PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Aug 7

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in the New York Times business pages on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Freddie Mac (FRE.N), the big mortgage finance company, reported a gaping quarterly loss and predicted that home prices would fall further than previously projected.

* American International Group Inc (AIG.N), the big insurer, lost $5.3 billion in the second quarter as housing values slid and disruptions continued in the credit markets.

* Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N), the troubled No. 3 wireless carrier, lost nearly a million customers in the second quarter. But the company says it lost some of them on purpose.

* After struggling to gain consumer acceptance, Monsanto Co (MON.N) on Wednesday announced that it would try to sell its business of producing an artificial growth hormone for dairy cows. The company will focus instead on its thriving business of selling seeds and developing ways to improve crops.

* The Internal Revenue Service, bolstered by recent court rulings, offered more than 45 corporations Wednesday the chance to settle disputes involving two tax shelters used to defer payment of billions of dollars in taxes.

* The chairman of General Motors Corp (GM.N), Rick Wagoner, has the "unified support" of the board and will continue to lead the troubled automaker, GM's lead outside director said.

* Citigroup Inc (C.N) was nearing an agreement late Wednesday to buy back more than $7 billion of auction-rate securities from investors to settle claims that it misled clients about the dangers of the investments.

* Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) reported $165.6 million in profit for its second quarter, excluding costs tied to its initial public offering last June.

* A group of Wall Street executives released a report on Wednesday that outlined how the industry failed to foresee the financial meltdown of the last year and what companies can do to improve risk management.