Business

Surface trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico dipped 0.1% in December from the same month a year earlier, though both truck and rail numbers rose, the Department of Transportation said.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for February rose to positive territory from January’s contraction, ISM said Thursday.

U.S. construction spending fell 0.8% January, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Initial jobless claims rose 7,000 to a 14-month high, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Consumer personal spending rose 0.5% in January, and incomes rose 1%, boosted by bonus payments, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

UPS Inc. said Wednesday that almost 200 of its employees accepted a voluntary early-retirement buyout package that will cost the company about $80 million.

Truckload carrier Celadon Group said Wednesday that one of its subsidiaries purchased the truckload business and tractors and trailers of Warrior Xpress for about $8.3 million.

Transportation and logistics firm EGL Inc. said its fourth-quarter income fell to $10.9 million or 27 cents a share, from $19.1 million or 47 cents in the previous fourth quarter.

A gauge of Chicago manufacturing activity fell in February, the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said Wednesday.

The new chairman of the pivotal House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James Oberstar, said he would support a pilot program to test the effects that raising truck size and weight limits would have on the nation’s highways.