Retail and Business

Work stoppages at Honda’s North American assembly plants, which employ thousands of workers, will begin sooner than expected. Marysville, Ohio-based Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. said late Tuesday that it will begin adjusting production schedules …

U.S. chemical manufacturing group E. I. du Pont de Nemours &o. extended its $6 billion takeover bid for Danisco A/S by four weeks after holders of only 6 percent of the Danish company’s shares had …

The Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute will honor six people at its Distinguished Leadership Awards ceremony on April 19 at the Polk County Convention Complex.

Honorees are: Steve Zumbach, receiving the Arthur Davis Distinguished Leadership …

Doextra Corp. President Brad Williams has acquired the company from its founder, Sunnie Richer.

Doextra provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and services to ConAgra Foods Inc., Marsh Inc., Farm Bureau Financial Services, John Deere …

Cummins Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. are accelerating equipment purchases to boost productivity, reinforcing an unprecedented gap between capital spending and employment in the United States that’s restraining a rebound in hiring, Bloomberg said.

Corporate investment …

U.S. consumer spending rose for an eighth straight month in February as households tapped savings to cover higher food and energy prices, Reuters said after the release of a U.S. Commerce Department report.

Spending rose …

U.S. executives are starting to spend the record $940 billion in cash they built up after the credit crisis, just in time for annual shareholder meetings, Bloomberg reported. Takeovers topped $256 billion this quarter, the …

Fewer jobs were created during the most recent recession than in previous economic downturns, party due to a lack of hiring among small businesses, CNNMoney.com reported.

From 2006 to 2009, the job creation rate among …

The state’s unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent in February, as the pool of unemployed Iowans increased slightly to 102,200. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent in February, compared with 9 percent the …