Thursday Evening Business Brief

Stocks are ending little changed on Wall Street today as a slowdown in Europe's economy overshadowed an encouraging report on the U.S. jobs market. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 9 ½ points to close at 13,973. The S&P 500 edged up 1 point to 1,521. The Nasdaq rose nearly 2 points.

• The price of oil has risen above $97 per barrel, reversing yesterday's small drop. Crude rose 30 cents today to finish at $97.31 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, which is used to price oil that many U.S. refineries buy to make gasoline, rose 12 cents to end at $118 per barrel in London.
• A Tiffany & Co. subsidiary is suing Costco in federal court in New York, claiming the wholesale club operator has been selling engagement rings wrongly labeled "Tiffany" rings. The high-end jeweler says the rings are not in fact Tiffany rings, nor are they in any way properly associated with Tiffany.
• The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City is getting a new owner. Today's sale for $20 million to The Meruelo Group of Downey, Calif., is the latest in a series of bargain-basement deals for struggling casinos in the seaside resort. The sale leaves Trump Entertainment Resorts with just one casino, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.
• British police say three men have been arrested on suspicion of fraud by officers investigating the burgeoning horsemeat scandal in Europe. Today's arrests come after Britain's food regulator said six horse carcasses tested positive for an equine painkiller that may have entered the human food chain in France.