The average U.S. price for regular gasoline fell 3.5 cents in the past two weeks to $3.69 a gallon, the first decline in three months, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of filling stations.

Consumer confidence fell in May from a nine-month high, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index.

Housing starts climbed 13.2% in April to a 1.07 million annualized rate following March’s 947,000 pace, the Commerce Department reported.

Industrial production decreased 0.6% in April after a 0.9% gain the prior month that was larger than previously reported, the Federal Reserve said May 15.

Jobless claims dropped by 24,000 to 297,000 in the week ended May 10, the least since May 2007, the Labor Department reported.

Wholesale prices in the United States rose 0.6% in April, the largest increase in more than a year, the Labor Department reported.

Volkswagen AG secured enough backing to move forward with its $9.2 billion bid for Scania AB, removing the last major obstacle to a nearly decadelong effort to forge an integrated heavy-trucks unit.

Retail sales increased 0.1% in April after the biggest increase in four years, the Commerce Department reported May 13.

The measure of employee output per hour dropped at a 1.7% annualized rate, the weakest reading in a year, after rising at a 2.3 % pace in the last three months of 2013, the Labor Department reported.