March 13 (Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon’s embrace of unmanned aircraft propelled AeroVironment Inc. to the No. 1 producer of small drones for the U.S. military.

Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly slumped in March, which may signal a cooling in spending, the biggest part of the economy.

Stocks climbed for the week, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index within five points of a record high, as better-than-estimated retail sales and jobless claims data boosted optimism in the world’s largest economy.

Manufacturers boosted production in February heading into U.S. budget cuts and political squabbles this month that hurt consumer sentiment, reports Friday showed.

Supermarkets including Kroger, Safeway and Whole Foods are improving the image of their store brands with better packaging and more distinctive offerings. But where exactly do these products come from?

The world's largest cruise line has suffered through a number of high-profile mishaps. Yet passengers continue to book vacations thanks to discounts, albeit at a slower pace.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower for the first time in 11 days, as a report showed consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in March.

An effort in Congress to eliminate funding and scrap the proposed design for a national memorial honoring President Dwight D. Eisenhower drew strong opposition Friday from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which said lawmakers should not censor an architectural work.

There is no shame in being cost-conscious.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The American Civil Liberties Union won a round in its bid to get data from the Central Intelligence Agency on its use of drones as a U.S. appeals court ruled public statements by officials had already disclosed the program.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York Times Co., reshuffling its staff after the arrival of Chief Executive Officer Mark Thompson last year, will create three new groups in an effort to streamline the company and promote its online operations.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- West Texas Intermediate crude gained for the sixth time in seven days as the dollar weakened and inventories fell at a major storage hub. The U.S. benchmark narrowed its discount to Brent crude for a fifth week.

Hedge fund CR Intrinsic Investors will pay more than $600 million in what federal regulators are calling the largest insider trading settlement ever.

Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to revive housing are making real estate bulls even more bullish.

Drinking water contamination at North Carolina's sprawling Camp Lejeune military base could date to 1948, five years earlier than researchers had reported previously, a federal report indicates.

Shares of Apple Inc. climbed Friday after its chief competitor, Samsung Electronics Co., revealed a new top-of-the-line smartphone model.

A raft of U.S. economic figures failed to give markets any momentum Friday at the end of a week that's seen many of the world's major stock indexes rise to multi-year highs.

Rising inequality in the United States and Europe generates plenty of commentary nowadays, but not so many compelling prescriptions. I’ve a simple theory for why this is. The left really cares about the issue, but bars itself from considering effective remedies. The right could come up with some effective remedies, but doesn’t really care.

History sometimes has a way of tying itself up with a little bow. That’s the way I felt in January when I introduced Scott Prouty, the bartender-turned-videographer who helped sink Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, to Teddy Goff, the 28-year-old director of digital media for President Barack Obama’s re-election.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Viewed from Seoul or Tokyo, the U.S.’s obsession with Iran looks unbalanced.

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Economists talk about the negative impact from the $85 billion of automatic spending cuts with such authority, you would think these forecasts were written in stone.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- West Texas Intermediate oil rose for a second day, heading for a second weekly advance. Brent crude’s premium to the U.S. benchmark grade is poised for the biggest weekly drop in five months.

U.S. stock futures are mixed ahead of the release of the latest data on industrial production and consumer prices. Two major U.S. indexes are in position to test record highs.

A spike in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February by the most in more than three years. But outside the gain in fuel, inflation was mostly modest.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Manufacturing in the New York region expanded for a second month in March and industry managers grew more optimistic about the future, indicating the area’s factories are rebounding.

Genetic analysis instrument maker Illumina Inc. said Friday that a federal jury ruled against it in a patent infringement trial, and ordered the San Diego company to pay $96 million in damages to Syntrix Biosystems.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Preferred and common stock of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac soared after four Senators proposed legislation related to the mortgage financiers that were placed into government conservatorships in September 2008.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. said safety upgrades to the 787 Dreamliner’s battery systems may allow commercial flights to restart within weeks, ending a two-month grounding of the composite-plastic fleet.

Federal Signal Corp. posted net income of $4.8 million for the fourth quarter, a reversal from a loss a year ago that stemmed from hefty one-time charges.

Pinnacle Foods, which makes Birds Eye frozen foods and a host of other packaged food brands, says it plans raise about $551 million in its initial public offering.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s cash hoard will pile up $120 million faster each year and Jamie Dimon will get a $1.85 million raise now that JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., American Express Co. and U.S. Bancorp are boosting payouts.

Citigroup awarded its new CEO, Michael Corbat, a total of $12.4 million last year.

A pair of analysts said Friday that while Harley-Davidson Inc.'s first-quarter sales may pale in comparison to those of a year ago, they still look pretty good and investors shouldn't worry.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Anheuser-Busch Inbev NV and the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge to delay until April 9 the government’s antitrust lawsuit to block its purchase of Grupo Modelo SAB, citing “substantial progress” toward settlement of the case.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Groupon Inc. gained the most in two weeks after Legg Mason Capital Management Chairman Bill Miller said the largest daily-deal website has a “tremendous” opportunity for growth.

Disney and News Corp. are “finalizing” their future plans for Hulu as the online video streaming service prepares for the departure of CEO Jason Kilar.

Beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev says there has been substantial progress toward a resolution of the Justice Department's legal challenge to the company's $20.1 billion deal to buy Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo.

Investors in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme orchestrated by former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford could in the next few months finally begin getting back some of what they lost. The process has dragged on for more than four years.

Spain's central bank says the country's debt burden rose to a record 84.1 percent of its annual gross domestic product at the end of 2012.

Angie's List Chief Financial Officer Robert R. Millard plans to leave his position at the end of the month, less than two years after he joined the consumer review service.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Samsung Electronics Co. fired the first of three smartphone salvos this year aimed at hurting Apple Inc. in its home market, releasing a bigger and faster Galaxy S4 that reviewers said may only glance its target.

North Korea on Friday blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions. Experts, however, indicated it could take months to determine what happened and one analyst suggested hackers in China were a more likely culprit.

Portugal's bailout lenders have agreed to ease its debt-reduction targets amid deteriorating economic prospects, the finance minister said Friday, warning that fully restoring the country's financial health will take decades and “the efforts of a generation.”

Most of New York's gun show operators have agreed to new rules designed to make sure weapon sales are properly tracked and done safely, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury yields indicate a gauge of traders’ expectations for inflation is rising even with a government report forecast by economists to show that increases in consumer prices were contained last month.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday that Japan will join talks on a Pacific trade pact that would oblige the country to open up sheltered industries including farming, long a bastion of protectionism.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, in an annual economic message to Congress, said the “top priority” of his second term is job creation, fueled by an effort to make the U.S. a magnet for manufacturing.

Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Alan Mulally's compensation fell 29 percent to $20.95 million in 2012 as the company's board weighed record North American profits and quality improvements against heavy losses in Europe and lower market share in the U.S. and elsewhere.

A strong increase in auto output boosted U.S. factory production last month, the latest sign that manufacturing is helping drive economic growth after lagging for much of 2012.

The dollar is falling despite more positive signs about the U.S. economy as investors locked in recent gains.

Shares of Krispy Kreme declined Friday after the doughnut company issued a forecast for its fiscal 2014 that fell short of Wall Street expectations.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Dennis Lerner, a former tax director at Commerzbank AG in New York, isn’t too big to jail. But the bank he once worked for may well be, along with the other executives there who made his crimes possible.

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., which shuffled its leadership team last year to prepare for Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally’s eventual departure, lowered his compensation by 29 percent last year to less than $21 million.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) _ A fast-food burrito chain in Albuquerque has become an international tourist attraction as people come from all over the world to see the spot where a fictional drug trafficker runs his organization. A pastry shop sells doughnuts topped with blue candy designed to resemble crystal meth. A beauty store has a similar product -- crystal blue bathing salts.

The Galaxy S 4, Samsung's latest and greatest, has a cute feature we'll probably see in a lot of phones soon: You can shoot both yourself and your surroundings at the same time, using the front- and back-mounted cameras. It's a bit like having a two-camera film crew follow you around.

The chief of Syria's main Western-backed rebel group has vowed to continue fighting until President Bashar Assad's “criminal” regime is gone.

A top Iranian cleric says Western countries must be “insane” because they do not recognize Iran's rights to pursue nuclear energy.

On the second anniversary of an uprising that evolved into Syria's brutal civil war, the European Union's national leaders have begun a summit meeting Friday at which they will likely discuss whether to arm rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime.

Boeing said Friday it sees commercial flights of its grounded 787 jets resuming “within weeks” even though it has not pinpointed the cause of battery overheating.

President Barack Obama is pushing Congress to authorize $200 million a year for research into clean energy technologies that can wean automobiles off oil.

The planned shutdown of up to 238 air traffic control towers across the country under federal budget cuts will strip away an extra layer of safety during takeoffs and landings, leaving pilots to manage the most critical stages of flight on their own.