Lowe's plans salary freezes, lower store openings in additional cost cuts

Lowe's Cos., the No. 2 U.S. home-improvement retailer, said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit plunged a worse-than-expected 60%, after lower demand and intense competition forced it to cut prices more than it had planned.

As the company gave first-quarter and full-year forecasts that fell short of Wall Street expectations, Lowe's said it's freezing the salaries of all vice presidents and above for this year and reducing the level of its planned merit increases for the rest of the organization in combined actions that are expected to save more than $40 million in costs this year.