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NEW YORK (AP) — A late wave of buying has given the Nasdaq composite its first gain of the year. The tech-heavy index jumped 1 percent, adding 57 points to 4,685. The Dow rose 117 points, while the S&P added 15. Technology and health care stocks led today's advance. Chipmaker Intel rose 2 percent and Apple gained 1.5 percent. Among health care companies, UnitedHealth Group jumped 2.5 percent, the most in the Dow.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices continue their slide. U.S. crude oil fell 97 cents to $30.44 a barrel in New York. However, after slumping as much as 2 percent during today's session, energy stocks eked out a gain of 0.4 percent by the close. Still, the sector remains down about 8 and a-half percent this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — MetLife says it plans to carve off its U.S. life insurance business via a sale, spinoff or an initial public offering. The company says the potential stand-alone business would have about $240 billion in total assets and represent about 20 percent of its operating earnings. MetLife Inc. would keep its property-casualty and other businesses under the proposed plan. MetLife has been challenging its designation as a "systemically important" entity that's deemed "too big to fail" and subject to greater government oversight.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — CSX says its fourth-quarter profit fell 5 percent as coal demand remained weak and total volume slipped 6 percent. The railroad's chairman and CEO Michael Ward says full-year earnings per share for 2016 are expected to be down compared to last year as a result of "negative global and industrial market trends" projected for this year.
DETROIT (AP) — The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says automakers have agreed to fundamental changes in their relationship with the U.S. government to promote greater safety using the aviation industry as a model. Mark Rosekind told reporters at the Detroit Auto Show that the process of issuing government regulations to correct safety problems takes too many years, often leaving them out of date by the time they're issued because of changes in technology.
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