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After Ida, energy facilities in Gulf inching back to life
NEW YORK: Oil companies began gradually to restart some of their refineries in Louisiana, and key fuel pipelines fully reopened, providing hopeful signs that the regions crucial energy industry can soon recover from the blow of Hurricane Ida. Exxon Mobil said its Hoover platform in the Gulf of Mexico suffered no storm damage, and crews were starting to resume normal operations. And the company said its fuel terminal in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, restarted operations. And in a dose of good news for motorists on the East Coast, Colonial Pipeline said it restored flows to two pipelines that run from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina, after crews had inspected the facilities.
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Survey: Owners frustrated when linking phones to vehicles
DETROIT: A large U.S. survey of new-vehicle owners found that automobile quality rose last year, but glitches in pairing smartphones with infotainment systems frustrated owners more than anything. The annual survey by J.D. Power found that the Ram truck brand had the fewest problems per 100 vehicles. Another Stellantis brand, Dodge, finished second. Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Kia, Genesis, Hyundai, Jeep and Chevrolet rounded out the top 10. Smartphone connections, mainly linking Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to automobiles, was this years top problem. It beat voice recognition as the surveys No. 1 gremlin for the first time since 2011.
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Fallen tech star Elizabeth Holmes prepares to go on trial
SAN JOSE, Calif.: A jury is being assembled to decide the fate of Elizabeth Holmes, a former Silicon Valley star facing felony charges of duping her elite financial backers and a high-powered board of directors into believing she had invented a revolutionary blood-testing technology that could detect hundreds of diseases with a finger prick. The selection process that began Tuesday sets the stage for next weeks start of a trial revolving around the rise and fall of Theranos, a startup that Holmes launched after dropping out of Stanford University her dream of becoming the next Steve Jobs. She now is in danger of being remembered as con artist.
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US consumer confidence falls in August to 6-month low
WASHINGTON: U.S. consumer confidence fell in August to the lowest level since February amid rising concerns about the rapidly spreading delta variant of the coronavirus and worries about higher inflation. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dropped to a reading of 113.8 in August, down from a revised 125.1 in July. The Conference Board said that concerns about the resurgence in COVID cases as well as worries about rising gas and food prices had contributed to the drop.
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S&P 500 ends August higher, its 7th straight monthly gain
NEW YORK: Stocks ended a wobbly day with mixed results on Wall Street Tuesday, but the S&P 500 still managed to close out August with a solid gain. That marked the seventh straight winning month for the benchmark index, its longest such streak since early 2018. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% below the latest record high it had set just one day earlier. Weakness in Big Tech stocks weighed down the S&P 500, as well as the Nasdaq composite. Small-company stocks rose. Energy prices ended lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.30% from 1.28% a day earlier.
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COVID recession pushed Social Security insolvency up a year
WASHINGTON: The sharp shock of the coronavirus recession pushed Social Security a year closer to insolvency but left Medicares exhaustion date unchanged, the government reported Tuesday. Its a counterintuitive assessment that deepens the uncertainty around the nations bedrock retirement programs. Social Securitys massive trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2034 instead of last years estimated exhaustion date of 2035. The depletion date for Medicares trust fund for inpatient care remained unchanged from last year, estimated in 2026. The full impact from the coronavirus pandemic will take several more years to play out.
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US home prices soar at record pace in June
WASHINGTON: U.S. home prices jumped by a record amount in June as homebuyers competed for a limited supply of available houses, the latest evidence that the housing market remains red-hot. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index jumped 19.1% in June compared with a year earlier, the largest increase on records dating back to 2000. The annual price gains in June were higher in all 20 cities than they were in May. Prices are now at record highs in 19 of the 20 cities, with the exception of Chicago.
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South Korea bans Google, Apple payment monopolies
SEOUL, South Korea: South Koreas National Assembly has approved legislation that bans app store operators such as Google and Apple from forcing developers to use their in-app payment systems. South Korea is reportedly the first country in the world to pass such a bill, which becomes law when it is signed by the president, whose party has backed the legislation. The tech giants have faced widespread criticism over their practice of requiring app developers to use in-app purchasing systems, for which the companies receive commissions of up to 30%. The legislation bans the requirement, which means the companies must allow alternative payment systems. It says the ban is aimed at promoting fairer competition.
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The S&P 500 dropped 6.11 points, or 0.1%, to 4,522.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 39.11 points, or 0.1%, to 35,360.73. The Nasdaq shed 6.65 points, less than 0.1%, to 15,259.24. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 7.78 points, or 0.3%, to 2,273.77.
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