Business news in brief

CNBC, part of Comcast Corp.-owned NBCUniversal, has invested in data-analytics firm Kensho, of Cambridge, Mass., to bring real-time ESPN-style statistics and insights to the business-news cable channel. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Daniel Nadler, Kensho's chief executive officer, said the firm can bring 3,000 computer servers to answer a question about the financial markets or industries. Kevin Krim, senior vice president and general manager of CNBC Digital, said CNBC plans to launch a subscription service to investors based on the Kensho analytics in 2015. - Bob Fernandez

The federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the attempt by lawyers for the Foxwoods group to recoup its $50 million slots-machines license fee from Pennsylvania asked Wednesday for extensive documents from a Commonwealth Court case involving the revocation of the license. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board revoked the license in December 2010. The Foxwoods group is formally known as Philadelphia Entertainment & Development Partners L.P. At issue in the requested documents, including a transcript and all pleadings, is a discussion of whether the revocation meant that Foxwoods would have to forfeit the $50 million fee. Pennsylvania has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Magdeline D. Coleman to dismiss the Foxwoods lawsuit. She has not yet decided. - Harold Brubaker

When will the cable guy get to your house for a service call? Comcast Corp. says it will make available in 2015 an app that will tell subscribers when a scheduled tech is 30 minutes away and enable them track the tech on a map. "We're hoping this will prevent our customers from just needing to sit at home and wait," Charlie Herrin, Comcast's senior vice president of customer experience, said in a blog posting Thursday. It's being tested in the Boston area. - Bob Fernandez

Revel AC Inc. is due in court Friday to update U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gloria M. Burns on the status of its case after Brookfield Asset Management backed out of its plan to buy the shuttered Atlantic City casino for $110 million. The hearing was scheduled before Brookfield said Wednesday that the deal had fallen apart because it was unable to negotiate a better deal with the bondholders of ACR Energy Partners L.L.C., which owns the central utility plant that supplies hot and cold water to Revel. On the original agenda for Friday's hearing was a dispute between lender Wells Fargo and ACR over how much ACR would be paid to supply utilities during the bankruptcy. - Harold Brubaker

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind., Vt.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) introduced legislation Thursday that would require generic drug manufacturers to pay a rebate to the federal-state Medicaid health program if a company's drug increased in price above the rate of inflation. Brand-name drugmakers must do that now. Sanders chairs the Senate subcommittee on primary care and aging, which held a hearing Thursday to seek answers to why some generic drug prices rose dramatically in the last 18 months. The Generic Pharmaceutical Association, an industry trade group, said in a statement that the bill "reflects a basic misunderstanding of the pharmaceutical marketplace," and the effort "is misguided and will threaten patient access to affordable medicines." The GPhA urged Congress to push the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to more quickly review pending generic drug applications and discourage the misuse of safety programs that delay introduction of generic drugs. - David Sell

Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region grew at the fastest pace in nearly 21 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Its index of regional factory activity jumped to 40.8 in November from 20.7 in October. That is the highest level for the index since December 1993. A measure of new orders soared and a gauge of shipments also rose. More firms in the area also said they were adding jobs. Still, many economists said the jump in the index may be overstating the improvement among regional manufacturers. They expect the index will likely fall back next month. - AP

The Federal Reserve said it would review its supervision of the largest, most systemically important financial institutions in the United States. The central bank's Office of Inspector General also will examine how reserve banks make supervisory assessments and whether officials are aware of "divergent views among an examination team." - Bloomberg News

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits declined slightly last week, falling by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 291,000, the Labor Department said. However, more than seven million Americans work part-time jobs but would prefer full-time work. Average hourly pay rose three cents to $24.57. - AP

Sales of existing homes rose 1.5 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.26 million, the National Association of Realtors said. That's up from a revised pace of 5.18 million in September. October marked the first month in 2014 when sales increased compared to a year ago, rising 2.5 percent. - AP