Business briefs

Web posted March 4, 2000

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Government signal sends stocks higher

NEW YORK -- Stocks bounded higher Friday, giving the Dow industrials their best week since last July, after the government delivered a sign that the Federal Reserve's interest rate increases might finally be slowing the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 202.28 to close at 10,367.20. For the week, the blue-chip index rose 505.08 points, its best performance since the week ending July 2, 1999, when it rose 586.68.

The Nasdaq composite index, meanwhile, crossed 4,900 for the first time and closed at a new high. The index rose 160.28 to 4,914.79, well above the previous record of 4,784.08, set Wednesday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 1.14 billion shares, compared with 1.18 billion in the previous session. On the Nasdaq, advancers led decliners by a 3-to-2 margin.

Railway settles discrimination suit

WASHINGTON -- Amtrak has settled a racial discrimination suit for the second time in nine months, the latest alleging that white supervisors created a hostile work environment for black engineering employees in the Northeast.

Amtrak admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement announced Friday, but the national railway agreed to change company policies. And the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, sets up a $16 million fund to provide economic relief to 800 to 1,000 black employees who suffered discrimination since 1995 and as many as 4,000 black job applicants Amtrak turned away.

The suit was filed by 13 black members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees who build and maintain railroad tracks. They claimed Amtrak discriminated in hiring, disciplining, training and promoting blacks.

Airline workers vote against union

ATLANTA -- Baggage and cargo workers at Delta Air Lines voted overwhelmingly not to join a union, handing the nation's third-biggest and least-unionized carrier a major victory Friday in a campaign both sides had portrayed as crucial to the airline's future.

Only 17 percent of Delta's 10,700 ramp and cargo workers voted to organize.

Organizers at the Transport Workers Union said they were disappointed by the lopsided vote, which they attributed to a pay raise the company announced in January.