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The United Auto Workers union extended its contracts with General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC early Thursday after failing to meet a deadline to reach a new agreement.

GM broke off talks after midnight and said they would resume at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday. Chrysler didn’t say when its talks would resume.

The decision has little impact on the 71,000 U.S. factory workers covered by the GM and Chrysler contracts. In the past, workers might have gone on strike if the UAW hadn’t extended their contracts. But as part of their 2009 government bailouts, GM and Chrysler workers had to agree not to strike over wages.

“We should continue to do the things we do until we receive official notification otherwise,” a UAW local official at a GM factory in Lordstown, Ohio, wrote Wednesday in a message posted on the local’s website.

The UAW extended its contract with Ford Motor Co. last week, as talks have progressed more slowly with that automaker. The Ford contract covers around 40,000 workers.

Up until the deadline, the negotiations that began over the summer appeared to be proceeding without the acrimony that plagued them in the past. But just before the 11:59 p.m. EDT Wednesday deadline, the CEO of Chrysler fired off a letter to UAW President Bob King saying an agreement likely wouldn’t be reached because King didn’t come to the table Wednesday night to finish the deal.

“I know we are the smallest of the three automakers here in Detroit, but that does not make us less relevant,” Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Marchionne said he planned to travel out of the country for business and will return next week. He said he would agree to a weeklong extension of Chrysler workers’ current contract. The UAW didn’t set a new deadline to reach agreements.

UAW President Bob King wouldn’t comment on Marchionne’s letter when he was reached by phone early Thursday.

The UAW extended its contract with Ford Motor Co. last week, as talks have progressed more slowly with that automaker.

Marchionne said he and King met a week ago and agreed to finish work on the new contract before the deadline. He said not meeting the deadline hurts Chrysler’s workers.

“You and I failed them today,” he wrote. “We did not accomplish what leaders who have been tasked with the turning of a new page for this industry should have done.”

Things appeared to be progressing more smoothly at GM. Joe Ashton, the UAW’s vice president in charge of the GM negotiations, told local union officials Tuesday night in a note that bargainers have made “much progress” in talks with the company. GM has taken the lead on the negotiations and its agreement may be used to set the pattern for the other two companies.

The contract talks will determine wages and benefits for 111,000 union workers at the auto makers, and they also set the bar for wages at auto parts companies, U.S. factories run by foreign automakers and other manufacturers, which employ hundreds of thousands more. The contract talks are the first since GM and Chrysler needed government aid to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009.

GM nearly ran out of cash and needed $49.5 billion from the government to survive, but it’s been making billions in the last two years because its debt and costs were lowered in bankruptcy and its new products have been selling well.

Ashton wrote that “difficult restrictions” have been placed on the union and company as a result of the bailout. To get the government funding, the union had to agree not to strike over wages at GM and Chrysler. Also, unresolved issues can be taken to binding arbitration, and the union’s new contracts must keep the companies’ labor costs competitive with Asian automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

“As you know, several difficult conditions were agreed to in order to obtain financing during the bankruptcy,” Ashton wrote in the note to local union officials. “We are confident that we can reach an agreement that will meet many of the goals we set at the beginning of negotiations.”

The union has been seeking bigger profit-sharing checks instead of pay raises, higher pay for entry level workers who make $14 to $16 per hour, signing bonuses and guarantees of new jobs as auto sales recover. Ford and GM want to cut their labor costs to get them closer to Honda and Toyota, while Chrysler wants to hold its costs steady. Health care costs are also an issue.

Once the contract agreements are reached, workers will vote on them.

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Stock futures are falling, a day after major indexes notched only their second day of gains this month.

Major European markets are trading mixed Tuesday after Italy’s finance minister confirmed that officials had met with China’s sovereign wealth fund about buying Italian bonds. Worries that Italy or Spain would have trouble paying down debts have been hanging over markets worldwide.

Traders said a report that China may buy Italian government bonds played a role in a Monday afternoon rally that pushed stocks higher for the second day this month.

Ninety minutes ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 51 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,938. S&P 500 index futures are down 6 to 1,150. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 7, or 0.4 percent, to 2,182.

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Congress has given the U.S. patent system its first major overhaul since the age of the transistor radio by passing legislation designed to spur innovation and provide a sorely needed boost to the job market.

Senate passage Thursday of the America Invents Act, which sends it to President Barack Obama for his signature, is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It took years to accomplish, with the final vote coming a little more than an hour before Obama appeared before a joint session of Congress to pitch his plan for promoting jobs growth.

“Today you passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possible,” Obama said in his speech. “That’s the kind of action we need.”

The vote was 89-9, a rare example recently of Democrats and Republicans, and the House and Senate, working together for a common cause. Despite the emphasis from both parties this year on finding work for the unemployed, political divisions have resulted in almost no concrete jobs legislation.

The bill, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., “is an opportunity to show the American people that Democrats and Republicans can come together to enact meaningful legislation for the American people.”

Leahy’s partner on the bill, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said it was the most important change to patent law since the Patent Act of 1836 and hailed it as “one of the most significant jobs creation bills enacted by Congress this year.”

The legislation is aimed at streamlining the patent process, reducing costly legal battles and giving the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the money it needs to process patent applications in a timely fashion.

It wasn’t easy. Congress has debated a patent bill every year over the past six years and, before final passage, the Senate had to defeat three proposed amendments that would have forced the bill to return to the House, with increased prospects of another deadlock. The Senate was voting on a version already passed by the House.

The measure would switch the United States from the “first-to-invent” system to the “first-inventor-to-file” system for patent applications. That change would put the U.S. in line with other industrialized countries.

The proposal has met resistance from some small-scale and independent inventors who say it will put them at a disadvantage with big corporations. Their concerns were voiced by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who said, “This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the rights of small inventors.”

Supporters say it will add certainty to a system now riddled by costly lawsuits. With rivals having to rely on their own secret documents to prove they were the first inventor, it becomes difficult to “gain a clear picture of whether a patent is valid without years of litigation” and millions of dollars of discovery and other legal costs, said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

The bill ensures that the patent office has the money to expedite the application process. It now takes an average of three years to get a patent approved. The agency has a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents. More than 700,000 have yet to be reviewed.

Since 1992, the agency has lost nearly $1 billion because what it receives from Congress is less than what it collects in fees.

The bill gives assurance the agency will have access to more money but maintains congressional controls. Senators defeated an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would have given the agency more leeway to set fees and keep all the fees it collects.

The legislation also takes steps to reduce harassing litigation, and improve patent quality by enabling third parties to submit information that may be relevant to the granting of a patent.

It encourages U.S. manufacturing by allowing producers to continue to use a manufacturing process in this country even if another inventor later patents the idea.

While small-scale inventors are divided on the legislation, it has the backing of associations representing corporations such as Caterpillar Inc. and General Electric, as well as high-tech companies including Apple and Google, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities.

IBM Senior Vice President Robert C. Weber, in a statement, praised “our elected officials for producing a bipartisan, common-sense bill that will significantly improve the U.S. patent system.”

IBM has been the top U.S. patent recipient for the past 18 years.

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A military convoy escorting Yemen’s defense minister on Tuesday set off an explosive device that killed two soldiers, an official said, in a brazen attack on security forces fighting al-Qaida-linked militants.

The minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, was not injured.

Tuesday’s attack took place in the area of Wadi Dufas in the southern province of Abyan, where al-Qaida-linked militants have been establishing a strong power base in recent months.

The security official said it was not immediately known who planted the explosive or when. He declined to characterize it as an assassination attempt on the minister.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said Ahmed was in Abyan visiting troops on the first day of the three-day Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Security forces have been battling al-Qaida-linked fighters in Abyan for months. The militants have been taking advantage of political turmoil in Yemen around large demonstrations demanding the resignation of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In June, Saleh was wounded in a bomb attack on his palace and departed for Saudi Arabia for treatment. He is still there, but he insists he will return home, defying international demands that he step down.

Near daily anti-Saleh protests and growing political disarray have created a security vacuum in southern Yemen, where al-Qaida-linked militants are battling the military for control no fax payday loans.

The West views al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen as one of the group’s most violent and dangerous.

The defense minister is a longtime ally of Saleh and has openly pledged the military’s support to him, though the army’s powerful 1st Armored Division is backing the protesters.

The swift takeover of Abyan’s capital city of Zinjibar by al-Qaida-linked militants in June sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing for safety elsewhere.

Also Tuesday, a Yemeni medical official said six suspected al-Qaida militants were killed in clashes in Wadi Dufas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

An official statement by Yemen’s Interior Ministry said 300 militants have been killed since May.

Abyan Governor Saleh al-Azari said that the Yemeni army has dealt a heavy blow to the al-Qaida-linked militants in the province over the past few days.

The army has also suffered losses. At least nine soldiers and an army colonel have been killed since Sunday in battles near Wadi Dufas, according to security officials.

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East Coast refineries are likely to close in advance of Hurricane Irene’s arrival this weekend, analysts say. The shutdowns are already boosting gasoline prices.

The storm pounded the Bahamas Thursday with winds of 115 mph and it could reach East Coast refineries, which are concentrated in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, by Sunday afternoon.

Refineries are already starting to turn off equipment.

“Even if the storm eventually misses them, they can’t take chances,” says Ben Brockwell at the Oil Price Information Service, which monitors fuel shipments around the country.

Refineries are sprawling complexes of concrete and steel that turn oil into gasoline, diesel and other kinds of fuels. While the main buildings are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and earthquakes, some of their pipes, cooling towers and power lines are susceptible to wind damage. Utilities are expecting widespread power outages from winds and downed trees.

It takes several days for a refinery to start operating again following a shutdown. And many would need almost a month to get back to full operation.

Gasoline futures rose nearly 2 percent Thursday.

Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures, said traders are betting that supplies may be squeezed.

“There’s the potential for certainly coastal flooding, potential for refinery outages, potential for shipping delays, things like that,” Bentz says.

Drivers should also see pump prices rise this weekend as Irene approaches. People are now paying anywhere from $3.37 a gallon in South Carolina to $3.91 in Connecticut. Gasoline is down 40 cents from its peak of $3.98 on May 5. But it’s still 87 cents higher than at this time last year.

Shutdowns of more than a few days would put serious pressure on fuel supplies and prices. Fuel stockpiles are already low because distributors need to switch to wintertime grades of gas, which starts being sold September.

“Anything longer than a few days could be a problem,” Brockwell says.

Three years ago, pump prices jumped 21 cents a gallon in just eight days as Hurricane Ike swept through the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall at Galveston, Texas.

East Coast refineries are located in Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They account for 7 percent of the nation’s refining capability, producing more than 19 million gallons of gasoline and diesel a day, according to the Energy Information Administration. Other refining hubs are along with U.S. Gulf and West Coast.

Refinery operators must decide about 72 hours before a hurricane hits whether to go into what is called “cold shutdown.” Furnaces are turned off and fluids are drained from the refining vessels and into storage tanks.

Jeff Hazel, the senior director for refining technology at the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association says refiners are most concerned about losing power due to high winds.

Refineries typically generate some power on site, but they almost all rely also on offsite power. If there is an outage, refiners can’t continue to operate, and they can’t drain their refining equipment as completely or safely because pumps don’t have power.

If flooding is expected, storage tanks that are nearly empty must be at least partially filled with fuel. Empty tanks can more easily float off of their foundations.

If only moderate winds are expected, the refinery can throttle back production. When a refinery is running at less than full capacity, it is easier for the crew to manage problems that may arise during the storm.

When the plant is shut down, all refinery personnel are evacuated except for a small crew.

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Chris Kahn can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP.

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China will appeal a World Trade Organization rejection of its curbs on exports of industrial raw materials, the government said Wednesday, in a case that Washington and Europe hope will lead to an easing of its restrictions on rare earths sales.

“We still consider that China practice and China’s policies do not violate WTO rules,” Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang at a regular news briefing. “We will appeal,” he said. Shen gave no details of when the appeal would be filed or on what specific grounds.

A WTO panel ruled July 5 that Beijing was improperly protecting its companies by limiting exports of nine materials used in the steel, aluminum and chemical industries.

The case did not mention rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used in mobile phones and other high-tech products. But the United States and the 27-nation European Union say they want China to apply its principles to rare earths and lift export restrictions.

China accounts for 97 percent of rare earths production and has alarmed foreign manufacturers by reducing exports while it tries to develop its own manufacturers of magnets and other products made with the minerals.

A European Union trade envoy, Karel De Gucht, said in July that Chinese officials indicated they might change their rare earths curbs due to the ruling easy payday loans. Chinese officials have not confirmed that.

The WTO ruling in a case brought by the United States, the EU and Mexico, applied to Chinese quotas and taxes on exports of materials including coke, bauxite, zinc and fluorspar. It rejected China’s argument that it was trying to protect the environment and said export restrictions should be removed.

China has about 30 percent of the world’s reserves of rare earths, which also are used in some weapons, flat-screen TVs, batteries for electric cars and wind turbines.

The United States, Canada and Australia have rare earths but stopped mining them in the 1990s as lower-cost Chinese ores flooded the market. Companies are developing mines in North America and elsewhere but the Chinese restrictions have pushed up global prices.

Beijing says it restricted exports to conserve scarce supplies and curb environmental damage caused by mining. But foreign governments complain similar limits were not applied to domestic manufacturers that use rare earths.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C.,

The leader of Italy’s largest union is threatening a general strike against an austerity package approved by Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government to balance the budget by 2013 and avoid financial collapse.

Susanna Camusso, leader of the CGIL labor confederation, says a strike is the only way to “change the inequity of this package.” She told the La Repubblica newspaper on Sunday that union officials will meet Aug. 23 to set a strike date.

Berlusconi says the euro45.5 billion ($64.8 billion) austerity package _ which raises taxes, cuts political jobs and consolidates small towns _ has won praise from the European Central Bank and leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But opposition is emerging from his own coalition, and the head of an entrepreneurs’ association has also criticized parts of it.

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OTTAWA

President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to put politics aside when lawmakers return from their recess in September and pass a series of initiatives the president says will spur job growth.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said Washington’s urgent mission is to get the economy growing faster and create jobs. The latest jobs report released Friday was better than expected, with the economy adding 117,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticking down a notch to 9.1 percent.

“Our job right now has to be doing whatever we can to help folks find work, to help create the climate where a business can put up that job listing, where incomes are rising again for people,” Obama said.

The steps the president wants Congress to take include extending payroll tax cuts for another year, passing three free trade agreements and enacting patent reform. All of the measures are proposals the president has called for previously.

Obama’s weekly address capped a week that began with lawmakers and the White House reaching a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic government default. The deal also cuts federal spending by $2.1 trillion or more over the next decade.

Late Friday, however, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States’ AAA credit rating for the first time in history, a move that could push interest rates higher and further unsettle the economy.

Obama, who recorded his address before S&P’s move, said that while the debt-ceiling deal makes some progress in reducing the nation’s deficit, both parties are going to have to work together on a larger plan to get the country’s finances in order.

In the weekly Republican address, New York Rep. Michael Grimm said the debt deal legislation was far from perfect and the cuts did not go far enough. Grimm, who voted for the bill, called on lawmakers to follow it up with a balanced-budget constitutional amendment this fall, saying it was the best way to provide certainty to the private sector and control long-term spending.

Grimm also said that the jobs report out Friday proves that Obama’s policies are not working. He said the GOP’s jobs plan calls for a simpler and fairer tax code, a reduction in regulations and an expansion of U.S. energy production.

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