Daily Herald business

Chrysler LLC has expanded early retirement and buyout offers for workers at six of the eight factories that it plans to close as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.

Monster Worldwide Inc., which runs the Monster job search Web site, has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle federal civil charges that it secretly backdated options for its executives and employees.

Homebuilders are growing more optimistic about the state of housing and say they see signs that the end of the housing market's three-year downward spiral may be near.

Caterpillar Inc. said it will cut hours at least in half for nearly 1,000 workers at its Lafayette engine plant in its second work reduction announced this month and third in two months.

Critical concession talks between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers are being overshadowed by a public spat about the automaker's plans to import vehicles from other countries while it closes 16 U.S. factories.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider media executive Conrad Black's appeal of his fraud conviction. Black is serving a 6½ year prison term.

Elk Grove Village-based Tasty Catering announced today that it's acquiring the assets of Rosanne's Catering Services, a 21-year-old catering and events company based in Bloomingdale.

Although yellow-page publisher R.H. Donnelley Corp. obtained a forbearance agreement when the 30-day grace period expired on the $55 million interest payment it didn't make April 15 on one issue of unsecured notes, the company failed to make another $78 million of interest payments due May 15.

Although the reorganization of shopping-mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. is the largest real-estate bankruptcy in U.S. history, the company doesn't need two large law firms, the U.S. Trustee said in an objection last week to the retention of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

The price of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 25 cents a gallon during the past three weeks, but remains well below prices from a year ago. That's according to the national Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday.

Insurer American International Group Inc. said late Sunday it plans to spin off its Asian life insurance unit in an initial public offering to help repay billions of dollars in U.S. government loans.

Oil prices rose above $57 a barrel Monday as traders considered whether last week's push to above $60 was justified amid signs of weak crude demand. Attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria helped support prices.

Lowe's Cos. Inc. said Monday that its fiscal first-quarter profit fell 22 percent but still managed to top Wall Street's expectations as it cut prices on fewer items.

As Americans grow accustomed during the recession to spending more time at home and living in the same places longer, home-improvement companies are regaining momentum.

Hoping to do for the written word what iTunes did for music, the online document-sharing service Scribd is opening an Internet store that will offer new sales opportunities for authors and publishers, and possibly spawn more bargains for book lovers.

Reassuring news about housing and banking have convinced investors to return to the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average is ending up about 235 points on Monday, making up more than half of last week's losses.

At 789 Chrysler lots across America sit 44,000 potential bargains, cars and trucks that are stuck between shellshocked dealers and a troubled company that no longer wants their services.

The worst seems to be over, President Barack Obama's budget director said Sunday. But he also warned against taking signs of economic recovery as a reason to celebrate or delay changes in health care policy.

When gas prices hit $4 a gallon last summer, Joyce and Ricky Eagle of Warrenton, Va., simply padded their travel budget a little before tooling around the Midwest in their motor home.

After acing their "stress tests," some big banks are rushing to raise capital and return billions in federal bailout money. But don't expect it to replenish government coffers.