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News In Brief

MID-DAY UPDATE: First time jobless numbers and wholesale prices are up

Katharine Crnko Apr 14, 2011

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

First, the number of people filing for first time jobless benefits unexpectedly rose to 412,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. That’s the first rise in three weeks. And the four-week average was up as well.

The government said today wholesale prices rose slightly in March mainly due to gasoline costs.

Personal computer shipments slipped last quarter, dropping 3 percent analysts say, thanks to new types of products hitting the market. In other words — tablet computers.

There’s likely to be a vote today in the U.S. House and Senate on the budget compromise that cuts billions of dollars from this year’s federal spending.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said demand for its cancer drug Avastin fell in the first three months of the year.

We’ll get quarterly results from Google today. Investors are waiting for the first extensive remarks from the company’s new CEO, Google co-founder Larry Page.

Virgin Airlines owner Richard Branson will honor the bet he made with AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes. The two wagered last year on whose race team would finish higher in the 2010 Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. Branson lost the bet. So on May 1st, aboard AirAsia’s 13-hour London to Kuala Lampur route, the billionaire Branson will be your flight attendant. Complete with shaved legs, high heels and a bright red dress.

From fake chicken — to real chicken… and onions and tomatoes and bacon and cheese and two hamburger patties. Those are the ingredients of the new Meat Monster from Burger King. It is certainly a calorie monster, packing more than 1,100 of them. It contains more salt than four bags of potato chips. It costs about $10 and thankfully for our waist lines it is only available in Japan. You can see a picture of the Meat Monster on our News In Brief blog.

And you can read the rest of the headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report here.

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