Wednesday Evening Business Brief

• Trading on Wall Street was mixed today with the Dow falling back below 14,000 points. The Dow shed nearly 36 points to end at 13,982. But the S&P 500 edged up less than a point at 1,520 and the Nasdaq rose 10 points to 3,196. McDonald's dragged the Dow lower, losing $1.10 to $94 as investors worry that Americans will spend less on eating out following a rise in Social Security taxes at the beginning of the year.
• A government report shows an increase in U.S. crude supplies and with that news came a fall in the price of oil to near $97. Benchmark oil for March delivery dropped 50 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude supplies increased by 600,000 barrels, which is 9.8 percent above levels a year ago.
• House Speaker John Boehner says "it's hard to imagine" the Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate reaching a budget deal. In an interview with The Associated Press a day after President Obama's State of the Union Address, Boehner said Congress must find a way to reconcile its disagreements over fiscal matters in order to address the nation's long-term spending problems.
• President Barack Obama's call to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour and keep increasing it annually for inflation is already getting a trial run. Ten states make similar cost-of-living adjustments, including Washington state, where workers earn at least $9.19 an hour. That's the highest minimum wage in the country. The proposal is renewing the age-old debate about whether boosting the minimum wage helps or hurts the economy.
• Worldwide sales of cellphones are down. Research firm Gartner says sales fell last year as economic turmoil dampened shopper appetites. Sales dropped 1.7 percent -- the first decline in cellphone sales since 2009.

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