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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks have given back yesterday's modest gains amid another session of slow, narrow trading. The declines are light but broad. Metals and mining stocks are taking hefty losses following disappointing results from the European mining giant Glencore. Oil prices are down again, with benchmark U.S. crude dropping below $47 a barrel. However, that's not having a much of an impact on stocks, with the energy component of the S&P 500 effectively unchanged.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal initiative is providing nearly $39 million to fund 29 projects in nine Appalachian states and in Texas. The Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization aims to stimulate economic development in communities hard hit by coal industry layoffs. Officials say the investments are expected to create or retain more than 3,400 jobs in agriculture, manufacturing and other industries.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The federal government livestreamed its oil lease sale today, but with oil prices low, the results were again meager. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management got bids for just 24 of nearly 4,400 tracts offered, totaling just over $18 million. That's even fewer than last year, when 33 tracts attracted bids. And just like last year, there was just one offer per tract. Bids were offered by only three major corporations.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Another Portuguese bank needs help. Portugal's Finance Ministry says it has won provisional approval from European authorities to recapitalize, state-owned CGD (Caixa Geral de Depositos) with $5.7 billion. CGD is the country's biggest bank by assets. Since 2008, Portugal has provided some 10 billion euros to four other banks. The country itself needed a 78 billion-euro bailout in 2011 amid the eurozone debt crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has declared a new national monument in Maine on 87,000 acres of scenic woodlands donated by the founder of Burt's Bees. The Katahdin (kuh-TAH'-dihn) Woods and Waters monument adjacent to Baxter State Park includes the East Branch of the Penobscot River and stunning views of Maine's tallest mountain, Katahdin. Supporters say the move will create hundreds of jobs in a region hurt by the closing of area paper mills. But critics fear that property maintained by the National Park Service will hinder efforts to rebuild a forest-based economy.
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