Slowdown

CHICAGO - Andrew Sobotka was delayed five hours last week on a flight back to Chicago from Las Vegas, where he and his hockey teammates were celebrating the team captain's birthday. Because of the delay, he and several teammates of the Chicago Gay Hockey Assn. didn't get home until 4 a.m., he said. "A major inconvenience," he said. "Obviously, everyone has to go to work the next day. " Sobotka, 26, of Chicago said he was especially annoyed that American treated people in his party differently, offering some of them rebooking and higher-compensation travel vouchers.

A heated labor dispute between American Airlines and its pilots got uglier this week, possibly setting the stage for more flight delays and cancellations over the weekend. American, whose parent company AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection last year, got approval earlier this month from a Bankruptcy Court judge to throw out the pilots' previous contract. The airline said it wanted to cut labor costs up to 20% companywide. But contract negotiations with the pilots have not gone smoothly.

WASHINGTON - U.S. manufacturers have been a key source of job growth in the slow economic recovery. But the factory doors slammed shut last month to new hires, creating another barrier to bringing down the high unemployment rate. With the European recession helping reduce demand for U.S. exports, the pace of manufacturing job growth has slowed in recent months. The steam disappeared from the manufacturing sector in August amid increasing anxiety by factory owners about tax increases and large government spending cuts looming next year.

SAO PAULO, Brazil — If the Brazilian economic boom is over, that's news to Maria da Conceicao Souza, who is standing in the scorching winter sun in Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo's largest slum. In the last six months, Souza has been able to set up her own beauty salon in the favela , shortly after bagging her first real job in her 36 years. Business has been increasing steadily, she says, driven by customers from Brazil's new middle class, whose rise out of poverty has been one of the most potent symbols of the country's emergence as an economic power.

WASHINGTON - The nation's trade deficit narrowed for the second straight month in May as American exports eked out a 0.2% gain from April - despite the global economic slowdown and the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Though the latest data are better than expected, other indicators suggest U.S. exporters will feel an increasingly bigger hit from the Eurozone crisis and the slowdown in China. Manufacturing has been a big contributor to the American recovery and job growth, but it has weakened since spring along with the broader economy.

NEW YORK — Stocks took a plunge on Wall Street as investors saw weak U.S. economic data and more European financial trouble. The Dow Jones industrial average's 251-point drop Thursday came ahead of a highly anticipated ratings downgrade of major U.S. banks. After the market closed, Moody's Investors Service cut ratings on 15 of the world's biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Major U.S. stock indexes closed down about 2%. The Dow shed 250.82 points, or 2%, closing at 12,573.57.

Worldwide television shipments fell nearly 8% year over year in the first quarter, marking the steepest rate of decline since the second quarter of 2009. TV shipments totaled 51 million units for the quarter, according to a report from market research firm NPD DisplaySearch. The firm said the biggest contributor to the decline was a slowdown in shipments of LCD TVs, which fell year over year for the first time in the history of the category. "Soft demand and cautious expectations about the upcoming year in many parts of the TV supply chain have led to a slowdown in shipments," said Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV Research for NPD DisplaySearch.

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke maintained that the economy was continuing to grow at a moderate pace, despite the recent sharp deceleration in job growth and a slowdown in economic output in large part because of government spending cuts. In remarks Thursday before the Congress' Joint Economic Committee, Bernanke noted the weakening of hiring this spring as job growth slowed to an average of 75,000 a month in April and May from 225,000 in the first three months of the year.

Who wants to have breakfast, or a bauble, at Tiffany's? Neither tourists nor traders, apparently. Luxury jewelry chain Tiffany & Co. slashed its forecast for the year, as did Kay and Jared owner Signet Jewelers. Investors were displeased, sending Tiffany's stock down 8% to $56.83 a share in midday trading in New York. Signet took a 11.5% drop to $42.28. Concerns about Greece and debt in the Eurozone as well as high silver prices and discounts from rivals have shoppers, especially Wall Street financial types, spending less at Tiffany's, the company said.

BEIJING — After months of careful tinkering aimed at slowing China's supercharged economy, Chinese officials may have gotten more than they bargained for: The nation's economic engine is decelerating with alarming speed. Industrial production in April hit its slowest pace in more than three years, while growth in exports sputtered and imports were flat. In response, China's central bank over the weekend said it would ease reserve requirements for the nation's banks. The move frees about $70 billion for lending to stimulate the economy.