TRUMP SAYS HE MIGHT NOT RAISE TARIFFS ON CHINA

WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he might let a March 2 deadline slide in trade talks with China if the two countries get close to a deal.

The U.S. is scheduled to raise import taxes on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods March 2 if the U.S. and China can’t resolve their differences.

Trump said he’s not inclined to extend the deadline, but he might let it “slide for a little while” if talks go well. Earlier, the White House had called March 2 a “hard deadline.”

U.S. job openings jump to record high of 7.3 million.

WASHINGTON» U.S. employers posted the most open jobs in December in the nearly two decades that records have been kept, evidence that the job market is strong despite several challenges facing the economy.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings jumped 2.4 percent in December to

7.3 million. That is the most since records began in December 2000. It is also far greater than the number of unemployed, which stood at 6.3 million that month.

Businesses have shrugged off a variety of potential troubles for the economy in the past two months and kept on hiring. The 35-day partial federal government shutdown began Dec. 22, and growth in China, Europe and Japan has weakened, threatening U.S. exports.

Still, employers added 304,000 jobs in January, the government said earlier this month, the most in nearly a year.

U.S. expects record domestic oil production in 2019, 2020.

The United States expects domestic oil production to reach new heights this year and next, and that prices — for crude and gasoline — will be lower than in 2018.

Government forecasters are sticking to their fore- cast that the United States — already the world’s biggest oil producer — will become a net exporter of crude and petroleum products in 2020.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday that it expects the United States to pump 12.4 million barrels of crude a day in 2019 and 13.2 million barrels a day in 2020. The January average was 12 million barrels a day, up 90,000 from December.

Union Pacific lays off 250 and furloughs another 450 workers.

Union Pacific railroad is eliminating 250 jobs and furloughing another 450 employees as it continues working to reduce its expenses.

The Omaha World-Herald reported that the Omaha-based railroad outlined the latest cuts in a memo issued Tuesday.

Union Pacific officials say the cuts are part of an effort to make the railroad more efficient. The furloughs in Union Pacific’s mechanical department are possible because the railroad has stored 1,200 locomotives.

Union Pacific announced last month that its fourth-quarter profit increased 29 percent to $1.55 billion.