News Briefs - Nov. 26
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The Latest Headlines:
- New Home Sales Fall 3.5% in October
- Initial Jobless Claims Lowest Since January 2001
- Roadway, Yellow Announce Cash Election Deadline
- Crude Oil Prices Steady Near $30 a Barrel
- Trucking Firm Settles Second Discrimination Suit
- Initial Jobless Claims Lowest Since January 2001
New Home Sales Fall 3.5% in October
Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell 3.5% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.105 million units in October, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.The decline follows a revised drop of 1.9% in September.
Initial Jobless Claims Lowest Since January 2001
The number of U.S. workers filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell to 351,000 last week, the lowest total since January of 2001, the Labor Department said Wednesday.The figure represented a decline from a revised 362,000 the previous week, Labor said.
The total was the lowest since the week of Jan. 20, 2001, when claims were 339,000.
The four-week moving average, a device used to remove volatility from the weekly statistic, fell 10,000 to 358,750, Labor reported. Transport Topics
Roadway, Yellow Announce Cash Election Deadline
Roadway Corp. and Yellow Corp. said Tuesday that they have set a deadline of Dec. 5 for Roadway stockholders to elect to take any merger considerations in cash or in a combination of cash and stock.The companies said that any shareholder wishing to receive cash or a combination of cash and stock must submit an election form by Dec. 5.
The pending acquisition of Roadway by Yellow is expected to close on Dec. 11.
Yellow and Roadway are ranked Nos. 8 and 6 on the 2003 Transport Topics listing of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada. Transport Topics
Crude Oil Prices Steady Near $30 a Barrel
The price of crude oil hovered near $30 a barrel on concerns that civil unrest in oil-producing countries, including Iraq and Nigeria, could disrupt future shipments of crude, Bloomberg News reported.In early morning electronic trading Wednesday, crude oil prices rose about 3 cents a barrel to $29.77, Bloomberg said.
Analysts also said the U.S. inventory report, due later in the day from the Department of Energy, would likely be the major market mover, but were split on what the report would show, Bloomberg reported. Transport Topics
Trucking Firm Settles Second Discrimination Suit
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday that private trucking firm PJAX Inc. agreed to settle a second discrimination lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.PJAX, Gibsonia, Pa., will pay $2 million to resolve a case in Maryland, where EEOC claimed 200 female employees were routinely denied trucker and dockworker jobs.
The company denied all the allegations, AP reported. PJAX said it believed the sexual harassment allegations would not hold up in court, but decided to settle to avoid the expense and distraction of a court case, according to AP.
On Monday, the company agreed to a consent decree that obligates the firm to pay five female complainants in Pennsylvania more than $500,000. Transport Topics
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