Business

Manufacturing levels in the Philadelphia region showed contraction for a fourth consecutive month in March, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said.

Widespread flooding primarily in the Midwest threatened to worsen Friday, with many rivers rising past their banks for more than a day, the Associated Press reported.

State officials closed a bridge over the Mississippi River northwest of the Twin Cities area in Minnesota because of problems found in the same kind of steel plates that may have played a key role in last summer’s bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the Associated Press reported Friday.

American Trucking Associations asked President Bush in a letter this week to help “burst the bubble in the crude oil market” by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Crude oil fell below $100 a barrel in Thursday before rising back to close the trading day above $101, the lowest closing price in more than two weeks, Bloomberg reported.

An index of leading economic indicators fell 0.3% in February, the New York-based Conference Board said Thursday.

YRC Worldwide Chief Executive Officer Bill Zollars said the company’s first-quarter earnings will likely be lower than expected, the Associated Press reported.

Initial jobless claims rose 22,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

A two-mile section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that was closed for more than two days reopened early Thursday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.