Stocks edge higher after ADP employment survey

NEW YORK — Stocks edged higher in early trading Wednesday after a private survey showed that U.S. companies increased hiring at a rapid pace. The report is the latest sign that the economy is strengthening after an unusually harsh winter.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 rose four points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,889 as of 11:12 a.m. Eastern. The index is at an all-time high. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,561. The Nasdaq composite climbed 10 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,279.

NOW HIRING: A private survey showed that U.S. companies increased hiring at a rapid pace last month. Payroll processer ADP said Wednesday that private employers added 191,000 jobs in March. ADP also revised February's job creation up to 153,000 from an originally reported 139,000. The report comes ahead of the government's monthly jobs report, scheduled to be released on Friday.

MANUFACTURING STRENGTH: The S&P 500 closed at a record on Tuesday after the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 53.7 in March, up from 53.2 in February. Readings above 50 indicate expansion. The Commerce Department reported separately that orders to U.S. factories rose 1.6 percent in February, the most in five months.

SLUMPING ENROLLMENT: Apollo education slumped $3.07, or 9 percent, to $32.10 after the company reported revenue that fell short of investor's expectations. The company said that new student enrollment at its University of Phoenix fell drank 16.5 percent.

HEALING POWER: MannKind soared $3.25, or 80 percent, to $7.25 after FDA advisers voted unanimously to recommend approval of the drug Afrezza, a fast-acting insulin, for patients with the most common form of diabetes. MannKind has no products on the market and lost more than $191 million last year.

TITANS OF INDUSTRY: Industrial companies were among the leading gainers in the S&P 500 index on Tuesday. The sector has gained 3 percent over the last week, as signs have emerged that manufacturing is strengthening. That makes it the best performer of the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P 500.

"The market is confirming what we're starting to see in the numbers, which is that we're going to get a bit of a lift," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

BONDS AND COMMODITIES: Government bonds fell after the ADP report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.80 percent from 2.75 percent. The price of oil fell 64 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $99.10 a barrel. Gold rose $12.10, or 0.9 percent, to $1,292 an ounce.

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Amazon cancels plan for Czech distribution center

PRAGUE — U.S. retail giant Amazon says it has abandoned plans to build a distribution center in the Czech Republic's second largest city after it was rejected by local authorities.

Brno councilors three times rejected the plan, which would have created up to 2,000 jobs, arguing the land Amazon wanted to build on was not zoned for such projects.

Tim Collins, who is in charge of Amazon's European operations, said in a statement Wednesday that Amazon respects this decision and will look to open its center in another Eastern European country. No details were given.

Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis called Brno's rejection "absurd."

Collins says Amazon's existing plan to build a similar center near Prague's international airport has not been affected by the failure of the Brno project.

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AP Interview: Yanukovych hopes for Crimea's return

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Ukraine's ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych, said Wednesday that he was "wrong" to invite Russian troops into Crimea, and vowed to try to persuade Russia to return the Black Sea peninsula.

In his first interview since fleeing to Russia in February, Yanukovych told The Associated Press and Russia's state NTV television that he still hopes to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to get back the coveted region.

Russia annexed Crimea last month following a hastily called referendum held after Russian troops took control of the region. Ukraine and the West have rejected the move as illegal.

"Crimea is a tragedy, a major tragedy," Yanukovych told The AP, insisting that Russia's takeover of Crimea wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in power. He fled Ukraine after three months of anti-government protests against his rule.

The 63-year-old said he has personally met with Putin since he arrived and hopes to have more meetings with the Russian leader to negotiate Crimea's return.

"We must set such a task and search for ways to return to Crimea on any conditions, so that Crimea may have the maximum degree of independence possible ... but be part of Ukraine," he said.

Yanukovych said he and Putin had a "calm" but "difficult" conversation.

He said the Crimean referendum that was held just two weeks after Russian troops overran the peninsula — in which residents overwhelmingly voted to join Russia — was a response to threats posed by radical nationalists in Ukraine.

Yanukovych had pushed for local referendums that would allow parts of Ukraine to determine their own local government structures. He argued that should have been followed by a constitutional reform, and only after that should Ukraine have a national election.

The interim government in Kiev that took power after Yanukovych, meanwhile, has scheduled a presidential and some mayoral elections for May 25.

Asked about his opulent country residence outside of Kiev — a complex that shocked crowds of Ukrainians with its extravagant display of wealth amid the country's financial ruin — Yanukovych denied any allegations of corruption. He spoke with pride about his collection of dozens of old-time cars, but said he hadn't seen or used the golden loaf of bread found in his residence that has attracted much attention and sarcasm.

He also insisted that he gave no advantages or special privileges to his dentist-turned-billionaire son, who was said to have angered other Ukrainian tycoons by taking over some of the country's most profitable assets.

Yanukovych denied that he had given orders to shoot protesters in Ukraine's capital, where about 80 people were shot dead by snipers at anti-government protests in February. The government now in power has charged Yanukovych in connection with those deaths.

Yanukovych said he was criticized by his entourage for taking too soft an attitude toward the protesters, but insisted that he was reluctant to use force.

The long-time politician said he hopes to return to Ukraine someday, but didn't offer any details on how he could reclaim power.

While Putin has made it clear that Yanukovych has no political future, the Russian president has also insisted that Yanukovych's ouster was illegal and says he still remains Ukraine's only legitimate president.

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Stocks are mixed in early trading on Wall Street

NEW YORK — Stocks are getting off to a mixed start on Wall Street as investors asses a pickup in hiring last month at U.S. companies and a handful of corporate earnings.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index inched up a point to 1,886 in early trading Wednesday. It closed at a record high the day before.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped nine points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 16,523. The Nasdaq composite rose 13 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,281.

Payroll processer ADP reported that U.S. companies increased hiring at a rapid pace last month.

Apollo Education slumped 9 percent after reporting revenue late Tuesday that fell short of what investors were expecting. New student enrollment at the University of Phoenix continued to fall, shrinking 16.5 percent.

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High court voids overall contribution limits

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court further loosened the reins on political giving Wednesday, ruling that big campaign donors can dole out money to as many candidates and political committees as they want as long as they abide by limits on contributions to each individual campaign.

In a 5-4 vote won by conservative justices, the court struck down limits in federal law on the total amount of money a contributor can give to candidates, political parties and political action committees.

The decision wipes away the overall limit of $123,200 for 2013 and 2014. It will allow the wealthiest contributors to pour millions of dollars into candidate and party coffers, although those contributions will be subject to disclosure under federal law. Big donors, acting independently of candidates and parties, already can spend unlimited amounts on attacks ads and other campaign efforts that have played an increasingly important role in elections.

The justices left in place limits on individual contributions to each candidate for president or Congress, now $2,600 per election.

The court's conservative majority, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, continued its run of decisions back to 2007 rejecting campaign finance limits as violations of the First Amendment speech rights of contributors. The most notable among those rulings was the 2010 decision in Citizens United that lifted limits on independent spending by corporations and labor unions.

Roberts said the aggregate limits do not act to prevent corruption, the rationale the court has upheld as justifying contribution limits.

The overall limits "intrude without justification on a citizen's ability to exercise 'the most fundamental First Amendment activities,'" Roberts said, quoting from the court's seminal 1976 campaign finance ruling in Buckley v. Valeo.

Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome of the case, but wrote separately to say that he would have gone further and wiped away all contribution limits.

Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the liberal dissenters, said that the court's conservatives had "eviscerated our nation's campaign finance laws" through Wednesday's ruling and the Citizens United case.

"If the court in Citizens United opened a door, today's decision we fear will open a floodgate," Breyer said in comments from the bench. "It understates the importance of protecting the political integrity of our governmental institution. It creates, we think, a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a political party or to a candidate's campaign."

Roberts said the dissenters' fears were overstated because other federal laws prohibit the circumvention of the individual limits and big donors are more likely to spend a lot of money independently in support of a favored candidate.

Reaction to the ruling generally followed party lines, with advocates of capping money in politics aligned with Democrats in opposition to the decision.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called the Supreme Court decision "an important first step toward restoring the voice of candidates and party committees and a vindication for all those who support robust, transparent political discourse."

The GOP and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had argued that other decisions relaxing campaign finance rules had diminished the influence of political parties.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said, "This in itself is a small step, but another step on the road to ruination. It could lead to interpretations of the law that would result in the end of any fairness in the political system as we know it."

Congress enacted the limits in the wake of Watergate-era abuses to discourage big contributors from trying to buy legislative votes with their donations and to restore public confidence in the campaign finance system.

But in a series of rulings in recent years, the Roberts court has struck down provisions of federal law aimed at limiting the influence of big donors as unconstitutional curbs on free speech rights.

In the current case, Republican activist Shaun McCutcheon of Hoover, Ala., the national Republican Party and Senate GOP leader McConnell challenged the overall limits on what contributors may give in a two-year federal election cycle. The limits for the current election cycle included a separate $48,600 cap on contributions to all candidates.

McCutcheon gave the symbolically significant amount of $1,776 to 15 candidates for Congress and wanted to give the same amount to 12 others. But doing so would have put him in violation of the cap.

Relatively few Americans play in the big leagues of political giving. Just under 650 donors contributed the maximum amount to candidates, PACs and parties in the last election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The court did not heed warnings from Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. and advocates of campaign finance limits that donors would be able to funnel large amounts of money to a favored candidate in the absence of the overall limit.

The Republicans also called on the court to abandon its practice over nearly 40 years of evaluating limits on contributions less skeptically than restrictions on spending.

The differing levels of scrutiny have allowed the court to uphold most contribution limits, because of the potential for corruption when donors make large direct donations to candidates. At the same time, the court has found that independent spending does not pose the same risk of corruption and has applied a higher level of scrutiny to laws that seek to limit spending.

If the court were to drop the distinction between contributions and expenditures, even limits on contributions to individual candidates for Congress, currently $2,600 per election, would be threatened, said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime supporter of stringent campaign finance laws.

The case is McCutcheon v. FEC, 12-536.

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Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report.

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Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at: @shermancourt

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Courts question law leaving pensions unprotected

NEW YORK — New rulings against Catholic hospital chains on both coasts have intensified a faceoff between religiously affiliated employers and workers who are alarmed by the companies' efforts to avoid insuring or funding their pensions.

A federal judge in New Jersey ruled Monday that a loophole in federal pension law exempting churches does not extend to hospitals and other employers not directly controlled by religious orders. The opinion, echoing one issued in December in a case involving a California hospital chain, allows an employee's lawsuit to move forward against the New Jersey operator, St. Peter's Healthcare System.

While the rulings hinge on a little-known bit of law, the debate over so-called "church plans" could affect some of the nation's largest hospital networks and thousands of people counting on them for retirement benefits.

That debate remains far from settled. But the two judges' opinions are notable for their stiff questioning of a practice that has alarmed some workers and retirees.

A pension boils down to a promise. Federal law requires most private employers with pension plans to contribute to them and insure them in case they can't meet their obligations. But Congress crafted an exemption for churches to protect them from government interference in their finances. Hospitals and other religiously affiliated employers have cited that exemption to convert their pensions to "church plans," including some that have let retirement funds dwindle.

"Opening the door to expand the church-plan exemption to this extent would place more employees at risk of having insufficient benefits upon retirement," U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp wrote in the opinion issued Monday, denying St. Peter's request to dismiss the case.

The opinion recognizes the importance of federal benefits law "and the consequences of what allowing this exemption would do to the retirees and employees," said Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for the Pension Rights Center, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "There's a lot of good language in this decision and we hope other judges are paying attention."

But a lawyer for the New Brunswick, N.J., hospital operator noted that the Internal Revenue Service has repeatedly interpreted the "church plan" exemption as covering religiously affiliated employers, and that other courts have agreed.

"Saint Peter's is disappointed in the ruling," said Jeffrey Greenbaum, the attorney for the hospital. "I think it's undisputed that St. Peter's is controlled by the church ... and we believe that we've put in strong proof that it is associated with the church as defined by Congress."

Greenbaum said the hospital system was "still considering the next steps" in the case.

St. Peter's, successor to a single hospital founded by an order of nuns, operated its pension plan for many years according to federal law, fulfilling requirements to insure and maintain the benefits. But in 2006 it asked regulators to let it operate as a church plan, although workers said they were not informed until 2011.

"It never was" a church plan, said Jim Towns, 73, who retired after a career as a medical photographer at St. Peter's and now lives in Gainesville, Ga. "If they find a way around not having to fund it ... the pensioners will maybe have less or maybe none. You don't know."

The judge's opinion in the New Jersey case largely echoes another issued late last year in a worker's lawsuit against San Francisco-based Dignity Health, which operates 40 hospitals in California, Nevada and Arizona, along with 300 other facilities and has 60,000 employees.

The suits are among six brought on behalf of workers against five Catholic hospital chains and another filed last month against Advocate Health Care Network, based in Downers Grove, Ill., which operates 12 hospitals in its home state and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The rulings by the courts in New Jersey and California, while preliminary, expose the tension built in to a law that is simultaneously trying to protect the finances of workers and churches, said Thomas E. Clark Jr. of FRA Plan Tools, a consultant to investment advisers and other pension service providers. Clark said the rulings would likely give pause to other employers considering shifting their pensions to church plans.

But while the rulings may boost the confidence of some workers at the hospitals, resolving the issue could be years away, he said.

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Adam Geller can be reached at features@ap.org. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AdGeller

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US factory orders rebound 1.6 percent in February

WASHINGTON — Orders to U.S. factories rose in February after two months of declines but a critical category that signals business investment plans fell.

Factory orders rose 1.6 percent in February, the most in five months, following declines of 1 percent in January and 2 percent in December, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The February gain reflected a rebound in orders for commercial aircraft and autos. Orders in both categories had fallen for two consecutive months before rebounding in February.

But demand for core capital goods, considered a good guide to business investment plans, fell 1.4 percent in February, the second decline in three months.

Many economists say that was due in part to the severe winter, which caused businesses to postpone plans to expand or modernize their operations.

In February, demand for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, rose 2.2 percent, matching a preliminary estimate last week. Orders for nondurable goods such as chemicals, paper and food rose 1 percent following a 0.7 percent drop in January.

Demand for commercial aircraft rose 13.4 percent while orders for motor vehicles and parts increase 3 percent. Orders for primary metals such as steel increased 1.7 percent while orders for computers soared 64.2 percent, rebounding from a 48.2 percent drop in January.

Orders for machinery fell 1.2 percent with demand for construction equipment and mining and oil field equipment both down.

Economists believe that unusually severe weather depressed activity in the winter. They are looking for a rebound in orders and production in coming months as the weather improves.

Some encouraging signs include reports that U.S. manufacturing grew at a slightly faster rate in March compared with February. And automakers reported Tuesday that sales rose 6 percent in March, far outpacing analysts' expectations.

The Institute for Supply Management reported Tuesday that its manufacturing index increased to 53.7 in March, up from 53.2 in February. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

That rise was viewed as evidence that factories are recovering from disruptions caused by the severe winter. Manufacturing activity had plunged in January as snow storms shut down factories and disrupted supply shipments. It rebounded slightly in February as measured by the ISM index.

The Federal Reserve's report on factory production showed the biggest increase in output in six months in February as factories cranked out more cars, home electronics and chemicals.

Analysts expect overall economic growth slowed to between 1.5 percent and 2 percent in the first three months of this year, reflecting weather disruptions and efforts by businesses to work down unwanted stockpiles. But economists are looking for a sharp rebound in growth to around 3 percent for the rest of the year.

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High court limits suits over frequent flier miles

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Minnesota rabbi who complained about an airline's frequent flier program is out of luck.

The justices unanimously sided with Northwest Airlines and dismissed a lawsuit from Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg that alleged he was stripped of his top-level frequent flier status because he complained too much.

Ginsberg said Northwest, since absorbed by Delta Air Lines Inc., did not act in good faith when it cut him off. But the justices ruled that the federal deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 prohibits most lawsuits like the one filed by Ginsberg.

Ginsberg and his wife flew almost exclusively on Northwest, logging roughly 75 flights a year to travel across the U.S. and abroad to give lectures and take part in conferences on education and administration.

He said he flew on Northwest even when other airlines offered comparable or better flights and in 2005, reached the highest level of the WorldPerks program.

Northwest cut him off in 2008, shortly after Northwest and Delta agreed to merge. Ginsberg said the move was a cost-cutting measure designed to get rid of the high-mileage customers.

Northwest says Ginsberg complained 24 times in a 7-month period, including nine instances of luggage that turned up late on airport baggage carousels. Northwest said that before it took action, it awarded Ginsberg $1,925 in travel credit vouchers, 78,500 bonus miles, a voucher for his son and $491 in cash reimbursements.

The airline pointed to a provision of the mileage program's terms that gives Northwest the right to cancel members' accounts for abuse.

Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito said the frequent flier program is clearly connected to the airline's prices, routes or services, which are covered under the Airline Deregulation Act.

A federal trial judge cited earlier Supreme Court cases involving claims against frequent flier programs in dismissing Ginsberg's lawsuit, including his claim that Northwest did not live up to the terms of the contract. The judge said the contract gives the airlines the right to kick someone out of the mileage program at its "sole judgment."

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said part of the suit could go forward involving whether Ginsberg and others can sue under state laws that require parties to a contract to act in good faith.

The case is Northwest vs. Ginsberg, 12-462.

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German brewers hit with $319 million cartel fines

BERLIN — Germany's antitrust authority has fined a group of brewers 231.2 million euros ($319 million) for allegedly fixing the price of beer, the second round of punishments it has made in the case.

The Federal Cartel Office said Wednesday it imposed fines on six companies: Radeberger, the German unit of Danish brewer Carlsberg, Bolten, Erzquell, Frueh and Gaffel. Also fined were the regional breweries' association in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, and seven individuals who weren't identified.

The office had already announced in January fines totaling 106.5 million euros against another five companies over price-fixing between 2006 and 2008. Those five breweries reached a settlement with authorities, a move that reduced their punishment.

The investigation was launched on information from the German branch of Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA, which wasn't fined as a result of its cooperation.

The cartel office's chairman, Andreas Mundt, said the hefty fines in the cases were justified.

"The producers concerned stand for more than half of the beer sold in Germany," he said in a statement. "The industry's sales are well over 7 billion euros per year. In view of these sales, the high fines are appropriate and necessary to impose an effective penalty."

Radeberger and Carlsberg accounted for the lion's share of the second and final round of fines, the cartel office said, without giving a breakdown.

Carlsberg said in a statement that it did not agree with the findings that led to its 62 million-euro fine and would appeal against the decision to a German court.

Germany boasts some 1,300 breweries and 5,000 brands of beer. Beer is a national institution, and German brewers are bound by the so-called "purity law" dating back nearly 500 years that allows nothing but water, barley malt, hops and yeast for brewing.

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Greece: Talks on debt relief could start in May

ATHENS, Greece — Long-awaited talks between Greece and its rescue creditors to make the country's debt sustainable could start as early as next month and would likely last until the fall or beyond, a senior official in the Greek government said Wednesday.

Greece's national debt is still considered unsustainable despite massive spending cuts, after the recession shrank the economy by about 25 percent. Debt is predicted to reach 175 percent of gross domestic output this year.

The lion's share of that debt is now comprised of money from the bailout loans received from other eurozone countries, which Greece has been hoping might agree to ease the terms of repayment. Experts say Greece could, among other things, be given better lower interest rates or more time.

Greece is currently drawing on two international bailout programs, worth a total of 240 billion euros ($331 billion) in loans, and the country is hoping to avoid piling on additional loans.

The government official spoke only on condition of anonymity because talks on debt relief will not be official before the publication of Greece's 2013 budget deficit figures later this month.

In the shorter-term, Greece faces a shortfall in its funding plans through 2016.

The country could try to make up some of it by raising money on financial markets — the government said Tuesday it plans to tap bond markets in the first half of the year for the first time since it was bailed out in 2010.

Greece could also use 11 billion euros ($15 billion) of unspent money in bank rescue funds, the government official said.

"We have an 11 billion safety cushion. That's a significant sum," said the official.

He added, however, that Athens would await an October assessment of eurozone banks' capital needs by the European Central Bank before making a decision.

Greek police imposed stringent security measures around the site of a two-day meeting of European finance ministers in Athens.

Police officers clashed late Tuesday with anti-austerity demonstrators who challenged a protest cordon that covered most of the city center. Protests also occurred in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki, where the rally ended peacefully. The cordon in Athens was lifted on Wednesday afternoon.

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Associated Press writer Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed.

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