Business Highlights

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S&P 500 closes at a record, erasing last of pandemic losses

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street clawed back the last of the historic, frenzied losses unleashed by the coronavirus, as the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high Tuesday. The benchmark index notched a modest 0.2% gain to beat its previous record high set on Feb. 19, before the pandemic shut down businesses around the world and knocked economies into their worst recessions in decades. The S&P 500′s milestone caps a furious 51.5% rally that began in late March. Tremendous amounts of aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress helped launch the rally, which built momentum on signs of budding growth in the economy.

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Virus-induced spending spurs sales at Home Depot, Walmart

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans turned to Walmart and Home Depot to stock up on supplies and do-it-yourself projects as they stayed close to home at at time when new cases of virus surged, resulting in soaring sales for their fiscal second quarter. Walmart’s online sales nearly doubled in the fiscal second quarter, helped by an expansion of its online delivery services. Sales at U.S. locations opened at least a year jumped 9.3%, the company reported Tuesday. Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvement chain, reported a 23.4% increase in sales at stores opened at least a year globally, helped by a frenzied pace of do-it-yourself projects. That’s almost twice the 12.2% increase that industry analysts had projected.

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Sandy Hook families: Gun maker trying to wipe out lawsuit

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for some of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims’ families is accusing gun maker Remington Arms of using its new bankruptcy case to try to wipe out the families’ lawsuit against the company. The comments came during a hearing Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court in Decatur, Alabama. The families are suing Remington in Connecticut over how it marketed the rifle used in the 2012 massacre that killed 20 children and six adults. A lawyer for Remington denies the allegation.

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US home construction surges 22.6%, third monthly increase

WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new U.S. homes surged 22.6% last month as homebuilders continued to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that new homes were started an annual pace of nearly 1.5 million in July, highest since January and well above what economists were expecting. Housing starts have now risen three straight months after plunging in March and April as the virus outbreak paralyzed the American economy. Last month’s pace of construction was 23.4% above July 2019′s.

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Top NBC exec Ron Meyer leaving after settlement with woman

NEW YORK (AP) — NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer, a Hollywood power player, is leaving the entertainment company after revealing he received threats of extortion following a settlement with a woman with whom he had an affair. NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell says Meyer acted in a manner that is inconsistent with its policies and values and that the company and Meyer mutually concluded that Meyer should go. Meyer was head of Universal Studios since 1995 and then promoted to NBCU’s vice chairman in 2013. He co-founded Creative Artists Agency, a top Hollywood talent agency, in 1975.

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Ex-journalist Freeland Canada’s 1st female finance minister

TORONTO (AP) — Former journalist Chrystia Freeland is Canada’s first female finance minister. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Freeland to the job after Bill Morneau resigned on Monday. Freeland also keeps her job as deputy prime minister. She is credited with helping to negotiate the new free trade agreement with United States and Mexico and is considered a favorite to one day replace Trudeau. Morneau and Trudeau reportedly butted heads at a time of heavy spending to help the pandemic-hammered economy.

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Coin shortage hits retailers, laundromats, tooth fairy

WASHINGTON (AP) — A convenience store chain is offering a free beverage or sandwich in exchange for them. A laundromat owner drove 4 hours to get $8,000 worth. A young girl in Illinois wrote the tooth fairy saying she’ll gladly take dollars as a substitute if it helps. There is a shortage of coins across the U.S., yet another odd side effect of the coronavirus pandemic. Coins aren’t circulating as freely as they usually do because many businesses have been closed and people aren’t out spending as much. The U.S. Mint and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin have urged Americans to use coins or turn them in to banks.

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China says US damaging global trade with Huawei sanctions

BEIJING (AP) — China has accused Washington of damaging global trade with sanctions that threaten to cripple tech giant Huawei and said it will protect Chinese companies. It gave no indication of possible retaliation. Rules confirmed by the Commerce Department block suppliers from using U.S. technology to produce processor chips and other components for Huawei. The company, China’s first global tech competitor, is the biggest supplier of switching equipment for phone companies and a leading smartphone brand. The foreign ministry on Tuesday demanded that the Trump administration “stop suppressing Chinese companies.” Huawei Technologies Ltd. is at the center of a worsening row between Washington and Beijing over technology and security.

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The S&P 500 rose 7.79 points, or 0.2%, to 3,389.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66.84 points, or 0.2%, to 27,778.07. The Nasdaq composite climbed 81.12 points, or 0.7%, to 11,210.84. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stock finished down 15.70 points, or 1%, at 1,569.77.