Two big Boeing jets have been drawing a lot of attention at Fairbanks International Airport. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Boeing has been taking advantage of a cold snap the past week to test the new 747-8 freighter and 787 passenger plane. Aviation fans have been taking pictures of the pl

anes on the runway outside Alaska Aerofuel. The 747-8 is the largest version of the jumbo jet. Boeing also is developing a passenger version it calls the Intercontinental. The 787 is the long-awaited, mid-size widebody jetliner that Boeing says will be fuel efficient.

Comcast customers buy more services

Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable TV company, on Wednesday posted a fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ expectations as more customers signed up for multiple services and the loss of video subscribers slowed. It also added more broadband Internet and telephone customers than analysts were looking for — surprisingly strong results that caused the share price to climb 97 cents, or 4 percent, to close at $25.13 Wednesday. “There’s not a single meaningful operating number that it didn’t beat,” Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said in a research report.

Crop prices boost equipment sales

Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment, said Wednesday its quarterly net income more than doubled as rising crop prices encouraged U.S. farmers to buy new farm machinery and plant their fields fencepost to fencepost. The company also raised its earnings prediction for the fiscal year, reflecting optimism that global food prices will stay high enough to keep farmers profitable, and willing to pay top-dollar for the company’s new lines of tractors and combines. Deere’s sales increase was driven by demand for heavy farm equipment, with revenue for four-wheel-drive tractors and large combines rising more than 50 percent. Such machines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but a boom in crop prices has left U.S. farmers flush with cash.

Auto sales spur factory production

Factories produced more goods for the fifth straight month in January as strong auto sales spurred demand for new cars and trucks. But overall industrial production fell for the first time in 19 months. Output by the nation’s factories, mines and utilities dipped 0.1 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. The decline was caused mostly by a decrease in output by utilities after a weather-related peak in December. Industrial production increased in every month but one last year. It is up by more than 10 percent since hitting its recession low in June 2009. But it remains about 6 percent below its pre-recession peak in 2007. Manufacturers increased their output last month 0.3 percent, led by increased production of autos and business equipment. Output of consumer goods edged up modestly.

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