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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are moving steadily higher in midday trading as investors work through the first batch of earnings from the first quarter of the year. Reports that Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed on oil production cuts are boosting oil prices and lifting shares of energy companies. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 147 points to 17,704 as of 1:55 p.m. Eastern. The S&P 500 rose 15 points to 2,057 and the Nasdaq gained 23 points to 4,857. Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose about 3 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IMF is lowering its forecast for global growth this year to 3.2 percent, down from the 3.4 percent it forecast in January. The fund has also revised its growth forecast for the U.S. to 2.4 percent, down from 2.6 percent. The IMF holds spring meetings in Washington this week along with the World Bank. IMF Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld is urging countries to jump-start their economies through continued low rates, government spending that encourages growth and reforms that promote economic efficiency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he looks forward to a time when girls are "astonished" that women once made less than men and a woman had never occupied the Oval Office. Obama spoke today at the Sewall-Belmont House in D.C., the one-time headquarters of the National Women's Party, which has been turned into a national monument. Today is Equal Pay Day, a day that marks how much longer it takes a woman to earn as much as a man.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Another company is reversing its plans to add jobs in North Carolina, because of a state law that limits protections for lesbians, gays and transgender people. Deutsche (DOYT'-shuh) Bank had planned to add 250 jobs through next year in Cary. But an official of the German bank says it's "unwilling to include North Carolina in its U.S. expansion plans for now," because of the law. The bank currently employs 900 people at a Cary software development center, and it said it plans to sustain that existing operation.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Home owners in Newark, New Jersey who rent their homes on Airbnb will now have to pay the same tax hotels have to pay. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced Tuesday the city had reached an agreement to have the company collect a 6 percent hotel tax on rentals that previously were not regulated. There also are other restrictions. Newark estimates the deal will add $750,000 in revenue in the first year.
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