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The producer price index jumped 2% in November, the most since 1974, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The proposed acquisition of Swedish truck maker Scania AB by Germany MAN AG’s of would be more like a “merger of equals” than a takeover, MAN Chief Executive Officer Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

The national average price of diesel fuel fell 1.5 cents to $2.606 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.

U.S. new housing starts rebounded in November from the lowest level in six years, but building permits fell to a nine-year low, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

UPS Inc. said late Monday that Chief Financial Officer Scott Davis was given the additional position of vice chairman and announced the retirement of John Beystehner, the company’s chief operating officer.

New diesel-engine rules set to take effect Jan. 1 could turn down sales of big rigs by as much as 40% from this year’s level, but there may another sales boom in 2008 in advance of further rules set to take effect in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Navistar International Corp.’s top official said Friday that the company, which has been struggling to get its financial statements on schedule, may be open to buyout offers, Reuters reported.

Federal officials Friday released proposals for a railroad-security plan they said would reduce chances of a terrorist attack, but the proposal drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers who said the rules do not go far enough, news reports said.

SmarTire’s First-Quarter Loss Narrows • DHL Enhances Route-Optimization System • Lockheed Martin Forms Supply Chain Service Group

Average retail gasoline prices rose 2 cents over the past two weeks to $2.29 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg survey of gasoline prices released Sunday.