H&R Block Inc. on Thursday said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 5 percent, as revenue declined and a series of unusual charges weighed down results.

The nation's largest tax preparation company said it earned $658.6 million, or $2.15 per share, in the quarter ended April 30. That compared with net income of $690.8 million, or $2.11 per share, in the year-earlier period.

The number of outstanding shares dropped 6 percent from last year, which helped lift per-share earnings for the recent quarter.

The results were affected by several charges, including costs equal to 6 cents per share related to the legal fight over the loss of its refund-anticipation loan program at the end of 2010 and severance costs for departed employees.

Revenue slipped one half percent to $2.33 billion from $2.34 billion last year. Revenue in its tax services division edged down in the quarter. Business services revenue -- its RSM McGladrey consulting unit -- fell 6 percent.

Analysts on average expected adjusted profit of $2.14 per share on revenue of $2.32 billion, according to data provided by FactSet.

Block prepared 21.4 million tax returns this year, up 6.5 percent from 2010. Growth came in both its retail stores, which added 500,000 customers, and through its digital products, which added 800,000 customers, with online do-it-yourself preparation leaping 29 percent. That was a significant gain, because Block's digital products lag rival Intuit's TurboTax.

The Williams Cos. Inc. announced an unsolicited takeover bid of about $4.9 billion Thursday for pipeline company Southern Union Co., which agreed last week to a sale to Energy Transfer Equity LP.

Williams, which also operates gas pipelines, said it would offer $39 per share in cash and top Energy Transfer's bid of $33 per share, or $4.2 billion.

The announcement came after the markets closed and sent Southern Union shares higher after hours.

Southern Union rose 34 cents to $34.15 in regular trading, then jumped $5, or 14.6 percent, to $39.19 in about a half-hour of late trading. Williams shares closed at $29.23, down 9 cents, and fell another 89 cents, or 3 percent, to $28.34 in late trading.

Williams said Southern Union would complement its own business, create a network of nearly 30,000 miles of regulated pipelines and save $50 million a year for the combined companies.

Greece's beleaguered government said Thursday it will start taxing minimum-wage earners and encourage local banks to help the state delay debt payments for bonds maturing as late as 2015.

Evangelos Venizelos, the country's new finance minister, also said the government is encouraging a deferment scheme under the so-called "Vienna initiative," signing up private investors to voluntarily renew their debt holdings as they expire.

The next big challenge for Greece is to have parliament approve a new round of austerity measures before getting the vital next batch of loans, worth euro12 billion, out of its euro110 billion rescue fund from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Venizelos predicted Thursday that the two-stage vote on June 28 and 30 would be successful, and he met with EU and IMF debt inspectors to discuss details of the new austerity plan worth a total of euro28 billion. The two sides reached broad agreement on the package late Thursday, with discussions on "minor details" left to be concluded Friday, two Greek government officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, in keeping with regulations.

Sour reports Thursday on the number of people who sought unemployment benefits and buyers of new homes illustrate what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged Wednesday: Many factors weighing on the economy are proving to be more chronic than first imagined.

Applications for unemployment benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 429,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the biggest jump in a month and marked the 11th straight week that applications have been above 400,000. Elevated unemployment benefit claims signal a worsening job market.

New-home sales fell in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 319,000, the Commerce Department said. That's fewer than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market. Sales of new homes have fallen 18 percent in the two years since the recession ended. Last year was the worst for new-home sales on records dating back half a century.

Stocks tumbled more than 200 points after the weaker data on housing and layoffs were released. It came one day after the Fed lowered its outlook for growth and unemployment for the rest of the year.

But news of an agreement by the 17-country eurozone, the International Monetary Fund and Greece on a new austerity plan sent stocks higher midday, helping the Dow Jones industrial average recover most of its earlier losses. The Dow closed nearly 60 points for the day.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex mortgage investments just as the housing market was collapsing.

J.P. Morgan Securities, a division of the powerful Wall Street bank, failed to inform investors that a hedge fund helped select the investment portfolio and then bet that it would fail, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Among the investors who lost money on the deal were autoworkers for General Motors, a Lutheran financial organization in Minneapolis, and a retirement services company in Topeka, Kan.

The settlement announced Tuesday is one of the most significant legal actions targeting Wall Street's role in the 2008 financial crisis. It comes a year after Goldman Sachs & Co. paid $550 million to settle similar charges.

Still, the settlement amounts to less than 1 percent of the bank's 2010 net income of $17.4 billion -- which is less than what JP Morgan earns in one week.

In its announcement, the SEC said it had also charged Edward Steffelin with misleading investors. Steffelin headed the team at GSCP, an investment firm that was supposed to have been selecting the portfolio of mortgage securities in the $1.1 billion deal.

The SEC alleged that Steffelin knew that hedge fund Magnetar Capital was directly involved in choosing the securities and that he was seeking a job with Magnetar at the time. Steffelin has not reached a settlement with regulators.