U.S. food maker General Mills Inc said it expects fiscal 2009 earnings to exceed its prior profit outlook by several cents, due to a good operating performance and a lower quarterly tax rate.

Credit card holders who in ordinary years might have used their tax refunds to pay down their balances apparently spent the money elsewhere as the recession deepened in the first quarter.

MINNEAPOLIS—-In anticipation of meetings with European investors this week, General Mills said today that its current estimates of fiscal 2009 earnings per share exceed the company’s most recent guidance of $3.87 to $3.89 excluding certain items.

Three months can feel like a long time on Wall Street. In the stock market, where news about companies and the economy dictate buy and sell decisions in a matter seconds, the market’s powerful rally is getting pretty old to some experienced players.

In North Carolina, where one in nine workers can’t find a job, there’s a county where the tough times haven’t been all that bad. In fact, unemployment is well below the state average, relatively few homes are falling into foreclosure and people are still flocking to restaurants and spending money at stores.

Demand for air travel could decline further despite signs of a more stable global economy, and prospects of a recovery this year look slim, industry executives said at a meeting of the world’s airlines on Sunday.

President Barack Obama wants agencies to lay out specific goals for economic stimulus spending over the next several months, a push to focus more on his $787 billion recovery plan.

The White House, backing away from President Barack Obama’s “it’s-all-on-the-table” approach initially advocated, prepared to get louder and more involved in the details of a health care overhaul that officials once were content to leave to Congress, administration officials said Saturday.