Today in business: 5 things you need to know

Toyota reclaims the automaking crown, Apple reportedly prepares to release a 128GB iPad, and more in our roundup of the business stories that are making news and driving opinion

Toyota is back on top.
(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

1. DURABLE GOODS ORDERS RISE

Orders for U.S.-made durable goods — such as airplanes, cars, computers, and furniture — jumped by 4.6 percent in December. Rising sales of these big-ticket items typically signal an improving economy. The gains, however, were helped by contracts for military and commercial aircraft, massive but sporadic purchases that can give the durable-goods report a temporary boost. Caterpillar Inc., which manufactures farm and other heavy equipment, warned that it was expecting growth to be "relatively weak in 2013." [MarketWatch]

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.