Business

Declaring the current system irrevocably “broken,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled the Bush administration’s final major surface transportation policy initiative — a reform of the highway program that includes unlimited tolling and an increased emphasis on private capital.

American Trucking Associations last week asked a federal court to block emission-reduction plans by the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that include concessionaire requirements the group said “unlawfully re-regulated the federally de-regulated trucking industry.”

The U.S. economic stimulus package and inventory replenishment by customers powered a 5.4% rise in truck tonnage during June compared with last year, the eighth consecutive monthly increase, American Trucking Associations said.

The national average retail price of diesel fell 11.5 cents to $4.603 a gallon last week, the largest one-week drop in nearly two years and the second consecutive weekly decline, the Department of Energy reported.

ExxonMobil Corp. broke its own record for the largest quarterly profit posted by a U.S. company, reporting net earnings of $11.7 billion, or $2.22 a share, up from $10.3 billion, or $1.83, a year ago.

Construction spending fell 0.4% in June, the Commerce Department said Friday.

U.S. manufacturing was stagnant in July, as factory orders plunged to the lowest level in almost seven years, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

U.S. payrolls declined in July as the unemployment rate rose to 5.7%, the highest level since 2004, the Labor Department said Friday.