Industrials

Officials from western North Dakota's oil-producing region pleaded with lawmakers Friday to expedite hundreds of millions of dollars in special funding so that infrastructure projects can begin by this summer.

Frontier Airlines says that it will hire contractors to do the work of 1,300 employees — about a third of its total workforce — at the Denver airport and in Milwaukee.

A few towns over from the chemical plant where Freedom Industries leaked a coal-cleaning mixture into the drinking water of 300,000 people last year, a new company run by former Freedom employees is being cited for similar environmental violations.

Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE Precision Castparts Corp., down $20.09 to $199.63 The metal components and products company reported quarterly financial profit and revenue below Wall Street expectations.

Shares of some top construction companies were up at the close of trading: Fluor rose $1.33 or 2.5 percent, to $54.03.

A Russian rocket manufacturer says its contract with U.S. Orbital Sciences is worth about $1 billion.

Shares of some top construction companies are up at 1 p.m.: Fluor rose $1.15 or 2.2 percent, to $53.85.

Shares of some top aerospace companies are mixed at 10 a.m.: Boeing fell $.26 or .2 percent, to $129.88.

Shares of some top airlines companies are mixed at 10 a.m.: Delta Air rose $.11 or .2 percent, to $45.16.

Shares of some top construction companies are up at 10 a.m.: Fluor rose $.01 or percent, to $52.71.

Shares of some top aerospace companies are mixed at 1 p.m.: Boeing unchanged at $130.14.

The U.S. Postal Service is proposing slight increases for mailing letters and postcards — but leaving first-class "Forever" stamps at their present 49 cents.

Shares of some top construction companies were down at the close of trading: Fluor fell $1.31 or 2.4 percent, to $52.70.

Agriculture business giant Monsanto Co. said Thursday it received approval from the Department of Agriculture for new cotton and soybean seeds designed to be used with a new herbicide formula.

The president of U.S. Navy contractor Electric Boat asked Rhode Island officials on Thursday to help ensure there are enough qualified state residents to fill thousands of jobs needed to build submarines in the coming years.

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill Thursday that would have limited regulators' authority to designate sections of state land for the promotion of biological diversity, saying it would hamper sustainable forest management beneficial to the economy as well as environmental protection.

Freeport-McMoRan on Thursday agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle lawsuits surrounding its 2013 acquisition of two companies at a price tag of $9 billion.

The successful bidder in the upcoming privatization of Portugal's national airline won't be able to make collective redundancies for at least two-and-a-half years after taking control.

Bombardier says it's going to cut about 1,000 employees from its Learjet business in 2015, affecting sites in Mexico and the United States.

A new study estimates it would cost $18 billion to reroute water from the Missouri River to help irrigate farms in western Kansas, and another $1 billion each year to operate the system.