Business News

Orders to U.S. factories for costly goods rose a bigger-than-expected 2 percent in December, suggesting better days may be ahead for the nation's battered manufacturing sector.

Cousins Properties Incorporated today announced that the Board of Directors has elected Thomas D. Bell, Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective immediately.

A surge of strong holiday shipping helped United Parcel Service Inc. beat Wall Street forecasts, but net income still dropped 11 percent as the U.S. recession battered business, the company said Tuesday.

The executive in charge of General Motors Corp.'s electronic commerce and Internet activities will oversee future vehicle development for the automaker, according to a published report.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will recall 38,626 trucks and buses for several defects that could weaken the vehicles' brakes and produce too much polluting gases.

Timber giant Weyerhaeuser Co. has signed a definitive agreement to buy Willamette Industries Inc. for $6.1 billion.

The collapse of Enron Corp. shows that government oversight of competitive power markets is still needed, says a Democratic senator whose energy legislation will be taken up by the Senate in coming weeks.

House conservatives want congressional Republicans to write a balanced budget this year, fearing that a round of big spending boosts will alienate voters the party needs this November.

Cellular carrier AT&T Wireless reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.23 billion on Tuesday, blaming much of the loss on a $1.3 billion writedown related to the phasing out of its fixed wireless business. The results were worse than analysts expected.

Carried by its healthy business overseas, Coca-Cola Co. reported fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday that met expectations, but the beverage giant struggled with lingering poor sales in North America, its largest market.