Also

* Ernst & Young quit as Kmart Corp.’s financial advisor, three months after being hired by the discount retailer to help it emerge from bankruptcy. The firm declined to say why.

* Crown Cork & Seal Co., the maker of about a fifth of the world’s cans, said a court dismissed 376 pending asbestos cases against the company related to a 1963 acquisition. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas dismissed the cases based on a change last year in Pennsylvania corporate law that limits a successor company’s asbestos liability to the total value of the acquired company’s assets.

* Abbott Laboratories’ credit outlook was lowered from “stable” to “negative” by Standard & Poor’s Corp. after the drug maker slashed its 2002 profit forecast. Abbott’s $6.9 billion in debt is “higher than average,” compared with competitors’, S&P; said.