Business

Initial jobless claims rose by 10,000 last week at 324,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Crude oil fell back by almost $1 a barrel following an Energy Department report that showed oil inventories jumped much higher than expectations last week, Bloomberg reported.

FedEx Corp. said Wednesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 7% to $610 million or $1.96 per share, from $568 million or $1.82 a year earlier.

Union members at a Freightliner plant in North Carolina have agreed to alternate lay-off weeks between first and second shifts, a move that will save about 1,500 jobs, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

A coalition of groups led by Public Citizen and the Teamsters union said Wednesday that the Department of Transportation was ignoring federal safety laws in implementing a pilot program that would allow Mexican trucks to travel throughout the United States.

Europe-based vehicle makers DaimlerChrysler and Fiat have signed an agreement calling for strategic cooperation to provide Daimler’s truck group with engine and powertrain technology from Fiat, the Associated Press reported.

The Senate approved legislation late Tuesday that would allow the federal government to sue OPEC oil cartel nations under antitrust laws, Bloomberg reported.

A Senate committee approved $28 billion in tax breaks Tuesday to underwrite renewable fuels and “clean coal” technology, but the full Senate cut back provisions that would greatly expand diesel fuel made from coal, the New York Times reported.

Federal antitrust regulators cleared a private-equity firm’s $7.4 billion purchase of Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler, the Associated Press reported.