Mark Brooks

1,371 rigs were exploring for oil and 379 for gas.

Seeking to block furloughs scheduled to start Sunday.

The national average for a gallon of regular fell about half a cent at $3.51 a gallon.

Expected to more than double by 2015.

Fitch estimates the U.K. economy is not expected to reach its 2007 level of real GDP until 2014.

46 percent of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the economy while 52 percent disapprove.

Treated wastewater can be reused in other wells, thus reducing the amount of fresh water that drillers use to fracture, or stimulate, well production.

Recall affects Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti JX SUVs from the 2013 model year.

Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds fell $1.89 billion to $903.56 billion, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said Thursday.

May corn dropped 16 cents, or 2.4 percent, to close at $6.445 a bushel Thursday.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde says the United States and many countries in Europe need to focus more on growth and less on trimming budget balances this year.

Thursday's decision made by New York Appeals Judge Richard Andrias offers Penney a short-term reprieve until an appellate panel of five judges makes the decision on that issue.

By early afternoon in New York, benchmark oil for May delivery was up $1.26, or 1.6 percent, to $87.94 a barrel.

The energy panel voted 21-1 Thursday to endorse Moniz, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Commissioner Karel de Gucht told reporters after a meeting of the 27-nation bloc's trade ministers in Dublin that the talks with Washington should be concluded by October 2014, when the term of the European Commission ends and a month before U.S. holds midterm elections.

The Federal Chancellery in the capital, Bern, said Thursday that the initiative known as "Save Our Swiss Gold" had gained more than the required 100,000 signatures to force a vote among Swiss citizens within the next few years.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported that natural gas in storage grew by 31 billion cubic feet to 1.704 trillion cubic feet for the week ended April 12.

Perez also pledges to continue the Labor Department's aggressive enforcement of safety, wage, and hour laws.

Copper fell 11.8 cents to $3.1875 a pound, a drop of 3.6 percent.

Court officials said Wednesday that Yannos Papantoniou's wife, Stavroula Kourakou, was also granted bail of €20,000 ($26,000).