 2,000 to 3,000. The “machmeter” is estimated to fetch 1,500 to 2,500.

Concorde parts have fetched high prices at previous auctions. When three of the jet’s famous needle-shaped nose cones were sold off in London and Paris in 2003 and 2004, one fetched more than 250,000.

The airliner was once the symbol of jet-set glamour, whisking celebrities and business executives across the Atlantic in just over 90 minutes at a cruising speed of 1,350 miles per hour.

The supersonic airliner made its maiden voyage in 1969, but it was retired from service in 2003 amid rising costs and falling ticket sales following a crash in Paris in 2000 that left 113 people dead.

The plane was also criticised for being a noisy fuel-guzzler. Only Air France and British Airways put it into commercial service.

(09-28) 09:06 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) —

Stocks dipped Friday, the last trading day of the third quarter, as Wall Street mined mixed economic reports and remained cautious ahead of the upcoming earnings onslaught.

The stock market appeared wary of strong economic news, which could lower the chance of another rate cut. Last week, the Fed helped restore some confidence in the financial markets by reducing the target federal funds rate by a half point.

The Commerce Department said consumer spending increased 0.6 percent in August, the fastest growth in more than two years. Meanwhile, Chicago’s National Association of Purchasing Management said business activity in the heavily industrialized Chicago area increased in September by more than analysts expected, and the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment during the month has held steady.

Also weighing on investors Friday was lingering concern that corporate earnings power was lessened in the third quarter. This is the last trading day of one of the most volatile periods in years Д one that pulled stocks sharply lower after the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record 14,000.41 in mid-July.

Still, though energy and food prices are surging, core inflation appears to be under control, which is keeping rate cut hopes alive. The Commerce Department report showed that a closely watched gauge of core inflation showed a year-over-year rise in August of just 1.8 percent Д the smallest increase since a similar rise in February 2004. The reading is within the Fed’s comfort zone of 1 to 2 percent.

“A second Fed cut will go a long way in reassuring the stock market that the worst is over. The focus going forward will be whether the Fed is going to lower rates to shore this up, or decide the risk of inflation is too high,” said Janna Sampson, director of portfolio management at Oakbrook Investments.

The Dow shed 15.77, or 0.11 percent, to 13,897.17.

Broader indexes also declined. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.14, or 0.27 percent, to 1,527.24, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 6.86, or 0.25 percent, to 2,702.73.

Bonds rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to 4.54 percent from 4.57 percent late Thursday.

The dollar fell against most major currencies as inflation appeared to be easing. The euro surpassed $1.42 for the first time, hitting a record against the U.S. currency for the seventh straight session.

The dollar’s weakness has bolstered commodity prices throughout the quarter, and helped lift prices again on Friday. Crude oil prices rose 45 cents to $83.33 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

“We’re going to see crimped corporate profits if they eat those costs, and inflation if they pass those down. Neither of those are good,” Sampson said.

In corporate news, shares of 3Com Corp. shot higher after the telecommunications equipment company said it will be sold to affiliates of private equity firm Bain Capital Partners LLC for $2.2 billion in cash. 3Com rose $1.28, or 34.8 percent, to $4.96.

As the tumultuous third quarter draws to a close, investors appear a bit less concerned about the tightening in the credit markets that sent stocks plummeting in late July and August. On Thursday, the Fed said banks slowed their borrowing from central bank this week to the smallest amount in six weeks, after a huge spike last week.

But while most market watchers agree that conditions have improved, the credit markets still don’t appear they are back to operating normally. Levels of outstanding asset-backed commercial paper fell about 17 percent in the week ending Wednesday Д not as steep a decline as seen a few weeks ago, but still suggesting that demand isn’t meeting supply.

Meanwhile, the bulk of third-quarter earnings start pouring in in mid-October, which should give investors a better idea of how companies weathered the summer’s tumult and what they expect in the coming months.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 285.9 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.68, or 0.57 percent, to 809.33.

In European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.30 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.10 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.31 percent.

In Asia earlier, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 0.28 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.29 percent.

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MOSCOW: A Russian court issued an arrest warrant for a former owner of Russneft, one of the largest oil companies in Russia, on charges of tax evasion and fraud.

The warrant Tuesday for Mikhail Gutseriev comes a month after he published a letter critical of the Russian government on a company Web site and in a Russian business newspaper.

Public criticism from a wealthy individual is rare in Russia, and the fallout echoed what happened to another oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested in 2003 and remains in prison.

Gutseriev is thought to have fled the country, said Irina Dudukina, a spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry. It was unclear where he went.

One of the richest Russians just a month ago, Gutseriev is now a fugitive, and his 100 percent ownership stake in Russneft, a company valued at roughly $6 billion, has been frozen by a Moscow court order. His downfall sheds light on the capriciousness of the Russian court system and the imperative for businessmen to show loyalty to the government of President Vladimir Putin.

Just last week, Gutserievs 21-year-old son, Chingizkhan, died from a brain hemorrhage after crashing a Ferrari in an accident that was not registered by the traffic police in Russia, a departure from the usual practice in fatal accidents, Reuters reported.

“People are fighting over assets with no limits or rules,” said Yulia Latynina, a political commentator on the Echo of Moscow radio station. “People are fighting not within the law or within reason, but just out of greed.”

Gutseriev was charged this year with tax evasion and illegal business activity and ordered to remain within the city limits of Moscow. The arrest warrant issued Tuesday came after the police suspected that he had left the city, Dudukina said. In his letter, Gutseriev contended that the police and the tax authorities were colluding with his business opponents to force a sale of his company. Gutseriev agreed July 30 to sell to another wealthy Russian, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin, but made clear that the deal was not voluntary; he said that he had been “hounded” out of his business.

His fall has parallels with the higher profile collapse of the business empire of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003, after Khodorkovskys arrest on fraud and tax evasion charges, with the distinction that this latest case seems to have less of a political element.

Khodorkovskys supporters say his business, Yukos oil company, was targeted after he financed opposition parties in parliamentary elections. Gutseriev, in contrast, had kept a low politicial profile before this summer.