by Daniel Costello

Good Morning. Here are some highlights from the morning's economic news:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported slightly better-than-expected profits of $3.24 billion in its third quarter, a 3.2 percent increase from the $3.14 billion it earned in the same quarter last year.

But the retail giant reported weakness in a crucial area — sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, fell 0.4 percent. The retail giant also warned its important fourth-quarter holiday earnings could fall short of Wall Street's estimates.

Intel on Thursday announced a comprehensive agreement with Advance Micro Devices Inc., its biggest rival in the market for computer processors, to end all outstanding legal disputes between the two chipmakers.

The two companies have been suing each other over several issues going back to the 1980's. In 2005, AMD filed suit against Intel alleging that Intel abused its dominant market position to keep its tight grip on the personal-computer industry.

 

Under terms of the new agreement, the two companies will obtain patent rights from a new five-year cross-license agreement and will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement.

On the job front, the number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 502,000 in the week ended Nov. 7, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

That's the fewest initial claims since early January. Initial jobless claims have hovered above 500,000 for over a year as the unemployment rate has climbed to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent. Compared with a year ago, initial claims are up 6 percent, while continuing claims are up 51 percent.