IN BRIEF

ORLANDO, Fla.

Union members OK pact at Disney World

Union members representing about one-third of Walt Disney World’s workers approved a more than three-year contract, the company and union said.

The contract, approved late Wednesday, includes an enhanced pension plan, an agreement to cooperate on new scheduling plans and increases in pay, with most ranging from 4 percent to 5 percent annually.

Members rejected a contract in a May over concerns about raises and health care costs.

The council represents 21,000 of Disney World’s 60,000 employees, from food service to merchandise personnel, lifeguards, vacation planners, stage technicians and janitors.

PHILADELPHIA

Inquirer owner would join Dow Jones bid

The company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer would be interested in joining a bid to buy Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, The Inquirer reported Thursday.

“If there was a formalized bidding process, it would be our intention to participate,” said Brian Tierney, chief executive officer of Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C.

Philadelphia Media Holdings, which also owns the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, would participate with other investors in making a bid, Tierney told The Inquirer.

“We wouldn’t do it alone.”

RENO

U-Haul parent posts wider loss in quarter

Shares of Amerco, the holding firm of moving and storage company U-Haul International Inc., soared Thursday despite lower earnings that one analyst said were better than expected given a pricing war with a competitor.

Shares jumped $10.87, or 15.7 percent, to $80.25, then began to retreat slightly after hours.

“This is a seasonally weak period for the moving and storage industry,” said Jim Barrett, an analyst with the brokerage C.L. King & Associates. “Even though they reported a loss, it was less than I think analysts expected from the company.”

For the three months ended March 31, the company posted a loss to common shareholders of $18.9 million, or 89 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.4 million, or 7 cents per share during the same period last year.

Revenue fell 0.2 percent to $445.2 million from $446 million.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J.

Campbell Soup juices get distribution deal

V8 and other hot-selling juices produced by the Campbell Soup Co. could soon show up in a lot more places, particularly convenience stores, where they’ve been hard to find in the past.

The Camden-based company announced Thursday that Coca-Cola North America will distribute its juices in the United States and Canada, starting in September.

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which applies to single-serve bottles of V8, V8 V-Fusion, V8 Splash and Campbell’s tomato juices.

WASHINGTON

Credit-card company abuses addressed

Lawmakers said Thursday that stronger action than rules proposed by the Federal Reserve may be needed to curb abusive practices by credit card companies.

Throughout a lengthy hearing by a House Financial Services subcommittee, credit card companies’ practices were denounced as deceptive and predatory. Executives of banks that are major issuers of credit cards were put on the defensive in questioning by lawmakers from both parties.

TOKYO

Toyota global hybrid car sales top 1 million

A decade after the first Prius went on sale, Toyota’s global sales of hybrid vehicles have hit a landmark 1 million.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s cumulative sales of gas-and-electric-powered vehicles totaled 1.047 million as of the end of May. Of those, nearly 345,000 hybrids were sold in Japan, while 702,000 were sold abroad, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Sales of Toyota hybrids have climbed from 18,000 in 1998 to 312,500 last year, the company said.

AT&T, Verizon oppose proposal by Google

Mobile-phone giants AT&T and Verizon Wireless urged U.S. regulators to reject Google’s proposal for the mandatory resale of some airwaves the government plans to auction by January.

Google’s plan would disrupt the auction and diminish the airwaves’ value, AT&T and Verizon said in comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

Google, operator of the world’s most-visited group of Web sites, last month asked the agency to declare that winning bidders can lease unused airwaves to other carriers at wholesale rates, using a real-time auction process that would resemble Google’s method of setting ad prices on its search engine.

NEW YORK

Bond prices plunge as rate-cut hopes fade

U.S. Treasury bond prices endured some of their sharpest losses in three years Thursday, as investors slashed exposure to U.S. government bonds amid falling hopes of interest rate cuts.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note was down $12.19 per $1,000 in face value, or 1.22 points, from its level at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose to 5.13 percent from 4.97 percent.

The 30-year bond fell 2.06 points. Its yield rose to 5.23 percent from 5.08 percent.