Business News - AP

NEW YORK - Oil prices shot up more than $5 a barrel Thursday, rising to the highest level in over two weeks as escalating tensions with Russia stoked fears of supply disruptions to the West.

NEW YORK - Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank on Thursday joined other major financial companies in settling with regulators over their roles in selling risky auction-rate securities to retail investors.

NEW YORK — A private sector measure of the economy's health showed the largest drop in a year, and while new jobless claims fell for the second straight week, they remain near the highest levels since 2002. The reports are the latest evidence the languishing American economy remains stuck in low gear.

SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, a longtime fixture on the list of the world's richest people, is now ensconced atop The Associated Press' rankings of the top-paid chief executives in the United States.

WASHINGTON - Consumers worried about salad safety may soon be able to buy fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce zapped with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and a few other germs.

LORDSTOWN, Ohio - General Motors Corp. said Thursday it will invest more than $500 million in the U.S. to build a new compact car that will compete in an era of high gasoline prices.

WASHINGTON - Federal drug safety regulators said Thursday they are investigating whether the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin can increase patients' risk of developing cancer.

MILWAUKEE - Rising commodity costs kept weighing on food makers H.J. Heinz Co. and Hormel Foods Corp. in the most recent quarter, even as consumers continued to swallow price increases for their favorite foods.

NEW YORK - Apparel retailer Gap Inc. said Thursday that tight control on inventory and costs helped offset a persistent sales slump, particularly at its Old Navy stores, as fiscal second-quarter profit rose 51 percent.

WASHINGTON - A government rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be costly for scores of investment, banking and insurance companies that hold billions in preferred shares of the mortgage finance giants as assets.

NEW YORK - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been in all-day meetings with Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain regarding a last minute settlement over auction-rate securities, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

ABBOTT PARK, Ill. - Drug and medical device maker Abbott Laboratories said Thursday it will cut 1,000 jobs as part of a multiyear effort to lower spending on its medical testing business.

NEW YORK - Gap Inc. announced Thursday that it has named Tom Wyatt, a 30-year retail veteran, as president of its struggling Old Navy chain.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The maker of Snickers bars and M&Ms candies said it is raising wholesale prices on various items to offset the higher costs of raw materials, packaging and energy, the second major candy company in the past week to announce such a move.

FRANKFURT, Germany - German lender IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, which has been badly hit by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, will be sold to U.S.-based private equity firm Lone Star Funds, the German company's biggest shareholder said Thursday.

MILWAUKEE - Food maker H.J. Heinz Co. said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 11 percent, fueled by double-digit sales growth in North America and Europe.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest bookseller, posted a 15 percent drop in second-quarter profit Thursday as it struggles with sluggish consumer spending.

NEW YORK - Kohl's Corp. announced Thursday that Chairman Larry Montgomery has resigned as chief executive and will be replaced in that role by the retailer's president, Kevin Mansell.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama, pushed to second in national obesity rankings by deep-fried Southern favorites, is cracking down on state workers who are too fat.