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News In Brief

MID-DAY UPDATE: McDonald’s is hiring, oil at 2.5-year high

Katharine Crnko Apr 4, 2011

Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and around the web.

McDonald’s is hiring. The company will hold its first national hiring day on April 19th to fill — get this — 50,000 jobs at its restaurants across the country. That’s in part to keep more of its restaurants open 24 hours a day.

Oil is at a 2.5-year high. That strong jobs report from the Labor Department on Friday sent the price of crude bubbling up to 108 dollars a barrel.

Low-cost carrier AirTran had the best overall performance of the 16 largest U.S. carriers last year in an annual study of airline quality.

Minmetals Resources says it wants to make an all-cash offer of $6.5 billion to buy Equinox Minerals. Minmetals is the Hong Kong unit of China’s biggest metal trading firm.

General Electric Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt defended the nuclear industry’s safety record on Monday during a trip to Tokyo to show his support to the operator of a stricken nuclear plant using reactors designed by the U.S. conglomerate.

As baseball season gets underway, Facebook wanted to see which teams are the most “liked”. Well, here are the stats: Phillies fans are the most loyal because they are least willing to “like” other teams. The Yankees, the Indians and the Blue Jays have the most fair weather fans — who only like them when they’re winning. While Los Angeles is home to the two teams that are most lacking in Facebook friendship.

A New York man had an idea. Buy one of those old Staten Island Ferries and convert it into college dorms for students. But docking fees cost waaay too much. New York wants $1,000 a day to dock in Manhattan. So Jacques Guillet told the Wall Street Journal he needs to sell the boat — no takers yet. His broker thinks he’s off his rocker for buying the boat in the first place. Some interested parties are thinking about using it as an antique gallery,with all the stuff on board for sale. Or for floating wedding receptions.

You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.

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