Business news with words department+francisco. 34 news.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)-- Technology stocks were largely in the red in early trading Thursday as the sector reacted to the latest durable-goods data. The latest figures from the Commerce Department showed durable goods orders rising just 0.1% in November. Among bellwether tech stocks, declines came from Microsoft Corp. , Hewlett-Packard Co. , Intel Corp. and Dell Inc. . The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 11 points to 2,713.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The results of the Treasury Department's 3-month and 6-month bill auction show demand remains robust for risk-free short-term instruments ahead of the end of the year. The Treasury awarded $20 billion in 3-month bills at 3.28%, compared with last week's 3.0%. The bid-to-cover -- which measures bids received to bids tendered -- was 2.32, unchanged from last week. The indirect bid, a carefully watched category that includes foreign buyers, was 26.4%, up from 16.0% the week before. The Treasury also awarded $19 billion in 6-month bills at 3.49% compared with 3.28% last week. The indirect bid rose to 37.1% from 30.5% and the bid-to-cover rose to 2.61 from 2.34 last week. The auction "was well-bid, helped by the $2 billion cut in offering size to $39 billion, though light trading conditions limited demand," wrote analysts at Action Economics.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Treasurys were slightly lower Monday, pushing up yields, as firm stock prices decreased the appeal of fixed-income assets in extremely thin pre-holiday trading. U.S. bond trading will end early on Monday, and overnight Japanese and German markets were closed Monday for holidays. "With the holiday-shortened week, our expectations for any paradigm shifting events are pretty light," said David Ader, U.S. government bond strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. "With the bench players now in the field until the New Year, we would err on the side of limited conviction for any moves over the next few trading sessions." The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down 7/32 at 100 12/32, with a yield of 4.2%. The 30-year bond was down 10/32 at 106 9/32 with a yield of 4.61%. The two-year note was down 2/32 at 99 26/32 with a yield of 3.21%. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department will sell $22 billion in two-year notes, and on Thursday, it will sell $13 billion in five-year notes.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- FedEx Corp. said late Friday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it received a grand jury subpoena in December to produce documents related to an ongoing criminal antitrust probe by the Department of Justice. The probe is related to possible anti-competitive behavior in the international air freight forwarding industry. FedEx said it does not believe it has engaged in any anti-competitive practices and is cooperating with the probe.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil rallied more than $2 Friday to over $93 a barrel after a government report showed November U.S. consumer spending increased by the largest margin in more than two years, easing fears that oil demand from the world's largest crude consumer may slow. Crude oil for February delivery ended the session up $2.25, or 2.5%, at $93.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Commerce Department reported Friday that U.S. nominal consumer spending increased 1.1%, the most in two and a half years. Economists had been expecting November's spending to rise 0.9%. At the same time, nominal incomes only rose 0.4% in the same month.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Lucent Technologies Inc., now a part of Alcatel-Lucent , agreed to pay a $1 million fine to resolve allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Department of Justice said Friday. The agreement concludes an investigation into whether Lucent violated the FCPA when the company provided travel and other things of value to Chinese government officials and improperly accounted for certain corporate expenditures on behalf of those officials in company books and records. The allegations date back to before Lucent's merger with Alcatel SA in November 2006.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Social Security Administration and a slew of health-related Web sites earned top rankings this year, while the Department of Homeland Security hit bottom in a survey of customer satisfaction with federal government Web sites.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Cognos Inc. said late Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have granted early termination of the mandatory waiting period for the purchase of the company by IBM . Under the agreement announced last month, IBM will pay $58 for each Cognos share.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- American Airlines, a subsidiary of AMR Corp. said late Tuesday it will apply to the Department of Transportation to begin codeshare cooperation with El Al Israel Airlines, starting Feb. 1, 2008. Under the proposed plan, American would place its designator code on El Al flights to Tel Aviv from key U.S. airports as well as on El Al fights to Tel Aviv from European locations. In turn, El Al would place its designator code on certain of American Airlines domestic flights out of El Al's North American gateways. El Al would also codeshare on American's flights between the United States and European destinations.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Department of Transportation said Monday that efforts to crack down on certain flights that almost always show up late appear to be working, with none of the 183 most chronically delayed flights in early 2007 earning those black marks in the third quarter.

Last week, a round-trip airfare on Northwest Airlines to San Francisco could be booked for $118, about one-third of its usual cost, as Northwest responded to a special, $49 each-way promotion by low-fare carrier Sun Country. That type of dogfight is becoming more common at large U.S. airports as more of them see low-fare carriers establish a significant presence. "The airline industry is likely the most competitive it has ever been," concludes an analysis by former senior U.S. Department of Transportation officials. More passengers "are benefiting from increased numbers of competitors, incre

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The dollar was mixed Friday, gaining on the yen as stocks opened higher but slipping against the euro and pound sterling as expections mounted for another U.S. interest rate cut next month after relatively dovish remarks last night by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Commerce Department data released Friday were downbeat, showing growth in U.S. consumer spending ground to a halt in October, while inflation eroded American households' modest gains in income, but the Chicago purchasing managers' index was better than expected. "The news stream has been dollar negative and the bottom end of the euro's range has now been formed," wrote currency strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman. The dollar bought 110.90 yen, up more than one yen from 109.87 in late U.S. trading Thursday. The euro was buying $1.4758, up from $1.4743, and the pound was trading at $2.0627, up from $2.0609 late Thursday. The dollar's gains on the yen lifted the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies. It rose to 75.680, up from 75.640 Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- KMG America Corp. said Friday its shareholders approved the proposed acquisition of the company by Humana Inc. The deal still needs approval by the South Carolina Department of Insurance. The companies expect the acquisition to close late in the fourth quarter, or as early as Nov. 30.

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Department of Justice told a judge Friday it sees no reason to extend restrictive antitrust oversight of Microsoft Corp.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Natural gas supplies rose by 36 billion cubic feet to 3,545 billion cubic feet as of Nov. 2, the Energy Department reported on Thursday, matching an estimate from analysts at MF Global. After the data, natural gas for December delivery rose 6.2 cents, or 0.8%, to $7.686 per million British thermal units.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The chances of getting bumped from a flight worsened in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, according to figures released Monday by the Department of Transportation, which is considering raising the maximum amount airlines pay to compensate customers for being bumped from overbooked flights.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- WellCare Health Plans Inc. said late Friday that a special committee under its board of directors will conduct an independent investigation into matters raised as part of ongoing investigation by federal and state agencies. The special committee will also develop and recommend to the board any remedial measures the committee finds may be warranted. The move follows a raid of WellCare's offices in Tampa by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and the Florida Attorney General's Medicaid fraud-control unit last month.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Airline shares inched lower in morning trade Wednesday as oil prices resumed their climb above $91 a barrel. The Amex Airline Index fell 0.2% with 10 of 14 stocks in the benchmark index slipping. Crude oil futures were up $1.01 at $91.39 a barrel, as traders bid up the December contract ahead of the Energy Department's weekly report on petroleum inventories. Outside the index, Hawaiian Holdings shares jumped 19.6% to $5.25 a share. Late Tuesday, its flagship carrier Hawaiian Airlines said it had won a ruling over misuse of confidential information in a lawsuit against Mesa Air Group and was awarded $80 million in damages. Mesa Air shares fell 2.9% to $4.95.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Justice Department has dropped all criminal charges against a Chinese national accused of selling technology made by his Silicon Valley employer to a Chinese cruise missile laboratory, court records show.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Kahn Gauthier Swick LLC filed a class-action lawsuit against WellCare Health Plans Inc. in U.S. district court for the middle district of Florida, Tampa division, on behalf of shareholders who purchased WellCare stock between May 8, 2006 to Oct. 24, the law firm said Friday. The move comes after a raid of WellCare's offices in Tampa by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and the Florida Attorney General's Medicaid fraud-control unit earlier in the week.