Bid for Avon was apparently bogus

NEW YORK — Avon said it had received no takeover offers Thursday after a purported $8 billion bid for the company filed with federal regulators led to three halts in the trading of its shares.

Avon said it can’t confirm that the company calling itself PTG Capital Partners exists. Calls to the company, which claimed London as its headquarters in the filing, went unanswered.

Shares of Avon jumped as much as 20 percent after the filing appeared on the website used by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a regulator that oversees stock markets. The stock gave up much of that gain shortly thereafter.

Senate puts trade bill back on track

WASHINGTON — In a burst of bipartisanship, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate put President Barack Obama’s trade agenda back on course on Thursday, clearing the way for likely approval within days of legislation allowing the administration to negotiate global deals that Congress could support or reject but not change.

The 65-33 vote to resurrect the measure capped two days of political intrigue in which Democrats on both sides of the legislation initially joined forces to block action, then reached agreement with Republicans for votes on other enforcement measures to protect workers who lose jobs as a result of exports

Unemployment claims at 15-year low

WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits ticked lower last week, pushing down the four-week average of applications to its lowest level since April 2000.

Weekly applications fell 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 264,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is just above a 15-year low reached three weeks ago. The average, a less volatile figure, dropped 7,750 to 271,750, the lowest in 15 years.

Court: GM doesn’t owe retirees $450M

A federal appeals court upheld a lower-court ruling that General Motors does not have to make a $450 million contribution to the United Automobile Workers trust responsible for health care covering union members who retired from GM’s former parts unit.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati found that the automaker assumed the health care obligations of Delphi Corp., GM’s one-time parts division that was spun off into a separate company in 1999. But the UAW and GM later agreed in the company’s 2009 bankruptcy to free GM from that responsibility.

From combined wire services