ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Gasoline prices dropped 11.7 cents in the two weeks ended Friday to a national average of $3.9959 a gallon, the first time in more than a month that the average has fallen below $4 a gallon, the latest Lundberg Survey of filling stations said.

Federal regulators have approved a proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio Holdings, a $3.3 billion deal, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

The Environmental Protection Agency postponed until early August its decision on whether to grant a request from Texas to cut the national renewable fuels mandate in half, citing the huge number of comments EPA has received on the issue, which has pitted livestock growers against grain producers.

WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office said last week that hundreds of thousands of truck drivers with potentially serious medical conditions are being allowed to drive heavy vehicles, citing loopholes and weaknesses in the federal government’s program to certify drivers.

Most public less-than-truckload companies’ second-quarter profits fell as fleets were pounded by record diesel prices and flagging economic demand, but some executives said they thought the overall pricing environment had improved, or at least stabilized.

The average price of retail diesel in the United States dipped 4.6 cents last week to $4.718 a gallon, the largest weekly drop in more than six months, the Department of Energy reported.

U.S. consumer confidence this month rose from a reading that was close to a 28-year low, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index released Friday.

New home sales fell 0.6% in June, the Commerce Department said Friday.