Prices at pump soaring as cost of crude tops $104

Oil prices rose past $104 a barrel to end the week at a 29-month high, as fighting in Libya intensified.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery gained $2.51 to settle at $104.42 per barrel in New York, the highest level since Sept. 26, 2008.

Gasoline prices have shot up an average of 35 cents per gallon since an uprising in Libya began in mid-February.

A gallon of regular gained another 4.4 cents to a new national average of $3.471 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service.

Pump prices are soaring much faster than analysts expected as rebellions sweep across North Africa and the Middle East.

Prices should peak between $3.50 and $3.75 per gallon this spring, according to Tom Kloza, OPIS chief oil analyst.

U.S. agriculture expecting banner year for exports

Federal officials are expecting a record year for U.S. agriculture exports.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says farm and food products are expected to reach a record $135.5 billion in fiscal year 2011, which ends in September.

Vilsack told The Associated Press that U.S. agriculture may have its best export year ever. Compared to fiscal 2010, export value is expected to grow 25 percent.

Vilsack spoke Friday in Tampa, Fla., at the Commodity Classic, a large convention and trade show for the U.S. corn, soybean, wheat, and sorghum industries that draws some 4,500 farmers from around the nation.

Profitability concerns hurt Toyota’s credit rating

Standard & Poor’s cut Toyota’s credit rating on Friday to AA- because profitability at Japan’s top automaker is not recovering as quickly as at its rivals.

Toyota Motor Corp. has been plagued by defects in a range of models and has recalled more than 14 million vehicles globally since late 2009. Continuing recalls are making Toyota’s road to complete recovery a challenge.

S&P said the decision to cut the rating reflected the view that Toyota’s profitability in the next one to two years is unlikely to recover to the level appropriate for its earlier AA rating.

S&P also cited the tough business environment, including higher prices for raw materials and gasoline.

CEO of Swiss bank UBS to forgo bonus again

The chief executive of Swiss bank UBS will forgo his bonus for the second year in a row because the share price did not increase during 2010, the company said Friday.

Oswald Gruebel, who helped UBS return to a profit last year for the first time since the start of the financial crisis, will not draw on bonus payments he was entitled to for 2010. His base annual salary is the same as when he joined the company in February 2009, at 3 million Swiss francs ($3.22 million), UBS said.

FDA cites epilepsy drug for risk of birth defects

The Food and Drug Administration is warning women of child-bearing age that the epilepsy drug Topamax can increase the risk of birth defects around the mouth.

Regulators said Friday that data collected from a registry of pregnant women showed a higher rate of cleft lip and cleft palate in babies whose mothers were taking the drug during the first trimester.

Infants who were exposed to the drug had a 1.4 percent rate of mouth defects, which was more than three times greater than that seen with other seizure medications.

The frequency of the defects in mothers not taking any epilepsy medication is .07 percent.