Americans reduce driving 1.4 billion miles With gas prices at record levels above $4 a gallon, Americans are driving less and abandoning gas-guzzling vehicles, according to government data. Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April compared with the same month last year, and 400 million fewer miles than they did in March, according to the Transportation Department. Sales of midsize sport-utility vehicles were down 38 percent year-over-year in May, while cars represented 57 percent of sales last month, compared with less than half of all vehicle purchases last year, the department said. Gasoline demand will likely decline in 2008 for the first time in 17 years, energy consulting firm Cambridge Energy Research Associates said Thursday.

U.S. economic indicators rise -- barely The economy is limping along at a snail's pace, a private business group said Thursday. The New York-based Conference Board said its economic indicators rose 0.1 percent in May, matching expectations of economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR. The increase in the indicators, a measure of future economic activity, equaled April's advance. The Conference Board revised March's number down from 0.1 percent to zero. The index is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months, based on 10 components, including stock prices, building permits and initial claims for unemployment benefits.

Citigroup CFO warns of more write-downs Citigroup Incorporated's chief financial officer on Thursday warned that the nation's largest bank by assets would suffer more substantial write-downs on debt investments in the second quarter. CFO Gary Crittenden also said that there will likely be more write-downs related to leveraged loans and bond insurers. He said that credit costs on the whole would be higher in the second quarter than in the first, largely because of reserve builds in the mortgage portfolio. Citigroup shares fell 23 cents Thursday, or 1.1 percent, to $20.17. Crittenden spoke at a conference sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

Icahn loses Biogen Idec board battle Carl Icahn lost his campaign to elect a slate of dissident nominees to the board of Biogen Idec Inc. on Thursday, an effort the activist investor hoped would eventually trigger a sale of the 30-year-old biotechnology firm to a major pharmaceutical company. Despite shareholders' election of four company-backed nominees rather than Icahn's three candidates, one of the billionaire's nominees, Alexander Denner of Icahn Partners, said afterward that Biogen Idec's management had agreed to meet with him to discuss ways of improving the company's prospects, including strengthening drug research and employee morale. Without releasing vote totals, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company said its nominees -- Stelios Papadopoulos, Cecil Pickett, Lynn Schenk, and Phillip Sharp -- had won the four open seats on the company's 12-member board. A vote tally is expected in about two weeks.

Mortgage rates rise to nine-month high Rates on 30-year mortgages rose to the highest level in nearly nine months. Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.42 percent this week -- up sharply from 6.32 percent last week. Other types of mortgages also increased, according to the Freddie Mac survey. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.02 percent, up from 5.93 percent last week. The five-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 5.89 percent, up from 5.70 percent last week. The rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 5.19 percent, compared with 5.09 percent a week ago.

Former UBS exec pleads guilty to fraud A former UBS executive pleaded guilty to helping clients hide hundreds of millions of dollars and evade U.S. taxes in a case that is part of a probe into whether the Swiss banking giant did the same for other wealthy individuals. In federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Bradley Birkenfeld, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. He earlier had pleaded not guilty, but changed the plea and agreed to help prosecutors in the wider probe. The charge carries a potential five-year prison term and $250,000 in fines.

World Bank expects more inflation in China The World Bank lifted its inflation forecast for China this year to 7 percent from 4.6 percent, saying that higher food and industrial commodity prices are spilling over into wages and the general economy. The institution's China Quarterly Update report noted that food prices have started to fade, which should bring inflation down to 5.3 percent in 2009. The report forecast the Sichuan earthquake will have little effect on China's economic growth, with gross domestic product likely to rise 9.8 percent this year, up from its earlier forecast of 9.6 percent growth.