Bottom Lines

In a move widely anticipated by financial analysts, Intel Corp. has announced a 2-for-1 stock split that will make shares more affordable to investors. Intel, the world’s largest computer chipmaker with $26.2 billion in sales last year, said Thursday that the split takes effect April 11.

Ground workers at Northwest Airlines will vote Feb. 16 on a tentative contract agreement that would increase their wages 14 percent over four years.

More than 100,000 German industrial workers will walk off their jobs today in a pay dispute that has been building for weeks, union officials said.

Employers and the IG Metall union, Germany’s largest, ended their latest round of regional contract negotiations Thursday, hours before a midnight deadline lifting a no-strike pledge.

Brisk economic growth driven by consumer spending pushed up wages and benefits last year by 3.4 percent, the fastest clip in five years and a slight improvement over the 3.3 percent gain in 1997, the Labor Department said. In a separate report, the Labor Department said seasonally adjusted first-time applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 15,000 last week, to a seasonally adjusted 301,000.

The Commerce Department said orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket durable goods jumped 1.9 percent in December, a strong ending to the weakest year since the latest recession.

James P. Hoffa won a federal overseer’s approval to assume the Teamsters presidency, but the election monitor barred one of his running mates from taking office and delayed his decision on two union vice presidents from Canada.