The House and Senate have passed legislation that will revamp the Bush administration's $5.6 billion effort to counter bioterrorism threats, reorganizing management of the program and providing struggling companies with periodic cash infusions to help fund their research and testing.	WASHINGTON -- America's trade deficit posted a dramatic decline in October, falling to the lowest level in 14 months as the price of crude oil plunged by a record amount.	WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve, under first-year Chairman Ben Bernanke, appears close to achieving the tricky maneuver of steering the U.S. economy to a soft landing.
Inventories at United States wholesalers piled up at a faster pace in October as sales posted their first back-to-back declines in more than three years.	SAC Capital Advisors, a $10 billion hedge fund, has raised its stake in the Phelps Dodge Corporation to 5.1 percent and said yesterday that it would oppose a proposed takeover of the company by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold.	The panel ruled that Qualcomm, a maker of cellphone chips, is infringing a Broadcom Corporation patent on a way to conserve handset battery power.