Business Highlights

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Report: FTC approves roughly $5B fine for Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Wall Street Journal report says that the FTC has voted this week to approve a fine of about $5 billion for Facebook over privacy violations. The report Friday cites an unnamed person familiar with the matter. Facebook and the FTC did not immediately respond to messages for comment.

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Mnuchin urges Congress to quickly pass new debt limit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told congressional leaders that the debt ceiling should be raised before lawmakers leave for their August recess to avert the potential of an unprecedented default on the national debt. In a letter to House and Senate leaders Friday, Mnuchin said that based on updated projections, “there is a scenario in which we run out of cash in early September.”

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Judge sides with Pentagon and Amazon in cloud bidding case

A federal judge is dismissing allegations that bidding for a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the Pentagon was rigged to favour Amazon. Friday’s ruling dismissing Oracle’s claims clears the Defence Department to award the contract to one of two finalists: Amazon or Microsoft. Oracle and IBM were eliminated during an earlier round, but Oracle persisted with a legal challenge claiming conflicts of interest.

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VW, Ford team up to make autonomous, electric vehicles

NEW YORK (AP) — Volkswagen will invest $2.6 billion into a Pittsburgh autonomous vehicle company mostly owned by Ford. The automakers who were once rivals are deepening their partnership to develop driverless and electric vehicles in an ultra-competitive landscape. They will become equal owners of Argo AI and plan to put autonomous vehicles on the roads in the U.S. and Europe. The deal includes a plan for Ford to use VW’s electric vehicle platform to build zero-emissions cars for the European market.

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United will scrap 8,000 flights due to grounded Boeing jets

CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines says it expects to cancel about 8,000 flights through October while its Boeing 737 Max jets remain grounded. The airline is taking the plane out of the schedule until early November, about a month longer than previously expected. The plane is grounded worldwide after two deadly crashes.

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Court: Man’s legal crusade against TGI Fridays can proceed

It’s not yet last call for a New Jersey man’s lawsuit claiming TGI Fridays broke consumer fraud laws by not publishing drink prices. A state appeals court ruled Thursday that a lower court erred when it denied class action status to Robert Cameron’s lawsuit. An attorney for the company didn’t return a message seeking comment.

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Stocks climb to records on hopes for lower interest rates

NEW YORK (AP) — Major U.S. stock indexes ended at record highs on Friday, with the S&P 500 ending above 3,000 for the first time. The market was driven higher by technology, consumer discretionary and industrial company stocks, which more than offset the drop in drugmaker stocks. Investors remain focused on the Federal Reserve. The Fed is expected to cut its benchmark interest rate later this month for the first time in more than a decade to help counter slowing growth.

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S. Korea proposes UN probe over Japanese sanctions claims

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has proposed an investigation by the United Nations or another international body as it continues to reject Japanese claims that Seoul could not be trusted to faithfully implement sanctions against North Korea. Seoul’s presidential office says South Korea has been thoroughly implementing U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Export officials from both sides meanwhile sat down together in Tokyo for the first time since the crisis erupted.

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China imports from US plunge 31% in June amid tariff war

BEIJING (AP) — China’s trade with the United States plunged last month as a tariff war battered exporters on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. And there’s no letup in sight: Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies continue to simmer even though President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, called a cease-fire two weeks ago. Chinese imports of U.S. goods fell 31.4%, while exports of U.S. goods declined 7.8%.

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Huawei calls on US to lift export restrictions

SHENZHEN, China (AP) — The chairman of Huawei says the Chinese tech giant has yet to see any benefit from President Donald Trump’s promise to allow U.S. companies to sell some components to the company and called on Washington to remove it from a security blacklist. Liang Hua says the ‘unjust and unfair’ decision to add Huawei, the biggest maker of network equipment used by phone companies, to a list that restricts exports is hurting U.S. suppliers and global customers.

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The Dow closed up 243.95 points, or 0.9%, to 27,332.03. The S&P 500 rose 13.86 points, or 0.5%, to 3,013.77 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 48.10 points, or 0.6%, to 8,244.14. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks added 12.08 points, or 0.8%, to 1,570.00.

The Associated Press