Big-ticket items increase

America’s factories saw orders for big-ticket goods rebound in September, a fresh dose of good news for manufacturers and a harbinger of better times ahead for the economy.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that new orders for “durable goods” — costly manufactured products expected to last at least three years — rose by 0.8 percent last month. The figure reflected stronger demand for a variety of goods, including cars, communications equipment and machinery.

Agriculture

Farmland sale receives federal judge’s approval

Farmland Industries Inc. completed the sale of its pork division to processing giant Smithfield Foods Inc. on Tuesday after a federal bankruptcy judge gave his approval.

At a court-supervised auction of Farmland’s pork division, Farmland Foods, earlier this month, Smithfield had the winning bid. It agreed to pay $367.4 million in cash for almost all the assets of Farmland Foods. Smithfield also agreed to assume $90 million in pension obligations, boosting the combined value of the bid to $457.4 million.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Venters issued an order approving the sale Tuesday.

Farmland said the sale would allow it to increase its estimate of how much it expects to pay unsecured creditors and bondholders to between 60 percent and 82 percent of what they are owed.

Telecommunications

Joanne Sciuto, of Lincoln, R.I., looks at refrigerators Tuesday at Atomic Appliances Co. in Providence, R.I.

Verizon profits drop

Verizon Communications Inc. earned $1.79 billion in the third quarter as more strong gains in wireless and long-distance helped offset mounting customer losses in the local telephone business.

Executives insisted that the company’s focus on local-long distance packages was helping stabilize the wireline business.

The third-quarter profit, amounting to 64 cents per share, was down sharply from the profit of $4.41 billion or $1.60 per share in the same period last year.