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U.S. mortgage rates set a record low for the ninth straight week, making it cheaper to borrow and more attractive to refinance homes. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 4.42 percent in the week ended Thursday from 4.44 percent, Freddie Mac said in a statement. That was the lowest since the McLean, Va.-based mortgage finance company began compiling the data in 1971.

Home sales in California showed their largest year-over-year drop last month in more than two years, as the market attempted to weather an increasingly unsteady recovery without the help of federal tax credits, a tracking firm reported Thursday. San Diego-based MDA DataQuick said sales declined 21.9 percent to 35,202 homes last month from 45,079 homes in July 2009 and sank 19.9 percent from 43,964 homes in June. Last month was the slowest July since 2007, when 35,185 homes were sold, the firm said. July's year-over-year drop also was the steepest since March 2008, when the newly frozen credit market prompted a sales decline of 38.3 percent.

A private research group said its gauge of future economic activity edged up in July, suggesting growth will be sluggish for the rest of the year. The Conference Board said that its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.1 percent last month after dropping 0.3 percent in June. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a gain of 0.2 percent.

The British economy showed signs of strengthening after reports that the country's budget deficit shrank at a faster pace than expected in July and retail sales posted the biggest gain in five months. The government's net borrowing declined to 3.17 billion pounds ($5 billion) in July from 5.52 billion pounds a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics. The deficit was smaller than some economists had expected.

Workplace deaths fell 17 percent in 2009 to a record low on a decline in construction fatalities, as unemployment surged to the highest level in a quarter century. There were 4,340 deaths across all industries, compared with 5,214 a year earlier. Fatalities among private construction firms dropped 16 percent in 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a statement.

Jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney says declining work will force it to lay off about a quarter of its hourly labor force at a Connecticut repair plant. The subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. said Thursday it will lay off 129 hourly workers at its plant in Cheshire, a town southwest of Hartford. That will reduce the labor force from 520 to 391. The International Association of Machinists union says the East Hartford company could save workers' jobs by furloughing them or reducing overtime.

MasterCard Inc. said that it will pay $520 million in cash for DataCash Group, which provides merchants with electronic payment and fraud prevention services. The move is expected to help MasterCard bolster online use of cards that bear its name, particularly in Europe and Asia. DataCash, based in London, has 362 workers and posted $58 million in revenue last year.

Discount retailer Dollar General Corp. has begun selling beer and wine in some of its stores in the Southeast. The Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based company has sold food and drinks for years in its 9,000 stores in 35 states -- along with everything from home decor items to health and beauty supplies and apparel. Dollar General spokeswoman Tawn Earnest said the company expects to eventually offer beer or wine in half its stores, but declined to say which stores already are selling alcohol.

The $1 dinner from ConAgra Foods Inc., a staple for Americans throughout the recession, is under threat from rising commodity costs. ConAgra, which gets almost 3 percent of sales from products such as Zesty Smothered Meat Patty Banquet dinners, will have to raise prices or skimp on ingredients to maintain margins, said James Amoroso, a food industry consultant. That will provide an opportunity for Nestle, maker of Hot Pockets and Lean Cuisine, which has lost share to the Omaha, Neb.-based company, analysts said. Nestle had more than seven times the revenue of ConAgra in the companies' most recent fiscal years. The last time commodity prices surged, ConAgra introduced a new line of the single-serve Banquet meals with an average price to $1.50. Consumers ditched the brand, ConAgra's sales stagnated and the stock dropped more than a third from April to December 2008.

FROM NEWS SERVICES