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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are lower in early trading on Wall Street, retreating from yesterday's latest record highs. Materials stocks are sliding the most, while utilities are gaining. Energy companies fell as crude prices headed lower. Supermarket operator Kroger dropped 3 percent after it said business conditions for the first half of the year will remain difficult.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 44 years. The Labor Department says unemployment claims dropped by 19,000 last week to 223,000, the fewest since March 1973. The less volatile four-week average fell by 6,250 to 234,250, the lowest since April 1973. The weekly number has come in below 300,000 for two straight years, the longest such streak since 1970.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates have fallen this week. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the rate on 30-year, fixed-rate loans declined to 4.10 percent from 4.16 percent last week. The benchmark rate stood at 3.64 percent a year ago and averaged 3.65 percent through 2016, the lowest level in records dating to 1971. The rate on 15-year mortgages slipped to 3.32 percent from 3.37 percent last week.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal workplace safety agency wants to fine Nissan more than $21,000, saying the company's Mississippi plant should have better trained a maintenance worker who lost three fingers in July. In proposed citations issued last month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the company failed because the worker didn't know how to disable the line before he tried to work on it. OSHA also demanded that Nissan install buzzers and lights that would warn workers before a conveyor line started.
BOSTON (AP) — One of Boston's most luxurious condominium buildings has banned pot smoking and growing. Massachusetts has legalized recreational use of marijuana, but it's not welcome at The Residences at The InterContinental. The Boston Herald (http://bit.ly/2lCTKxH ) reports that the building's condominium trust has banned vaping, smoking tobacco, clove, marijuana or electronic cigarettes and harvesting marijuana inside the waterfront high-rise. At least 89 owners of the InterContinental's 130 units approved the measure, which took effect yesterday.
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