BRIEFCASE JOBLESS RATE STILL NEAR RECORD LEVEL.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

WASHINGTON - New claims for jobless benefits clocked in at the second-highest level of the year and manufacturing shrank, fresh signs that the postwar economy is still struggling.

The stagnant job market and the battered manufacturing sector are sore spots for the fragile recovery.

Although new claims for unemployment insurance dropped by a seasonally adjusted 13,000 for the workweek ending April 26, the level of claims - 448,000 - was still the second-highest this year, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Exxon Mobil posts tripled Q1 profits

IRVING, Texas - Higher prices for crude oil and natural gas helped Exxon Mobil Corp. more than triple its first-quarter profit to $7.04 billion, its best quarter since the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil.

The higher commodity prices boosted revenue despite a modest 2 percent increase in Exxon Mobil's production.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, earned $1.05 per share in the January-March quarter, compared with $2.09 billion, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier. The 2003 figures included one-time gains of $2.25 billion, mostly from a required accounting change.

Automakers see sales picking up

DETROIT - Detroit's Big Three automakers posted declines Thursday in car and light-truck sales for last month compared with a robust April a year ago, though results were better than the past couple of months.

GM, Ford and other automakers poured on incentives in April to boost sales after a lackluster start to the year.

Sales of new cars and trucks picked up in the latter half of April as the war wound down and some of the industry's most aggressive incentives clicked.

SEC leader blasts 'lack of contrition'

WASHINGTON - The nation's chief securities regulator lashed out at the head of Morgan Stanley, one of the Wall Street firms in a $1.4 billion settlement with the government, for suggesting that his firm's conduct didn't harm ordinary investors.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson accused Philip Purcell of showing ``a troubling lack of contrition.''

HealthSouth duo implicate founder

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Two former HealthSouth Corp. chief financial officers directly implicated company founder Richard M. Scrushy in the company's huge accounting scandal as they pleaded guilty in the fraud case Thursday.

Michael Martin and Tadd McVay told U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon that Scrushy was involved in the scheme to inflate earnings. They made the statements while pleading guilty to fraud, conspiracy and filing false financial reports.