National business briefs for Feb. 14

Apple stock trades above $500 for first time

Apple Inc.'s stock broke above $500 for the first time Monday. It was the latest step in a rally that began more than two weeks ago, when the company reported staggering sales and profits for the holiday quarter.

The shares hit $503.83 soon after opening, before subsiding to $502.60 in after-hours trading. That was up $9.18, or 1.9 percent, from Friday's close.

Since last summer, Apple and Exxon Mobil Corp. have been vying for the position of most valuable company in the world. Apple's market capitalization is now $465 billion, compared with Exxon's $400 billion.

Labor group inspects Apple's China factories

Apple said Monday that an independent group, the Fair Labor Association, has started inspecting working conditions in the Chinese factories where Apple Inc.'s iPads and iPhones are assembled.

Amid growing criticism over labor and environmental practices — especially in China — Apple last month disclosed a list of suppliers for its gadgets for the first time.

Apple said Monday that the FLA team began the inspections Monday morning at Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China. The complex employs and houses hundreds of thousands of workers.

U.S., E.U. approve Google bid to buy Motorola

Google's $12.5 billion bid to buy cellphone maker Motorola Mobility has won approvals from U.S. and European antitrust regulators, moving Google a major step closer to completing the biggest deal in its 13-year history.

Monday's blessings mean Google Inc. just needs to clear regulatory hurdles in China, Taiwan and Israel before it can take control of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and expand into manufacturing phones, tablet computers and other consumer devices for the first time.

Getting government approval in China looms as the biggest stumbling block remaining.

Google's relationship with China's ruling party has been on shaky ground since the company blamed hackers in that country for breaking into its computers two years ago.

GE plans to hire 5,000 veterans over 5 years

General Electric Co. plans to hire 5,000 veterans over the next five years and invest $580 million to expand its aviation business.

GE said Monday that its "Hiring Our Heroes" partnership will help match veterans with jobs. The company also will team with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to sponsor 400 job fairs for veterans this year.

In addition, its aviation unit will add more than 400 new manufacturing jobs and open plants in Ellisville, Miss., Auburn, Ala., and Dayton, Ohio, next year. GE said the new plants are part of its efforts to create or rebuild 16 facilities and 12,000-plus new jobs.

The company started production on its first new appliance line in more than 50 years last week at Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky.

Elsewhere

• McDonald's Corp. said Monday that it will require its U.S. pork suppliers to provide plans by May to phase out crates that tightly confine pregnant sows, a move that one animal rights group predicted would have "a seismic impact" on the industry. Some of McDonald's suppliers and other major pork producers already have announced plans to phase out gestation crates. Smithfield Foods Inc. and Hormel Foods Corp. have said they would stop using them at company-owned farms by 2017.

• Most people weighing in on a sports blackout rule are urging the Federal Communications Commission to scrap it. Monday was the deadline for public comments on a petition by the Sports Fans Coalition to rescind the rule, which bars cable and satellite systems from carrying a sporting event that is blacked out on local broadcast television stations. The rule has effectively reinforced the NFL's own policy, which blacks out games in home markets that aren't sold out 72 hours ahead of time. The agency has received about 140 comments, and an overwhelming majority favors the petition; that figure doesn't count the nearly 3,000 the Sports Fans Coalition also sent in.

From wire reports