IN BRIEF
Shop online, qualify for a Microsoft rebate
Microsoft Corp. will give cash back to people who shop online with its Live.com search engine, trying to bolster its Internet business after abandoning a $47.5 billion bid for rival Yahoo this month.
Users who buy products such as Cuisinart coffee makers and Adidas shoes through Windows Live accounts can get rebates of 10 percent or more, according to a Microsoft Web site. The rebates, offered for more than 700 businesses, will be funded with advertisements, Microsoft said in a statement.
The move may attract more customers and online advertisers to Microsoft's sites, helping the company compete with Google, the most popular U.S. search engine.
HARTFORD, Conn.
General Electric chief defends his decisions
General Electric Co.'s chief executive officer on Wednesday defended the industrial conglomerate's broad array of businesses and his decisions to sell off several units.
Jeffrey Immelt has been under pressure to shed more businesses, particularly after the Fairfield, Conn.-based company's disappointing first-quarter earnings release last month in which profit fell 6 percent, to $4.3 billion.
The buying and selling of assets that the company has completed "never felt wimpy to me as we've gone through the portfolio transition," he told investor analysts at the Electrical Products Group conference in Longboat Key, Fla.
"This never seemed small," Immelt said.
WASHINGTON
Cell phone proposal no favorite of advocates
A wireless industry proposal under consideration by the government that would make it easier for cell phone customers to break up with their service providers was met with withering criticism by consumer advocates on Wednesday.
The plan would give consumers a break on fees charged when they quit their service early, but would also let cell phone companies off the hook in state courts where they are being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by angry customers.
Cell phone companies routinely charge customers $175 or more for quitting their service early. Under a proposal being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry would give consumers the opportunity to cancel service without any penalty for up to 30 days after they sign a cell phone contract or until 10 days after they receive their first bill.
NEW YORK
Runaway gains: Oil tops $130 a barrel
Runaway oil prices blew past $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday and kept going, while gasoline prices persisted in their own relentless climb, rising above $3.80 a gallon. Supply worries, rising demand and a slumping dollar are conspiring to make filling up the car -- and paying for just about everything else -- a growing burden for Americans.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $4.19 to settle at $133.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but prices rose as high as $134.42, up $5.44, in after-hours electronic trading. It was crude's largest one-day price advance since March 26.
Crude prices first passed $130 overnight on concerns about demand and a weaker dollar.
KANSAS CITY, Kan.
Unionized workers OK contract at GM plant
Union members at General Motors Corp.'s Fairfax Assembly Plant have approved a new contract, ending a nearly three-week-old strike.
The contract was approved by 88 percent of the skilled workers and 85 percent of the production workers who voted Wednesday, union officials said.
About 2,500 members of United Auto Workers Local 31 walked off the job May 5 after failing to agree with plant management on a local contract. The plant makes the hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu as well as the Saturn Aura.
NEW YORK
Treasury prices decline as oil prices climb anew
Treasury prices fell Wednesday after another spike in oil prices touched off renewed concern about rising prices.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 0.22 points to 100.53 and yielded 3.81 percent, up from 3.78 percent late Tuesday.
