SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Yahoo Inc.'s board emerged largely unscathed from the Internet company's annual meeting Friday as a subdued crowd of shareholders raised few questions about the directors' rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.

Some shareholders expressed displeasure by opposing the re-election of Yahoo's current directors, but the resistance wasn't as intense as last year, when three directors were rejected by more than 30 percent of the vote.

In this year's balloting, only two directors -- Chairman Roy Bostock and Arthur Kern -- were opposed on ballots representing at least 20 percent of Yahoo shares. Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who steered the Microsoft negotiations with Bostock, was approved by 85 percent of the votes cast.

Many investors had already made an emphatic statement about their feelings by dumping their holdings in Yahoo shares. The company's stock price has fallen by 31 percent since Microsoft withdrew a takeover offer of $33 per share in early May.

Much of the drama was drained from Friday's meeting last month when Yahoo reached a truce with activist investor Carl Icahn, who had been campaigning to oust the company's entire board for spurning the Microsoft bid.

Icahn, who owns a 5 percent stake in Yahoo, will join the company's board next week and can't criticize

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stores, factories and other businesses large and small showed workers the door last month, sending unemployment to its highest rate in four years and adding to the evidence an economic recovery remains far off.

Employers clamped down on hiring and cut 51,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said Friday. The economy has shed jobs each month this year -- 463,000 in all.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent, up from 5.5 percent in June.

The jobs report contributed to another day of grim news for the economy. General Motors reported a staggering quarterly loss of more than $15 billion and said its sales fell by more than a quarter from last year.

The Commerce Department said spending on construction projects around the country dropped 0.4 percent in June as cutbacks in home building eclipsed gains in commercial construction.

And manufacturers' business was flat in July. The Institute for Supply Management's reading of activity from the producers of cars, airplanes, appliances and other goods hit 50, down from 50.2 in June. A reading above 50 signals growth.

Job losses in July were the heaviest in industries hard hit by the slow housing market, the clampdown on credit and the shaky financial sector. Manufacturers cut 35,000 jobs, construction companies 22,000 and

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices pulled back Thursday, wiping out some gains from the previous day's $4 a barrel rally, as traders bet that a cooling U.S. economy will continue to eat into U.S. demand for fuel.

At the pump, easing prices underscored Americans' waning consumption of gasoline. The average price of a gallon of regular slipped 1.7 cents to $3.909, according auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $2.69 to settle at $124.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a day after the contract soared more than $4 in the biggest one-day jump in two weeks. Prices have now fallen in four of the last seven sessions and are 14 percent off their all-time trading high above $147, reached July 11.

The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product rose just 1.9 percent in the second quarter despite government tax rebates aimed at jolting the economy. Economists had expected growth of 2.4 percent. The weak 1 percent GDP figure of the first three months of 2008 also was modified lower to 0.9 percent.

Meanwhile, a Labor Department report said the number of people seeking jobless benefits rose to the highest level in five years. Economists warned the weekly figures can be volatile and some dismissed them as an aberration, however.

Still, the poor readings rekindled fears of a recession, prompting energy traders to dump oil contracts on expectations that more belt-tightening lay ahead for Americans who are already skipping vacations, giving

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a sign that it may be finally turning its fortunes around, Motorola Inc. surprised investors Thursday by reporting a small profit for the second quarter and revealing it had shipped more cell phones than in the first quarter. Its shares soared.

The unexpected profit was the result of a sales increase across all units from the first quarter, helped by cost cuts. The company has laid off more than 10,000 workers since last year.

The Schaumburg, Ill.-based company earned $4 million, less than 1 cent per share, in the three months ended June 30. That includes accounting charges of 2 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been expecting a loss of 3 cents per share.

In the same quarter a year ago, Motorola lost $28 million, or 2 cents per share.

Its sales fell 7.4 percent to $8.1 billion, but that exceeded the $7.7 billion that analysts were predicting.

Motorola shares rose 96 cents, or 12.5 percent, to $8.64 Thursday.

The company shipped 28.1 million cell phones, up from 27 million in the first quarter, and said it maintained its share of the global handset market.

According to research firm IDC, Motorola's market share actually slipped slightly from 9.4 percent of the global market in the first quarter to 9.2 percent in the second, but the company narrowly maintained its