Prices

Russia's state-controlled natural gas company said it was hiking the price it wants Ukraine to pay, hardening its position in a dispute that has cut off supplies. Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said the company wants $450 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from its last offer of $418. Russia's tough stance may reflect both political and economic considerations. Gazprom is deep in debt, and Ukraine has angered Moscow by seeking to join NATO and by supporting Georgia during its August war with Russia.

Russia's state gas monopoly said it would resume shipping gas through Ukraine today, nearly a week after it shut off the taps to more than 15 European countries. Russia and Ukraine have been arguing over gas prices, past debts and allegations of theft. They also jockeyed over an EU-brokered deal to send pipeline monitors to ensure that restored gas shipments reach their destination.

Southland home prices: A chart in Sunday's Business section on median prices for resale single-family houses and condos was incorrectly labeled as showing a comparison of December 2008 with December 2007. The figures were for all of 2008 compared with all of 2007.

Boeing Co., the world's second-biggest maker of commercial aircraft, raised airliner prices about 2.6% on average to account for higher costs of labor and materials. The new prices went into effect Wednesday, Chicago-based Boeing said. The increase is lower than the company's average annual price increase of about 4% during the last 10 years, a spokesman said. Boeing last year negotiated new contracts with its machinists union, a pact signed after a two-month strike, and its engineers.

Down an alley from a KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut in Shanghai, Li Hong sat inside a dingy little storefront that serves full-course dinners for a dollar. Her tray was filled with cabbage, carrots, potatoes, a chicken leg and rice, plus soup. A Western fast-food meal would have cost her three times that much, said the young woman, who works as a sales clerk. "Why should I go there?" she said. In the U.S., fast-food chains often thrive in tough times. But not so in China, where Western quick-service food isn't the cheapest stuff in town and, in target markets like Shanghai, there's too much competition.

Profits for U.S. farmers will fall to the lowest since 2003 as crop prices stay below last year's records and expenses decline more slowly than revenues, the government said. Net farm income will drop 20% to $71.2 billion this year, down from a revised $89.3 billion in 2008, the highest ever, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. The USDA in November projected 2008 net farm income at $86.9 billion. Corn, wheat and soybean prices have fallen at least 40% from last year's records.

Regarding the Your Money story "Deflation: When low prices buy high anxiety," Feb. 8: Instead of focusing on price deflation of a service item that is largely a discretionary purchase, you would better serve readers with an article on how, despite the severe loss of jobs and the decrease in wages and retirement savings, a lot of nondiscretionary consumer items have not dropped in price at the retail level. Food staples such as bread, pasta, sugar, flour, milk, vegetables, fruit and juice and household essentials such as toilet paper, cleaners, paper towels and disposable diapers have largely remained at the same inflated prices.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is raising prices on North American airport rentals by $5 a day and $30 a week. The increase was prompted by the rising costs of vehicle maintenance and repair as well as the slow used-car market, which reduced the value of fleet vehicles it sells to the public, the Park Ridge, N.J.-based company said.

The era of one-price-fits-all-songs on iTunes came to an end as Apple Inc. began selling some of its most-downloaded songs for $1.29 apiece. Apple said in January that it would end its practice of selling individual songs for 99 cents each and begin offering three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies pick the prices, much as they did for CDs sold in stores and online.