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Oil prices jump more than $2 a barrel
Jul 1 2005 11:57PM (CT)
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Oil prices rose by more than $2 a barrel on Friday in a shortened trading session ahead of the three-day holiday weekend in the U.S.
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GM sales soar on employee discount offer
Jul 1 2005 11:35PM (CT)
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp.'s sales soared 41 percent in June to their highest monthly total in nearly 19 years thanks to a heavily promoted discount that allowed customers to buy cars and trucks at the employee rate, new sales figures showed Friday.
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Manufacturing up at faster rate in June
Jul 1 2005 11:34PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Activity in the nation's factories increased at a faster pace in June, a private research group said Friday, in a fresh signal that the nation's economy continues to expand. A second report showed construction spending declined for a third straight month in May, but still remains close to its all-time high.
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Bond prices fall in short trading session
Jul 1 2005 5:56PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Bond prices fell Friday in a short session as signs of faster economic growth reinforced expectations among investors that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates.
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Jury rules in favor of Boston Scientific
Jul 1 2005 4:48PM (CT)
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A Delaware jury Friday ruled for Boston Scientific Corp. and against Johnson & Johnson Inc. in a key test of patents protecting its drug-eluting stent technology.
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IBM wins $850M settlement vs. Microsoft
Jul 1 2005 4:34PM (CT)
BOSTON (AP) - IBM Corp. will get $775 million in cash and $75 million worth of software from Microsoft Corp. to settle claims still lingering from the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s, the companies announced Friday.
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Taser sues Gannett for libel over story
Jul 1 2005 4:22PM (CT)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Stun gun maker Taser International Inc. on Friday said it filed a libel lawsuit against USA Today publisher Gannett Co. for publishing an article that Taser said misled readers about the safety of its products.
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Friday's commodities roundup
Jul 1 2005 4:16PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Energy futures started the strong-demand second half of the year with a bang, with heating oil setting a new record and gasoline and crude oil notching big gains of their own.
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Pfizer abandons development of two drugs
Jul 1 2005 4:11PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Pfizer Inc. said Friday that it is abandoning development of two experimental drugs after they posted poor trial results _ an HIV therapy that was in advanced studies and a treatment for a smoking-related lung disease that the company was developing with Germany's Altana AG.
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Northwest union authorizes strike vote
Jul 1 2005 3:57PM (CT)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A union representing mechanics at Northwest Airlines Corp. has authorized a strike vote as the airline attempts to cut annual labor costs by $1.1 billion.
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CNOOC seeks U.S. review of Unocal bid
Jul 1 2005 3:46PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - State-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. said Friday it filed notice with a high-level U.S. committee requesting a review of its proposed $18.5 billion cash offer for Unocal Corp., which is mulling a competing $16.6 billion offer from Chevron Corp.
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DaimlerChrysler unit gets $60.5M contract
Jul 1 2005 3:32PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Postal Service said Friday it has awarded a $60.5 million contract to a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG for carrier route delivery vehicles.
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Court asked to uphold Exxon Mobil ruling
Jul 1 2005 3:16PM (CT)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The state government asked the Alabama Supreme Court to uphold a record $3.5 billion judgment against Exxon Mobil Corp., contending the world's largest publicly traded oil company had a "secret scheme to cheat the state out of its bargained-for royalties."
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McNerney to assist 3M for next 60 days
Jul 1 2005 3:06PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - 3M Co. Friday said ex-CEO W. James McNerney Jr., who is leaving the conglomerate to take the top job at Boeing Co., has agreed to assist his former employer for the next 60 days.
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Purdue Pharma to lay off 825 employees
Jul 1 2005 2:35PM (CT)
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - Purdue Pharma is laying off 825 employees, or 38 percent of its work force, after losing a patent case that paves the way for sales of a generic version of its powerful painkiller OxyContin, company officials said Friday.
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Winn-Dixie agrees to sell 79 stores
Jul 1 2005 2:31PM (CT)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Bankrupt supermarket chain Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. said Friday it agreed to sell 79 of its stores for $38.7 million to 20 buyers who plan to continue to operate them as grocery or liquor stores.
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Small-cap mutual funds make gains in 2Q
Jul 1 2005 2:15PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Small-cap mutual funds had the strongest returns of the second quarter as surging oil prices at the end of June prompted investors to abandon large-cap industrial stocks and move into smaller, more specialized companies.
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General Motors U.S. sales soar in June
Jul 1 2005 1:32PM (CT)
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp. said Friday that its U.S. vehicle sales surged more than 41 percent in June as a promotion offering its employee discount price to all buyers paid off big for the automaker.
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Enron barge defendant heading to prison
Jul 1 2005 1:18PM (CT)
HOUSTON (AP) - Merrill Lynch & Co.'s former head of investment banking who was convicted last year in Enron Corp.'s bogus sale of power barges to the brokerage must report to prison for a 2 1/2-year term later this month, a judge has ruled.
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Moscow TV channel to be sold to tycoon
Jul 1 2005 1:16PM (CT)
MOSCOW (AP) - The Moscow-based REN TV station, known for its liberal news coverage, has been sold to a Russian steel giant, which will likely mute Russia's last independent television network with a national reach.
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Surging exports lift Brazil trade surplus
Jul 1 2005 12:26PM (CT)
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Exports surged in June despite a weakening U.S. dollar, giving Brazil a better-than-expected trade surplus of $4.03 billion for the month, the government said Friday.
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$6.55B bid wins Turk Telekom auction
Jul 1 2005 11:29AM (CT)
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Oger Telecoms of Saudi Arabia offered the top bid of $6.55 billion Friday for a majority stake in state-owned landline telecommunications company Turk Telekom in an auction by Turkey's privatization agency.
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Manufacturing activity expands at fast rate
Jul 1 2005 10:27AM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. manufacturing sector expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in June, as new orders to factories picked up, a private research group reported Friday.
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Finnish paper industry shutdown ends
Jul 1 2005 9:40AM (CT)
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Finland's crippling paper industry dispute ended Friday but there were lingering fears that the seven-week shutdown could have wider repercussions beyond the loss of an estimated 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in export earnings.
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Bush formally nominates Cox as SEC chair
Jul 1 2005 9:38AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration sent paperwork to the Senate formally nominating Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., as the next Securities and Exchange Commission chairman.
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Bankruptcy hearings begin for brokerage
Jul 1 2005 9:05AM (CT)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Bankruptcy proceedings opened Friday against a German brokerage that was shut down on suspicion of misstating its assets by hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Danaher agrees to buy Leica Microsystems
Jul 1 2005 9:04AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Danaher Corp., which manufactures Craftsman tools and laboratory instruments, said Friday that it agreed to acquire Germany's Leica Microsystems AG, a maker of high-powered microscopes, from LM Investments for about $550 million.
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MetLife, Citigroup close $11.8B deal
Jul 1 2005 9:01AM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - MetLife Inc. on Friday said it completed its $11.8 billion acquisition of Citigroup's Travelers Life and Annuity Co. and nearly all of Citigroup's international insurance businesses, which will make MetLife the nation's biggest life insurance company in sales.
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Mitsubishi recalls faulty station wagons
Jul 1 2005 8:21AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is recalling about 209,000 Libero station wagons sold mostly in Japan for defective mounting bolts, the Japanese automaker said Friday.
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3M to repatriate $1.7B, sees tax charge
Jul 1 2005 7:30AM (CT)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - 3M Co., maker of Scotch tape and Post-it notes, said Friday it plans to reinvest about $1.7 billion of foreign earnings in the United States, and will record a second-quarter tax charge because of the move.
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Japan's domestic auto sales up in June
Jul 1 2005 7:22AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses rose 8.6 percent in June versus a year ago, increasing for the third straight month, a dealers group said Friday.
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Shanghai, Beijing raise minimum wages
Jul 1 2005 7:21AM (CT)
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China has raised minimum monthly wages in its capital Beijing and commercial hub Shanghai by an average of 45 yuan ($5), the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.
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Hannover Re to restructure some operations
Jul 1 2005 6:26AM (CT)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Hannover Re AG said Friday it will restructure its main insurance operations in the United States and get out of some insurance businesses there, including homeowners' policies in hurricane-prone Flordia.
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Fed boosts interest rate by quarter-point
Jul 1 2005 5:34AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite high energy prices, economic activity is still sturdy, Federal Reserve policymakers say, signaling they will keep boosting interest rates higher this year to keep inflation under control.
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Japanese stocks rise on upbeat survey
Jul 1 2005 5:32AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Japanese stocks rose Friday to an 11-week high as a government survey showing broad improvement in corporate sentiment boosted hopes for a continuing economic recovery. The U.S. dollar briefly rose to a near nine-month high against the Japanese yen.
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Former Daewoo chairman indicted for fraud
Jul 1 2005 5:24AM (CT)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The former chairman of collapsed South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Group was indicted Friday on $71 billion in fraud charges after living nearly six years abroad on the run.
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Mack returns to Morgan Stanley as CEO
Jul 1 2005 4:54AM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - John Mack was met with a standing ovation as he walked onto Morgan Stanley's trading floor, a moment that perfectly illustrated why he was named the Wall Street firm's new chairman and chief executive. Mack returned to Morgan Stanley Thursday, bringing the stability of a Wall Street veteran to an embattled firm and promising to seek the return of top employees who left the company under former chairman and chief executive Phil Purcell.
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Tobacco farmers bank on private co-op
Jul 1 2005 4:08AM (CT)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Like thousands of tobacco farmers, Chandler Worley has lost his safety net. Worley, who has farmed his whole life in southeastern North Carolina, can no longer rely on a guaranteed price for his crop after the government ended seven decades of price supports this fall.
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