Industrials

Representatives of West Coast dockworkers are recommending that rank-and-file union members approve a tentative contract that their leaders reached with employers in February.

The Commerce Department reports on the February U.S. trade deficit at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Thursday.

U.S. Steel plans to idle part of its Minntac plant in northeastern Minnesota, resulting in layoffs for about 680 workers.

Shares of AK Steel fell in premarket trading Friday after the company forecast a first-quarter loss because of lower-than-expected shipments and prices.

The Institute for Supply Management reports on a survey about U.S. manufacturing production, orders and other activity in February.

After reaching a tentative contract agreement that covers the West Coast's 29 seaports, dockworkers are clearing an immense backlog of cargo that accumulated as their negotiations with employers stalled.

Negotiators reached a tentative contract covering West Coast dockworkers, likely ending a protracted labor dispute that snarled international trade at seaports handling about $1 trillion worth of cargo annually.

With a Friday deadline looming, negotiators for the two sides in the contract dispute that has snarled international trade at West Coast seaports are laboring to reach a settlement.

West Coast seaports that were all but shut over the holiday weekend because of a contract dispute are reopening, as the nation's top labor official begins his efforts to solve a stalemate between dockworkers and their employers that already has disrupted billions of dollars in U.S. international trade.

Seaports in major West Coast cities that normally are abuzz with the sound of commerce are falling unusually quiet.

Willamette Valley businesses that rely on overseas shipments say they are frustrated by the delays that have come with bargaining over a labor contract at West Coast ports, and some say the effects have hit them coming and going.

Farmers and farm businesses in 20 states have filed more than 360 lawsuits against agricultural chemicals-maker Syngenta, and hundreds more may be coming as a federal judge in Kansas City coordinates the cases so they can proceed.

US factories expanded last month at the slowest pace in a year, as orders, production, and hiring all declined.

Supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada to the Gulf, say the privately funded, $8 billion project is a critically needed piece of infrastructure that will create thousands of jobs and make the U.S. dependent on oil from friends, rather than foes.

The U.S. has begun accepting applications from Mexican trucking companies seeking authorization for long-haul, cross-border transportation under the North American Free Trade agreement.

The owner of a Pennsylvania company that makes steel-processing equipment has been sentenced to 12 months on probation under a plea deal for conspiring to illegally sell an $800,000 machine to an Iranian firm.

Growers say labor woes at major West Coast sea ports have slowed the export of a record crop of Washington apples and endangered big Christmas season shipments of the fruit to Central America.

The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are facing their biggest crisis in a decade as container ships idle offshore because cargo can't be moved off the docks fast enough.

Federal authorities say a business in a small Utah town tried to ship rifle scopes to Russia and China without a license.

China announced Sunday the lifting of restrictions on foreign investment for several industries, from green tea to civil airplane engines, in a special free trade zone in the business hub of Shanghai.