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Existing home sales rose 0.3% in March, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. late Monday reported first-quarter earnings of $410 million or a record $1.09 per share, up from $321 million or 83 cents a year ago.

President Bush Tuesday directed his administration to help investigate any potential price gouging and said the government would halt crude oil purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve this summer, news services reported.

Volvo AB reported its first-quarter profit surged 23% on higher sales, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

American Trucking Associations Tuesday issued its 2006 projection for the trucking industry's fuel costs, putting it at $6.6 billion over last year’s tab.

The two largest Canadian freight rail lines, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, each reported higher first-quarter profits.

Transportation firm Con-way Inc. reported a record first-quarter profit of $44.7 million or 81 cents a share, up from $29.1 million or 52 cents a year earlier.

U.S. consumer confidence rose this month to the highest level in four years, the New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday.

OPEC ministers have agreed to leave the cartel’s output ceiling unchanged, and the United States said it would end some routine oil-price reporting, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Filling stations in the Northeast are reporting scattered shortages of gasoline as the industry struggles to transition to more ethanol-blended fuel, the Associated Press reported.