[naviga:h3]Comcast’s cable customers tumble[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — Comcast’s video upswing could be sputtering out.

The cable company added TV customers last year for the first time in a decade. But on Thursday it posted its biggest quarterly cable-customer loss since 2014.

Research firm MoffettNathanson predicts that industrywide, traditional video subscriptions fell 3.4 percent in the third quarter. That would mean that people ditched their TV subscriptions at the fastest rate since online streaming started eating into cable’s business.

Partly to blame in the July-September quarter were the hurricanes that struck Texas and Florida, damaging poles, wires and other infrastructure and interrupting service for millions.

But Comcast and other cable and satellite TV companies also say competition from online sources of video is taking a toll.

Comcast is still making more money per customer, however.

Comcast video customers fell 125,000 in the third quarter, echoing trends from rivals AT&T and Verizon. AT&T’s traditional TV customers dropped 385,000, while Verizon posted its third straight quarter of video losses. If Verizon has a negative number for the year, it would be the first time since it started up a cable business over a decade ago.

[naviga:h3]American, Southwest signal rising airline prices[/naviga:h3]

DALLAS — American and Southwest are expecting their average prices to move higher the rest of this year, which would mark a shift from fare wars that have cut into profits and created turbulence for airline stock prices.

Both carriers said Thursday that they see a key measure of revenue per mile rising in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier. They said demand for both business and leisure travel remains strong.

The comments signal an upbeat end to the third-quarter earnings season for airlines, which hit bottom last week when United executives gave a glum revenue forecast and failed to reassure investors that they had a plan for success.

It has been an up and down year for airline stocks, and that volatility continued Thursday. Despite the optimism over revenue, concern about rising costs helped push most airline shares lower.

[naviga:h3]Applications for jobless aid rise modestly[/naviga:h3]

WASHINGTON — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the increase was modest and came after applications fell to the lowest level in 44 years the previous week.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless aid rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 233,000. Last week’s figure was the lowest since 1973. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 239,500. The number of people receiving benefits slipped 3,000 to 1.89 million, the lowest level since December 1973.

Many analysts expect growth in the July-September quarter may top 2.5 percent at an annual pace. The government will release its report on third quarter growth on Friday. Any drag on the economy in the third quarter from the hurricanes will likely be reversed in the final three months of the year, economists expect.