NEW YORK — Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday it received an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy the company for $5 billion, but the family that controls the company said it would oppose the deal.

Dow Jones said its board had received the offer from News Corp. to buy the company at $60 a share, either in cash or a combination of cash and News Corp. stock. News of the offer, which was first reported on CNBC, sent Dow Jones' shares soaring, and also lifted those of other newspaper publishers.

However Dow Jones said later Tuesday that the Bancroft family, the company's controlling shareholders, intended to vote shares representing just over 50 percent of the voting power of Dow Jones against the deal.

That put the ball back in Murdoch's court, leaving open the possibility that he could raise his offer, or that other bidders for the company could possibly emerge.

The union representing Dow Jones employees, the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, was harshly critical of the prospect of being owned by Murdoch, and issued a statement saying that Murdoch's bid was opposed by the staff "from top to bottom."

BP CHIEF EXECUTIVE RESIGNS

LONDON — BP PLC's Chief Executive John Browne resigned Tuesday, hours after a judge allowed a newspaper to publish allegations from a former boyfriend that the executive misused company resources.

Browne, who had already moved up his departure by more than a year after a deadly refinery blast in Texas and a giant oil spill in Alaska, denied any improper conduct relating to BP. But he acknowledged that he had lied to a judge about how he met his former partner, with whom he had a four-year relationship.

The Mail on Sunday, the newspaper that had sought to publish the claims, immediately called for Browne to be prosecuted for perjury.

Browne said he regretted the lie, saying he was in shock at his private life being exposed, and was stepping down voluntarily "to avoid unnecessary embarrassment and distraction to the company."

Browne's designated successor, exploration and production head Tony Hayward, will take over as CEO immediately, the company said. He will have to repair BP's tarnished reputation after the series of high-profile operational and regulatory mishaps.

MANUFACTURING INDEX HITS HIGHEST RATE IN 11 MONTHS

NEW YORK — Faster-than-expected manufacturing growth in April led to rising prices in many raw materials — metals, fuel and corn-based products — fanning worries on Tuesday that inflation would keep the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Tuesday that its manufacturing index hit the highest rate in 11 months, and that the prices component of the index surged to its steepest since last July.

The manufacturing index registered 54.7 in April, above the March reading of 50.9 and Wall Street's expectation of 51. It was the highest reading since last May's 54.7.

A reading above 50 indicates growth for the sector, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.

The index of prices paid by manufacturers also surged to 73 in April, compared to 65.5 the previous month. Prices rose for all reported commodities including gasoline, aluminum, corn, diesel fuel and steel. No commodities prices fell, the report said.

AUTO SALES SLOW IN APRIL

DETROIT — April auto sales were so slow that even Toyota reported a decrease from the same month last year. General Motors and Ford also reported decreases in U.S. sales while Chrysler had a small increase.

Most analysts expected that U.S. sales overall being reported Tuesday would be down due largely to the slumping housing market, rising consumer debt and no pent-up demand for vehicles.

Gasoline prices also are at or near $3 per gallon, and many consumers were expected to delay auto purchases until they find out what will happen to gas prices during the upcoming summer driving season. from the same month last year.

The decline at Toyota Motor Corp. are counter to a long trend of rising sales, sometimes in double digits.

Toyota sales, which include the Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands, dropped 4.4 percent to 210,457 last month from 219,965 in April 2006, the company said Tuesday.

The Japanese automaker has seen double-digit increases in recent months and it seemed like the rising sales would never end. In March, for example, the company's sales jumped 11.7 percent.

Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, reported its U.S. sales fell 12.9 percent in April versus a year ago due largely to slumping car sales.

FED CHAIRMAN ADDRESSES TRADE DEFICITS

WASHINGTON — A move to protect threatened American industries and workers from foreign competition would be a serious mistake that would jeopardize the sizable benefits of free trade, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

As America's trade deficits have soared, Congress and the Bush administration have come under increased political pressure to erect trade barriers against a flood of imports that critics contend have contributed to the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2001.

The Fed chairman said that restricting imports might temporarily slow job losses in affected industries, but those benefits would be outweighed "many times over by the costs, which would include higher prices for consumers and increased costs, and thus reduced competitiveness, for U.S. firms."

VENEZUELA GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER OIL FIELDS

BARCELONA, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez's government took over Venezuela's last privately run oil fields Tuesday, intensifying a power struggle with international companies over the world's largest known petroleum deposit.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez declared that the fields had reverted to state control just after midnight. State television showed cheering workers in hard hats raising the flags of Venezuela and the national oil company over a refinery and four drilling fields in the Orinoco River basin.

Chavez, a strident critic of the U.S. and a leader of the leftist movement in Latin America, traveled to the refinery for a ceremony with red-clad oil workers on May Day, the international workers' holiday. The military planned a fly-over by Russian-made fighter jets.

While the state takeover had been planned for some time, BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil ASA remain locked in a struggle with the Chavez government over the terms and conditions under which they will be allowed to stay on as minority partners.

P&G SAW 14% JUMP IN EARNINGS

CINCINNATI — Procter & Gamble Co. said Tuesday that strong growth in developing markets helped power earnings 14 percent higher in the third quarter for the world's largest consumer product company.

P&G said net income in the three months ended March 31 climbed to $2.51 billion, or 74 cents per share, from $2.21 billion, or 63 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. The Cincinnati company also improved its full-year earnings target on the strong quarterly sales.