The Pittsburgh region's unemployment rate for July declined to 5.4 percent from 5.6 percent in June. It marked the fifth straight month that employment gap narrowed from year-ago levels.
Tuesday
Mylan Laboratories Inc. CEO Robert Coury said he has had no contact with Wall Street financier Carl Icahn, who received regulatory approval to acquire up to $500 million in Mylan shares. Coury was emphatic that the company is committed to completing its $3 billion deal to acquire King Pharmaceuticals Inc. and he downplayed Icahn's ability to interfere. Coury said the deal could be completed by early December.
The Consumer Confidence Index dropped in July to its lowest point since May, according to the Conference Board, although the Commerce Department said a day earlier that consumers actually spent more in July than they had since May.
The World Trade Organization approved $150 million in sanctions against the United States in reprisal for its failing to rescind a law that allows U.S. companies to be direct beneficiaries of import duties of certain foreign goods.
Wednesday
US Airways and its pilots' union continued concession talks as a growing rift inside the union's leadership group threatened to keep any possible agreement from coming to a vote among the group's 3,300 pilots. Four Pennsylvania-based members of the union's Master Executive Council who are dissatisfied with management proposals to cut pilot pensions could veto any agreement reached. The pilots were finishing a proposal with the airline as the week concluded, but there was no indication when a vote might occur.
Thursday
TrizecHahn Corp., a Toronto-based commercial real estate company, put its four Gateway Center office buildings Downtown -- totalling 1.44 million square feet -- up for sale. It acquired the buildings in 1995 for $51.5 million.
Del Monte Foods Co. reported a 41 percent profit decrease it attributed to integration costs from the H.J. Heinz soup, baby food, pet food and tuna brands it acquired in 2002.
Friday
Employers stepped up hiring in August, expanding payrolls by 144,000, while the nation's unemployment rate edged downward to 5.4 percent.
