Wall Street
Google enjoys second straight surge
A major rally in Google pushed the Nasdaq composite index to a second straight record high on Friday while weak energy stocks weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.
Google surged 16 percent to end at an all-time high of $ 699.62, a day after reporting strong ad revenue growth. It was Google's largest one-day percentage gain since April 2008.
Facebook rose 4.5 percent to a record high of $ 94.97 on hopes that it could mirror Google's ad growth.
But a drop in oil prices limited gains on the broader stock market, with the S&P energy index down 1 percent to its lowest level since January 2013. Chevron lost more than 1 percent.
The Nasdaq added 46.96 points, or 0.91 percent, to end at 5210.14, its second straight record high close. The S&P gained 2.35 points, or 0.11 percent, to end at 2126.64, just shy of its record high of 2130.82. The Dow fell 33.8 points, or 0.19 percent, to 18,086.45.
— Reuters
Mortgages
Judge dismisses suits against Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo won the dismissal of two lawsuits Friday that had accused the largest American mortgage lender of violating the Fair Housing Act by engaging in predatory lending practices in Los Angeles and Chicago.
The lawsuits by the city of Los Angeles and by Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, accused Wells Fargo of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into higher-cost loans, a process sometimes called "reverse redlining."
The suits argued this resulted in higher foreclosures and lower property tax collections, and necessitated higher spending to combat urban blight. Los Angeles and Chicago are the second- and third-most populous cities in the United States.
"We are pleased with both decisions," Wells Fargo spokesman Ancel Martinez said. The San Francisco-based lender is the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets.
U.S. District Judge Otis Wright found no showing of violations within the two-year statute of limitations period before the December 2013 lawsuit.
Wright also faulted Los Angeles's litigation strategy. He said the city failed to identify any Wells Fargo policy to steer minorities into costly loans, and instead the city objected to the bank's issuance of federally-insured loans that can help lower-income borrowers afford homes, despite their higher costs.
— Reuters
Also in Business
● U.S. consumer prices rose for a fifth straight month in June as the cost of gasoline and a range of other goods increased, further signs of firming inflation that strengthen the case for an interest rate hike this year. Other data on Friday suggested the economy could support a tightening of monetary policy. Housing starts surged in June and building permits soared to a near eight-year high. Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen this week affirmed that the U.S. central bank was keen to start raising interest rates later this year.
● Boeing said on Friday it will take a $ 536 million after-tax charge in its second-quarter results to deal with problems in the fuel system on the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker it is developing for the Air Force. The Chicago-based company said the charge, which amounts to 77 cents per share, would result in lower earnings for the full year. It said added funds were needed to cover higher costs for development, certification and initial production of the tanker aircraft, while keeping the $ 49 billion, 179-aircraft program on track for initial deliveries of 18 tankers by August 2017. This is the second charge Boeing has taken on the KC-46 tanker, one of its biggest defense development efforts, bringing the total after-tax charges to just over $ 800 million, with the pre-tax bill reaching nearly $ 1.3 billion.
● Mattel turnaround plan is off to a crawling start. Higher sales of the company's Fisher-Price branded toys, aimed at infants and preschoolers, helped it post a surprise profit in its second quarter. The company, which has been struggling with declining sales for the past seven quarters, is trying to revitalize its brands by introducing new toys, improving packaging and boosting online marketing.
● E-commerce Web site Etsy saw its shares jump 30 percent Friday thanks to a nod from Google during its quarterly conference call. Speaking to analysts after its second-quarter report late Thursday, Google Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani pointed to Brooklyn-based Etsy as a good example of Web companies winning more business because of Google's recent move to index information and pages within third-party apps.
● T-Mobile will pay $ 17.5 million to settle a U.S. investigation of two 911 service outages last year, marking the largest such fine by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC on Friday said it found that better safeguards in T-Mobile's 911 network architecture would have prevented the outages, which together lasted for about three hours on Aug. 8 and affected almost all of the wireless carriers' 50 million customers nationwide. The FCC said it also found T-Mobile did not notify affected 911 call centers in a timely manner, as required by FCC rules.
● Honeywell International reported a better-than-expected increase in quarterly profit as the maker of aircraft parts and climate control systems reined in costs amid declining sales. Honeywell's shares rose as much as 3 percent in early trading after the company also raised the low end of its full-year earnings forecast.
The company, which counts Boeing and Bombardier among its customers, has cut jobs and sold or merged businesses to reduce costs.
— From news services
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