AUTOMOTIVE

American Axle, union move closer

Detroit —- Striking workers at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. say they have been told the union and company are close to a deal that would end their two-month walkout. The possible settlement includes negotiating the closure of American Axle's Detroit and Tonawanda, N.Y., forge operations. It also includes wage cuts for production workers from about $28 per hour to $17.

Toyota's sales rise as Big 3 suffer

Detroit —- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler saw double-digit U.S. sales declines for April, but Toyota's sales edged up 3 percent. Weak sales were expected throughout the industry as gas prices rose to record highs. GM said its truck and SUV sales were down 27 percent and overall sales were down 16 percent for the month, compared with April of 2007. Ford said its SUV sales were down 36 percent in April as overall sales fell 12 percent. Toyota said its car sales rose 12 percent, largely on the strength of the subcompact Yaris. Chrysler said sales fell 23 percent. Hyundai's sales were up less than a percent, while Kia, a Hyundai affiliate, sold 16 percent more vehicles. Nissan's sales climbed 6.7 percent. Porsche and Mercedes-Benz said April sales decreased, while BMW was up 9.6 percent.

GM invests in ethanol venture

Washington —- General Motors Corp. said Thursday it has taken an ownership stake in a renewable-energy company that is working to develop ethanol from wood chips, waste paper sludge and switchgrass. The extent of GM's investment and ownership stake in the companies has not been disclosed. Mascoma Corp., based in Boston, is developing a single-step method of breaking down plant matter for fuel, hoping to reduce the costs.

DEALS

Microsoft has price for Yahoo in mind

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Thursday he knows how much he'd spend to buy Yahoo. He's not telling. "We're willing to pay for that at some level, and beyond that level we're not willing to pay for it. I know exactly what I think Yahoo is worth to me," the CEO said during an employee meeting. "I won't go a dime above, and I will go to what I think it's worth if that gets the deal done." Ballmer did not say whether Microsoft is considering raising its unsolicited bid, worth $44.6 billion when it was made in early February.

ECONOMY

Jobless claims jump by 35,000

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims jumped by a bigger-than-expected 35,000 last week to total 380,000, with the number of people receiving benefit checks rising to 3.02 million, the first time that figure has surpassed 3 million in four years. The department will release the unemployment figure for April today. Economists expect it will show the jobless rate rising to 5.2 percent, up from 5.1 percent in March, with the economy shedding jobs for a fourth straight month.

FINANCIAL

Wall Street trims Fed borrowing

Washington —- Big Wall Street investment companies are pulling back on their borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program. A report Thursday said those firms averaged $18.6 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with $22.6 billion in the previous week. It marked the fourth straight week where investment firms borrowed less from the central bank.

Commodities take a plunge

Commodities fell the most in six weeks as a rally in the dollar eroded demand for energy, metals, crops and livestock as alternative investments. Every contract on the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index declined except corn. Gold slid to a four-month low, crude oil fell as much as $3.16 a barrel and rice plunged the most in more than four years.

REAL ESTATE

House panel OKs housing rescue bill

Washington —- The House Financial Services Committee, seeking to respond to the housing crunch, has approved a $300 billion rescue package. The vote was 46-to-21 to advance the bill, which would permit the government to insure new, cheaper mortgages for hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners now facing foreclosure. Ten Republicans joined all the Democrats on the committee to support the bill, which the Bush administration opposes. Most of them are from areas hit hard by the mortgage meltdown. Democratic leaders plan a vote in the full House next week on a broad housing package that also includes $15 billion for states to buy and fix up foreclosed properties and an array of tax breaks.

Mortgage rates stay above 6%

Washington —- Rates on 30-year mortgages remained above 6 percent, edging up to the highest level in seven weeks. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.06 percent this week, up from 6.03 percent last week. Rates on other types of mortgages were mixed this week. The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, dipped to 5.59 percent this week from 5.62 percent. Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 5.73 percent from 5.68 percent. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages were unchanged at 5.29 percent.

REGULATORY

Berkshire's bond presence probed

Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. faces a probe by Connecticut's attorney general for possible conflicts created by owning almost 20 percent of credit ratings company Moody's Corp. while also running a new municipal bond insurer. Connecticut is investigating the "clear and direct conflict of interest for Moody's to rate a company owned by such a significant Moody's shareholder," Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in an interview Wednesday.

FTC examines oil manipulation

Washington —- The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it hoped to complete rules by the end of the year on how it plans to enforce a new law against price manipulation and deception in the oil-trading markets. The FTC announced that it has taken the first step, seeking public comment, toward developing a regulation on price manipulation, as mandated by Congress.

Rural cellphone subsidy capped

Washington —- Federal regulators on Thursday agreed to temporarily cap a growing subsidy program that paid nearly $1.2 billion last year to cellphone companies that do business in rural areas. The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to limit payments to wireless carriers from the Universal Service Fund, which is supported by a tax on the phone bills of most Americans. The move is bad news for rural cellular carriers that rely on such payments for a substantial part of their revenue, but it benefits big telephone companies.

RETAILING

Disney reclaims branded stores

Los Angeles —- Walt Disney Co. said Thursday that it has taken over 220 Disney Store outlets in North America from Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. and will close about 98 stores in the United States and two in Canada. The move to reclaim most of the money-losing operation came after the Children's Place subsidiary that ran the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. Analysts said Disney's reclamation of just two-thirds of the stores and the elimination of license fees paid to Disney would help make the outlets profitable again.

TECHNOLOGY

ITunes movies to arrive earlier

Apple Inc., maker of the iPod media player, will sell movies through its iTunes online store the same day they are released on DVD, building on its success as a music retailer. New releases from studios including Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. will cost $14.99, Apple said Thursday in a statement. Previously, customers may have had to wait several weeks after the DVD debut. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is counting on movies to increase sales of iPods, Macintosh computers and Apple TV, a device that lets users watch downloaded films on their widescreen televisions.

TELECOM

S&P cuts rating of Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel Corp., which lost more than a million contract customers last year, had its credit rating cut to junk by Standard & Poor's. The carrier's corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings were lowered two levels to "BB" from "BBB-" because of its deteriorating operating performance. Sprint lost $29.6 billion last year as customers took their business to larger rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

TRANSPORTATION

Investors like plans of British Airways

London —- British Airways PLC shares jumped more than 7 percent Thursday amid speculation about what kind of deal it might ink with American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. and the possibility of wider consolidation among European major carriers. Analysts said the expanded alliance could also seek antitrust immunity to set prices and schedules. U.S. airlines have been scrambling to merge or form new alliances since Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. announced plans this month to merge, and analysts said the consolidation push could now spread further afield.

American bans Logan skycap tips

Boston —- American Airlines says it no longer will allow passengers to tip skycaps at Logan International Airport. The move comes after a jury awarded $325,000 to nine Boston skycaps who said the airline's $2-per-bag curbside check-in fee deeply cut into their tips and violated the Massachusetts Tips Law. American said Thursday that the company it contracts with to provide curbside check-in service will raise the hourly wages of skycaps to $12 to $15 per hour. A lawyer for the skycaps called the change "retaliatory" and said she will seek an injunction to stop it.

Revenue per seat up at Continental

Continental Airlines Inc. said April revenue for each seat flown a mile rose as much as 3 percent. The revenue rose even as traffic, in miles flown by paying passengers, declined 0.8 percent. The largest U.S. airlines have boosted fares and fuel charges at least nine times this year to help cover surging jet fuel prices.

CSX to increase stackable trains

CSX Corp. says it will spend $300 million on upgrades that will allow trains with double-stacked cars to run from the East Coast to the Midwest. For the effort to go forward, the federal government would have to provide an additional $400 million to change 70 overpasses in six states. Florida-based CSX says double-stacked trains use about the same amount of fuel to carry more freight.