BC-Business News Digest

Business News at 5:30 p.m.

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New this digest:

⿿ Adds: ROCHE-ILLUMINA OFFER, AMERICAN AIRLINES-JOBS, EARNS-QUALCOMM, FINANCIAL OVERHAUL

⿿ Updates: WALL STREET, EARNS-EBAY, EARNS-MARRIOTT, EARNS-YUM BRANDS, EARNS-AMERICAN EXPRESS

TOP STORIES

AUTOS- PARTS SHORTAGES

DETROIT ⿿ The auto industry, already stretched to meet growing car and truck sales, faces parts shortages that could limit the number of new vehicles in showrooms later this year and crimp an historic turnaround. The most immediate problem, the shortage of a crucial resin, could surface within weeks. And later in the year, automakers could run short of other parts simply because there aren't enough companies left to make them. By Auto Writer Tom Krisher.

AP Photo. AP Interactive.

SMALL TALK

Don't be misled by reports that inflation is tame. For small business owners, it's a threat ⿿ to their profits and their expansion plans. In the 12 months that ended in March, the Consumer Price Index rose 2.7 percent. If you subtract food and gas, as some economists do, what's left is called "core" inflation. It rose 2.3 percent, close to the 2 percent that the Federal Reserve is looking for. But the prices that small businesses pay for energy, raw materials, supplies and services have been going up much more sharply. Raw cotton has gone up nearly 14 percent in the past year. Eggs are up 8 percent. Jet fuel is up 8 percent. And those prices are expected to keep rising. By Business Writer Joyce Rosenberg.

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