Holding steady

New York City’s sea sonally adjusted unem ployment rate of 8.9 per cent in February remained unchanged from January.

Drug deal

Drugstore operator Walgreen will spend about $429 million to buy drugstore.com in a deal that gives it access to 3 million online cus tomers.

Better days

The number of peo ple applying for unem ployment benefits dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 382,000 in the week ended March 19.

RIM off

Research In Motion posted fiscal fourth- quarter earnings that slightly beat analyst ex pectations, but its guid ance sent shares down more than 10 percent lower than after-hours trading.

LL Bean’d

Effective today, LL Bean will waive ship ping fees all the time, with no minimum order. The outdoors- oriented retailer joins Zappos.com in offering permanent, no-strings- attached free shipping.