Business news in brief

Delta Air Lines' subsidiary Monroe Energy L.L.C. has signed a five-year agreement with a Texas-based company, Bridger L.L.C., to receive 65,000 barrels of domestic crude a day at its oil refinery in Trainer, Delaware County. The contract will supply about one-third of the crude refined daily at the former ConocoPhillips refinery, which Delta bought in 2012. The Trainer refinery supplies Delta's Northeast operations with jet fuel, the largest and most volatile expense for airlines. The lower-cost domestic crude from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota replaces more expensive grades from overseas, Delta said. - Bloomberg

Moody's Investors Service says it has cut Pennsylvania's bond rating to Aa3, down a notch from Aa2. Only New Jersey (A1) and Illinois (A3) now have lower ratings among U.S. states. The cut is Moody's response to Pennsylvania's "imbalanced" 2015 state budget and fiscal problems that "will further deteriorate" due to the General Assembly's one-time gimmicks and "nonrecurring revenues." Pennsylvania's slow economic growth has lagged other states despite Gov. Corbett's attempts to attract industry by avoiding new taxes and easing business regulation. - Joseph N. DiStefano

The Corbett administration announced that the Pennsylvania budget for fiscal 2014-15 contains $7.2 million that will be used to eliminate the current waiting list for home- and community-based services under a law known as Act 150. The waiting list currently has 290 people, said a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare. The program is for physically disabled individuals age 18 to 59 who are capable of hiring, supervising, and firing their own attendants to help with the tasks of daily living. Last year, DPW said, about 2,100 disabled individuals received services under the program. - Harold Brubaker

With their loudspeakers playing the jaunty 1961 Marvelettes Motown hit "Please, Mr. Postman," union carpenters and Teamsters picketed outside the Convention Center during a gathering of the National Association of Letter Carriers Union. Leaders of the two local unions said they were unfairly ousted from the center because they did not sign a new customer-satisfaction agreement on time, but did sign a few days later. Convention Center management said the leaders were well aware of the deadline and chose not to sign. The two unions' work was then divided among the four other unions working at the center. - Jane M. Von Bergen

Verizon Communications Inc. says it will match Internet upload and download speeds for its FiOS Internet customers, seeking to differentiate its broadband service. Verizon says there will be no additional charge for the upgrade that will be implemented by late 2014. FiOS Internet customers typically upload video, pictures and other graphic- intensive data to friends, coworkers, or data-sharing websites. Verizon says cable companies can't match the upload speeds. - Bob Fernandez

Rochester-based Wegmans Food Markets Inc., which has stores in the Philadelphia suburbs, said in a statement that it was removing from its stores several organic and nonorganic summer fruit items from a California-based packing company. Wawona Packing Co. issued a voluntary recall of organic and nonorganic yellow peaches and nectarines, white peaches and nectarines, and black plums because testing by the company showed potential contamination with listeria. The recall applied only to products with the label "Sweet 2 EAT," and included baked goods that might have used the contaminated fruit. Listeria illness can be mild or life-threatening. - Inquirer staff

Botox-maker Allergan, which is trying to fend off a hostile takeover by Valent Pharmaceuticals, says it is cutting about 13 percent of its workforce, or roughly 1,500 employees, to become more efficient and productive. Allegan, based in Irvine, Calif., says it will eliminate about 250 vacant positions. The company says its restructuring plan will yield annual pretax savings of about $475 million in 2015, but costs tied to it will total $375 million to $425 million. Allergan's second- quarter earnings grew 16 percent, to $417.2 million. - Associated Press

Netflix's second-quarter earnings more than doubled as new episodes from one of its hit series helped the Internet video service surpass 50 million worldwide subscribers for the first time. The gains announced Monday include an additional 570,000 U.S. subscribers, slightly more than Netflix's management predicted. - AP