NEW YORK

Wall Street up a day after pullback

NEW YORK Wall Street rose smartly in a quiet session Friday as investors adjusted positions ahead of a long holiday weekend and tried to determine whether a lackluster week presaged a departure from the market's months-long run-up or merely a temporary pause.

Stocks advanced after a pullback Thursday and as investors drew some optimism from the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.'s deal to acquire Sweden's OMX AB. But investors showed little reaction to the National Association of Realtors' report that sales of existing homes fell 2.6 percent in April to 5.99 million units, the slowest sales rate in almost four years.

Friday's gains followed four mostly negative sessions for the major stock market indexes. Given Wall Street's robust performance in recent months, a pullback in which investors consolidate gains wasn't unexpected. However, the week began with a flourish that could have been seen as suggesting further gains: The Standard & Poor's 500 index traded above its record close for the first time in more than seven years.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.15, or 0.49 percent, to 13,507.28. The Dow had fallen in the previous four sessions. Broader stock indicators also rose. The S&P 500 index advanced 8.22, or 0.55 percent, to 1,515.73, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 19.27, or 0.76 percent, to 2,557.19.

For the week, the Dow industrials lost 0.36 percent, the S&P 500 gave up 0.46 percent and the Nasdaq slipped 0.05 percent.

ALASKA

Oil field work to resume after leak

ANCHORAGE Oil company BP PLC said Friday it expects the nation's largest oil field to be back in full production by sometime this weekend after a water pipe leak led to the second partial shutdown in a year.

The leak, discovered Monday, cut daily production at Prudhoe Bay by 100,000 barrels a day, or about one fourth, said BP spokesman Steve Rinehart.

The company does not yet know what caused the leak in a line that carried water from a facility used to separate oil, water and natural gas. An independent lab will analyze the line and facilities and could come up with an answer in several weeks, Rinehart said.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

FDA acts against unapproved cough drugs

Manufacturers of unapproved extended-release cough and cold drugs that contain an expectorant called guaifenesin have until Nov. 25 to stop making and shipping the medicines, health officials said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said roughly 20 companies make hundreds of timed-release medicines containing guaifenesin that have never undergone agency review. The drugs are sold both by prescription and over the counter, and as both single-ingredient and combination products.

Friday's action does not affect products containing guaifenesin in immediate-release form, the FDA said. The agency said it knew of no safety issues with guaifenesin, which has been used in medicines for decades. The drug stimulates removal of mucous from the lungs.

Only one company, Adams Respiratory Therapeutics Inc., currently has FDA approval to sell extended-release guaifenesin. In 2002, the FDA approved single-ingredient versions of the medicines, sold as Mucinex and Humibid.

Illinois

Tribune completes tender offer

CHICAGO Tribune Co. moved a step closer to going private with the completion of a tender offer that the media company said Friday drew greater participation from its shareholders than expected.

The company continues to pay a price for the market's hesitance to invest in the struggling newspaper industry, however, having to agree to tougher borrowing terms in order to obtain financing for the tender offer.

Tribune said nearly twice as many shareholders as expected agreed to take $34 per share in cash in its tender offer the first formal step in its going private under a buyout led by billionaire investor Sam Zell.

The media company, whose properties include the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and 23 television stations, said a preliminary count showed 222 million shares were tendered before the offer expired Thursday, nearly double the 126 million shares the company was looking to buy.

The tender offer is one part of the complicated $8.2 billion transaction in which Zell will gain control of the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher when the deal closes in the fourth quarter, once shareholders vote to approve it.

Belgium

EU panel targets Google privacy rules

BRUSSELS An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States.

EU spokesman Pietro Petrucci said Friday that the 28-member panel, which advises the European Commission and EU governments on data protection issues, wants Google to address concerns about the company's practice of storing and retaining user information for up to two years.

Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said the company was doing a lot to protect personal data gathered from users on its search engine.

"We believe it's an important part of our commitment to respect user privacy while balancing a number of important factors, such as maintaining security and preventing fraud and abuse," Fleischer said. He added that Google was "committed to engaging in a constructive dialogue."

Google said it would answer the EU's privacy concerns before the panel's next meeting at the end of June.

NEBRASKA

Somalis who quit jobs over prayer return

OMAHA Dozens of Somali meatpacking workers who quit their jobs because they were not given enough time off for Muslim prayers have returned to work, but the issue could resurface as sundown inches later through the summer, a union official said Friday.

About 70 of 120 Somali workers are back on the job at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant after abruptly quitting last week. The workers complained that existing break time rules did not let them leave lines to pray at sundown.

Later summertime sunsets could run past allotted breaks that keep workers from long stretches on production lines.

The workers agreed to come back after company and union officials met with workers and the head of a Somali community group to discuss the conflicts between Muslim prayer and workplace rules. The company agreed to accommodate the workers as much as it could within the contract, company and union officials said.