Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are sinking on growing fears about the health of China's economy. The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 370 points in afternoon trading on Wall Street. Technology and financial companies have been among the hardest hit. China's stock market slipped about 7 percent after the yuan fell to its lowest level against the dollar since March 2011. Trading was automatically suspended as a result.
BEIJING (AP) — China's market regulators say they are suspending a mechanism that automatically halts trading when stocks fall sharply. The "circuit breakers" pause trading for 15 minutes if a key index falls 5 percent and stop it for the day with a decline of 7 percent. Today, trading was stopped after just 30 minutes. Economists say the mechanism may be adding to market volatility because it has too low a threshold.
LONDON (AP) — Major U.S. Internet companies are urging the British government to reconsider a plan to make telecommunications firms help spies hack into computers and phones. It would require telecom companies to keep records of customers' Web histories for up to a year, and to help security services gain access to suspects' electronic devices. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo say it "would be a very dangerous precedent to set." They also warn against any changes would weaken online encryption.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Volkswagen's top executive is traveling to Washington to meet face to face with the nation's head environmental regulator. VW global CEO Matthias Mueller is set to meet Wednesday with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy. The German automaker and U.S. regulators are at an apparent impasse over how to proceed with the expected recall of more than a half million diesel vehicles sold with secret software that helps them pass emissions tests.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — The Renault-Nissan Alliance is entering the race to build autonomous cars with a plan to introduce 10 models capable of temporarily relieving humans of their driving duties on highways and city streets. If things pan out the way the company envisions, its first batch of self-driving cars debuting later this year will able steer while traveling down a single lane on the highway. By 2018, the cars will be able to automatically navigate across several highway lanes, and then will be able to handle city streets on their own by 2020.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
