Gasoline prices surged well above $3 a gallon in some parts of the nation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Many gasoline dealers are caught between oil companies and angry consumers, who often wonder if rapidly rising pump prices are a sign of price gouging.

If consumers do not heed warnings to refrain from panicked buying, industry officials and analysts said, the situation could worsen.

Hurricane Katrina not only killed at least hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in damage, it also set off the first oil shock of the 21st century.

Job prospects in the manufacturing sector have fallen to their weakest level in two years, a survey suggests.

Perhaps no city in the U.S. is in a better spot than Houston to turn Katrina's tragedy into opportunity. And businesses there are already scrambling to profit.

Federal prosecutors plan to name as many as a dozen new defendants in their investigation of questionable tax shelters sold by the accounting firm KPMG.

The hurricane will cause an estimated $2 billion in damage to farmers nationwide, according to an early analysis.

The quick decision by Ruth's Chris Steakhouse to move its headquarters out of New Orleans may foreshadow a painful exodus of other companies.

The nation's roads are a moving laboratory of alternatives to gasoline combustion engines, often being driven by average Americans, if in small numbers.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe accuses the IMF of giving no real help to developing states.

Months before the F.D.A. issued an alert about Guidant heart devices, the agency received a report from Guidant showing that some of the devices were short-circuiting.

Oracle, the giant database-software maker, announced on Monday that it would pay $5.85 billion to acquire Siebel Systems.

Northwest and Delta have been hit hard by the spike in jet fuel prices and by the relentless competition in the industry.

With the filings of Northwest and Delta for bankruptcy, half the seats on flights in the U.S. are offered by airlines operating under court protection.

NBC is using tactics evocative of a red-state presidential campaign to promote a new show aimed at a rural audience.

The pornography industry is eyeing the cellphone as a lucrative new vehicle for distribution.

Germans go the polls in a tight election that will decide the country's agenda for economic reform.

Angela Merkel's conservatives win the German election by just three seats, heralding days or weeks of uncertainty.

The sentencing for L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark H. Swartz follows a parade of other substantial terms imposed on former executives convicted of white-collar crimes.

Saying that Hurricane Katrina was unlikely to pose a 'persistent threat' to the economy, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Tuesday.

The close relationships between doctors and device makers are an issue in the upward cost spiral of implantable devices.

Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony, announced that Sony would cut 10,000 jobs, shed unprofitable products and centralize decision-making.

The cost of insurance for homes and businesses is expected to rise in the Gulf Coast states because of Hurricane Katrina, and even more so with Hurricane Rita.

Finance ministers from around the world reached agreement on a plan to wipe out as much as $55 billion in debt owed by impoverished countries.

Boeing has reached a tentative agreement with its machinists' union, whose more than 18,000 members have been on strike for 24 days.

WellPoint, the giant health insurer, will acquire WellChoice, the largest health insurer in New York State and the parent of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Dell, which has beaten its competition by slicing profit margins and turning low-price computers into a commodity, is now turning to the high end.

Criminal investigators are apparently involved in a federal inquiry on problems with Guidant's heart devices.

Natural gas prices set a record yesterday, pointing to sharply higher heating bills for a majority of Americans this winter.