AUTOMOTIVE

Parts supplier's strike affects GM

Detroit —- A strike at a key parts supplier is starting to have an impact on General Motors Corp., which said Wednesday it will temporarily close a pickup truck plant in Pontiac, Mich., because of a parts shortage. The strike is against American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc.

Ford recalls 470,000 Mustangs

Detroit —- Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that it is recalling 470,000 Ford Mustangs from the 2005-08 model years to recalibrate how forcefully the air bag deploys on the front passenger side of the car.

DEALS

Oracle wins OK to acquire BEA

Oracle Corp., the third-largest software maker, won approval from U.S. regulators for its $8.5 billion acquisition of BEA Systems Inc. BEA shareholders will vote on the deal at a special meeting April 4. Shareholders would receive $19.38 a share, 24 percent more than the company's closing price on Jan. 15, the day before the deal was announced.

News Corp., Liberty complete swap

Denver —- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. says it has completed a $12 billion swap that sends control of satellite television provider DirecTV to Liberty Media. Liberty Media exchanged its 16 percent News Corp. stake worth roughly $11 billion plus $625 million in cash for a 41 percent interest in DirecTV.

ECONOMY: New home sales, median price fall

Sales of new homes fell in January for a third straight month, pushing activity to the slowest pace in nearly 13 years. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales fell by 2.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 588,000 units, the slowest pace since February 1995. The median price of a new home dropped to $216,000 in January, down 4.3 percent from the December median sales price.

FINANCIAL: Toll Brothers swings to loss

Luxury-home builder Toll Brothers Inc. said Wednesday that it swung to a loss in the first quarter as write-downs on properties it could no longer sell at a profit more than doubled and sales tumbled 23 percent. Chief Executive Robert Toll said in a statement that the selling season that started in mid-January has been "weak for the third year in a row," but there were a few "glimmers of hope" in the Naples, Fla., and Washington, D.C., markets. The Horsham, Pa.-based company lost $96 million, or 61 cents per share, in the three months ended Jan. 31, compared with profit of $54.3 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.

LEGAL

Former UBS exec pleads guilty

A former UBS AG executive pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal charges in an insider-trading case centering on trades made based on information about upgrades or downgrades by UBS analysts. Mitchel S. Guttenberg, who was a member of UBS' Investment Review Committee, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and four counts of securities fraud at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts in Manhattan.

FedEx loses ruling in age bias suit

Washington —- The Supreme Court decided Wednesday that employees who claim job discrimination should not suffer because of mistakes made by the federal agency charged with investigating their allegations. The 7-2 ruling allows an age discrimination lawsuit to proceed against Memphis-based FedEx Corp. The majority opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy is critical of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which failed to notify FedEx that 14 employees had filed a complaint.

REGULATORY: French investigate alleged collusion

Paris —- Nine European and U.S. consumer products makers, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive, are suspected of colluding on prices in France, Le Figaro newspaper said Wednesday. If found guilty, the companies could face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual worldwide revenue. France's Competition Council confirmed to The Associated Press that it is investigating "the cleaning products sector" but refused to name the companies.