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An index of leading economic indicators rose 1% last month, the biggest gain in three-and-a-half years, the New York-based Conference Board said Thursday.

Manufacturing levels in the Philadelphia region contracted this month at the slowest pace in eight months, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.

Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 last week, while the number of people receiving continuing claims reached a new record high, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Third-party logistics firm DLJ Express will be sold to investment company Arcadia Capital Group, the company that arranged the sale said.

Federal Reserve officials said at their meeting last month that the Fed may need to boost its purchases of assets to secure a stronger economic recovery, though policymakers agreed to hold off on such a move.

U.S. motorists drove 1.2% fewer miles in March than a year earlier, the Federal Highway Administration said Wednesday.

Reversing the recent trend of declining holiday travel, 1.5% more Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home during Memorial Day weekend than did last year, the motorist group AAA estimated.