Oil prices shoot up, fall back in market trading

Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday after briefly surpassing $54 a barrel amid nagging concerns in the market that the global supply buffer is too thin to handle a significant output disruption.

Intel profits up 15 percent despite lull in PC sales

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Driven by record sales of server and mobile microprocessors and a bigger slice of the flash memory market, Intel Corp.'s third-quarter profits rose 15 percent even as it struggled with lackluster PC sales.

U.S. clothiers request help from White House

WASHINGTON -- U.S. textile and clothing manufacturers petitioned the Bush administration Tuesday to protect them against a surge of Chinese imports next year when worldwide quotas are removed, arguing that thousands of U.S. jobs are at stake. The industry wants the administration to impose limits of 7.5 percent on the growth of Chinese products in 10 categories.

Florida's orange crop to be smallest in 10 years

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Florida will have the smallest orange crop in a decade after hurricanes blew fruit off trees and flooded groves in the state that produces 75 percent of the nation's citrus, a federal forecast released Tuesday shows. Grapefruit production will be down by two-thirds.

-- From wire reports