Business Highlights
By The Associated Press
The S&P 500 index shed 6.03 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,737.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 27.59 points, or 0.1 percent, to 25,338.84. The Nasdaq composite slid 18.51 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,273.08 as tech stocks dipped. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks lost 5 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,525.39.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.3 percent to finish at $51.45 a barrel in New York. Brent crude edged up 1.3 percent to $59.51 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline jumped 4.1 percent to $1.45 a gallon. Heating oil edged up 0.3 percent to $1.84 a gallon. Natural gas slipped 1.1 percent to $4.65 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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Police raid Deutsche Bank offices in money laundering case
BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters amid suspicions that its employees helped clients set up offshore companies that were used to launder hundreds of millions of euros. About 170 police officers, investigators and prosecutors swooped on the bank’s offices in Frankfurt and premises in nearby Eschborn and Gross-Umstadt.
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Fed officials express caution about pace of future hikes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials earlier this month appeared on track to raise its key interest rate again in December, but they signaled that the pace of future rate hikes might need to slow given emerging risks to the economy. Minutes of the Fed’s Nov. 7-8 meeting show that Fed officials expressed concerns about a variety of threats, including the impact of tariffs, a slowing global economy and tightening financial conditions amid falling stock prices.
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US pending home sales fell 2.6 percent in October
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pending home sales sank in October. Higher mortgage rates have worsened the affordability of home ownership and dampened enthusiasm among would-be buyers. The National Association of Realtors says that its pending home sales index fell 2.6 percent last month to 102.1. The index based on contract signings has tumbled 6.7 percent from a year ago.
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US consumer spending up strong 0.6 percent in October
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers boosted their spending in October at the fastest pace in seven months, while their incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. Both are good signs for future economic growth. The Commerce Department says consumer spending rose a sharp 0.6 percent last month. It was the biggest increase since a similar gain in March and was three times faster than the 0.2 percent September performance.
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Cruise control: GM’s No. 2 exec to run self-driving car unit
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — General Motors is transferring its president from Motor City to Silicon Valley to run its self-driving car operations and pursue an attempt to cash on the automaker’s bet that robotic vehicles will transform transportation. Dan Ammann, currently GM’s second highest ranking executive, will become CEO of the company’s Cruise Automation subsidiary at the beginning of next year. He will replace Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt, who will become chief technology officer.
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Trump’s new NAFTA faces skeptics in now- Democrat-led House
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spent more than a year browbeating the leaders of Canada and Mexico into agreeing to a rewrite of North American trade rules. And on Friday, those two nations are set to sign the pact at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now, Trump faces what could prove a more formidable foe: His own Congress.
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In China, your car could be talking to the government
SHANGHAI (AP) — Automakers selling electric vehicles in China send a constant feed of information about the location of cars to the government — potentially adding to the rich kit of surveillance tools available to the regime as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens. More than 200 manufacturers, including major global brands, transmit position information and dozens of other data points to monitoring centers, often without car owners’ knowledge, The AP has found.
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Puerto Rico completes its first debt restructuring deal
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico has completed its first debt-restructuring deal since the government announced it was bankrupt more than three years ago, giving creditors overall $550 in new bonds for each $1,000 they had held. The agreement announced Thursday was finalized with creditors holding more than $4 billion in debt issued by the now-defunct Government Development Bank. It’s not clearhow much the agreement will affect some $70 billion in other debt still outstanding.
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Army wants Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets for battlefield
WASHINGTON (AP) — Virtual- and augmented-reality headsets haven’t had much traction in the consumer market, but they’re finding a place on the battlefield. The U.S. Army says it has awarded Microsoft a $480 million contract to supply its HoloLens headsets to soldiers. Microsoft says the technology will provide troops with better information to make decisions.
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California regulators question utility’s safety commitment
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California regulators have ordered the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. utility to significantly improve its “safety culture” after questioning the safety qualifications of top executives. The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday ordered the company to implement 60 recommendations made by an independent consultant hired to examine Pacific Gas & Electric’s safety practices.
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