Associated Press Sean Meagher tended to the vegetable display at a grocery store in Cincinnati.

WASHINGTON – Consumer prices surged 5 percent over the past year, the Labor Department said yesterday, as inflationary pressures spread ominously beyond energy and food to other parts of the economy. The report said consumer prices jumped 1.1 percent in June, the second-biggest monthly increase since 1982, and heightened concerns that the U.S. economy may be facing its worst bout of stagflation – a combination of rising prices and sluggish growth – in almost three decades.

NEW YORK – Euphoria tinged with a bit of panic swept Wall Street yesterday, as battered financial shares roared back in their biggest one-day rally ever. Coming after a week of staggering losses, the surge left many traders dizzy. It was only on Monday when banking stocks took one of their steepest dives since the 1980s.

A San Diego company developing an antibiotic for traveler's diarrhea said results from a late-stage clinical trial show that its product is faster and works on a broader range of gut-wrenching bacteria than those already on the market.

WASHINGTON – After a tense and at times testy meeting yesterday between congressional Republicans and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson over his plan for a possible government rescue of the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, the House GOP leader said he expected the plan to be approved soon.

ATLANTA – The losses are mounting for airlines amid soaring fuel costs, leaving them little choice but to further hike ticket prices. As Delta Air Lines and American Airlines reported big second-quarter losses yesterday, they signaled that customers should expect more hits to their checkbooks.

The median home price in Southern California was down 29.3 percent from a year earlier to $355,000 last month, pushed downward by an unprecedented volume of foreclosure homes selling at a discount, DataQuick Information Systems reported yesterday.