Today in business: 5 things you need to know

1. FACEBOOK GETS MORE MONEY FROM MOBILE USERS

Facebook reported Wednesday that its ad sales had jumped by 40 percent to $1.59 billion in the last quarter of 2012, beating expectations as it got better at making money from ads on mobile devices. "Today there is no argument Facebook is a mobile company," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said. The world's biggest social network's profits, however, fell due to big spending on engineers and new data centers. Its stock, which has shot up by 70 percent since September, dropped by three percent in early trading Thursday. [Wall Street Journal]

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2. JOBLESS CLAIMS JUMP FROM FIVE-YEAR LOW

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits bounced higher last week. The increase — a 38,000 jump to 368,000 — largely erased improvement made earlier in January. Economists weren't too worried, though. The uptick in jobless claims, which may have been due to seasonal hiccups, followed a week where they hit their lowest point in five years, suggesting the labor market is still healing, albeit slowly. "It's still consistent with modest employment growth," said Sam Bullard, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. [Reuters]

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3. DECEMBER INCOMES SURGED DUE TO FISCAL CLIFF FEARS

Incomes surged in December, as companies paid dividends and bonuses early, before taxes increased for high-earners in 2013. Income rose by 2.6 percent over the previous month — far more than analysts expected, and the biggest gain in eight years — according to Commerce Department figures released Thursday. The flip side is that incomes are expected to grow more slowly this month because payouts that would have been made in January came early. Consumer spending could slow, too, as the expiration of the Social Security tax-break leaves workers with a bit less take-home pay. [Associated Press]

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4. U.S. TRIES TO STOP BEER TAKEOVER

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday to block Anheuser-Busch InBev's bid to buy the half of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo that it doesn't already own, sending shares of both companies diving. Bill Baer, head of the department's antitrust division, said the $20 billion deal would eliminate the "substantial head-to-head competition" between the rivals, which would drive up beer prices for Americans. [Bloomberg]

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5. WALMART RATIONS AMMO

With a gun-control debate heating up in Washington, Walmart has seen such a rise in demand for guns and ammunition that it is limiting sales to three boxes of ammunition per customer, per day. Gun sales, already rising, soared following the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were killed. The FBI says that in the last six weeks background checks have hit their highest levels in 15 years. Sales of semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips — which the killer used in Newtown, and President Obama has proposed banning — have been particularly brisk. [CNN]