The nation’s two largest railroads have hauled record amounts of coal from the mines in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana this year, but Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. still struggle to keep up with utility demand and existing contracts.
If utilities run low on coal during the high demand of winter, they [...]

European mining stocks rose as gold climbed to a two-month high in Asia and copper prices gained. Anglo American Plc and BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining companies, paced the advance.
Alcatel SA led export stocks lower after the dollar dropped against the euro. GlaxoSmithKline Plc paced a decline by drugmakers for a third day.
The Dow [...]

MUMBAI - Two-month-high prices and shopping fatigue after a string of festivals last month have seen Indian gold demand for the wedding season easing this week.
Dealers and traders said retail shopping for trousseaus is yet to commence as consumers wait for the right price and the right time to buy gold.
“Demand will pick up,” said [...]

PORTLAND, Ore. - PacifiCorp said it is cutting construction plans for coal plants in half, but opponents are not satisfied.
PacifiCorp has been under pressure from watchdog groups and Oregon state regulators who oppose the company’s plans to build four coal plants.
And a block [...]

Shares of ethanol producers fell Friday after an analyst cut his rating on two companies and slashed his price target for a third, citing concerns about weakening pricing power for the industry.
Ian Horowitz of Soleil Securities Group trimmed his expectations for the price producers will receive for ethanol through 2008, “due to both the overall [...]

Sales at U.S. retailers increased for a third straight month in September as cheaper gasoline put Americans in the mood to spend, a government report is forecast to show this week.
Purchases rose 0.2 percent, matching the rise in August, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey before the Commerce Department’s [...]