Business

Amazon.com has filed for a patent to use airships to store products and serve as a base for delivery-drones.

Oil futures dipped on Dec. 29 after a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories reversed an advance in prices that had boosted the benchmarks to their highest levels since July 2015.

A drop in U.S. exports in November pushed the country's trade deficit in goods higher, while the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits the week ended Dec.24 is a positive sign for the labor market.

To assist the government of Ontario in the design of a heavy-duty truck natural-gas program, the Ontario Trucking Association said it issued “Natural Gas as an Alternative Fuel for Canadian Truck Fleets: A Roadmap Toward Implementation.”

Medium-duty truck body manufacturer Morgan Corp. will expand its manufacturing footprint into New England, it said, and a site search is under way to select a location capable of supporting the production of up to 3,000 truck bodies annually.

China would outlast the United States in a trade war, which is a “distinct possibility” in 2017 after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a commentator wrote in the $1 billion Pine River China Fund’s investor letter.

Household confidence in the United States is closing in on its best year since before the latest recession, according to figures in the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index released Dec. 29.

Tolling Wisconsin’s U.S. interstates could raise billions for the state’s most-traveled thoroughfares, but the cost would be borne by motorists, big upfront investments would be needed and it’s unclear if the state could get the federal approval it would require, a new state Department of Transportation study finds.

Alternative fuel distributor American Natural Gas added 18 compressed natural gas fueling stations in eight states to its network through the separate acquisitions of Constellation CNG and Questar Fueling Co.