National Business

TORONTO — Canada's main stock index gained almost 300 points on a broad-based rally led by base metal stocks as the price of oil reached US$90 per barrel, while U.S. stock markets also rose.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street after a blizzard of reports suggested the U.S. economy is still humming, though inflation may be too. The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% Thursday. The Dow rose 331 points and the Nasdaq composite added 0.8%.

The last of four men charged in a scheme to steal millions of dollars worth of crude oil in western North Dakota has been sentenced.

STELLARTON, N.S. — Empire Co. Ltd. earned $261.0 million in its latest quarter, up from $187.5 million in the same quarter last year, boosted by the sale of its 56 gas stations in Western Canada to Shell Canada, the grocer said Thursday.

TORONTO — A new report from an advocacy group finds two of Canada's biggest insurers are taking steps toward climate action, but still have a ways to go. The report from Investors for Paris Compliance says climate action from Sun Life Financial Inc.

Montreal billionaire Robert Miller, who faces a class-action lawsuit alleging he paid underage girls for sex, is selling his company Future Electronics Inc. for more than $5 billion to a Taiwanese semiconductor distributor. WT Microelectronics Co.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans stepped up retail spending modestly from July to August as the price of gasoline jumped, cutting into budgets as many families send their kids off to school. Retail sales rose 0.6% in August, compared with a revised 0.

TORONTO — The U.S. benchmark price of oil has topped US$90 per barrel for the first time since late last year. The October futures contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude oil was up US$1.57 at US$90.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Kosovo and Serbia on Thursday failed yet again to make progress in talks aimed at improving their long-strained relations , and the European Union’s top diplomat warned that the lack of progress could hurt their hopes of joining the b

MONTREAL — Shares of Laurentian Bank were down more than 10 per cent in morning trading after it announced it had completed its review of strategic options without a deal to sell the bank.