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^FINANCIAL MARKETS
Stock little changed ahead of Fed announcement
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are moving between small gains and losses as traders hold back ahead of an interest rate announcement from the Federal Reserve.
Banks fell broadly ahead of the expected rate cut and as bond yields dipped. Lower yields and interest rates make it more difficult for companies like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to increase profits from loans.
Energy stocks also fell.
But a number of individual companies made big moves after reporting their latest quarterly results. General Electric jumped 10.6% after raising its forecast for a key measure of profitability, an encouraging sign that CEO Larry Culp's plan to remake the industrial giant is making progress.
^FEDERAL RESERVE
Fed meets as data points to slowing growth
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is deciding whether to cut the short-term interest rate it controls for the third time this year, a decision they will announce at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
The Fed meeting comes after the government reported Wednesday morning that the economy grew at a 1.9% annual rate in the July-September quarter. That is a sign growth is slowing from last year, when it reached 2.9%.
The Fed's previous rate cuts in July and September have boosted home sales by lowering mortgage rates. Housing boosted growth in the third quarter for the first time in seven quarters.
Business spending, however, fell by the most in nearly four years. Many companies have said they have postponed major investment projects because of uncertainties stemming from the U.S.-China trade war.
^ECONOMY-GDP
US economy grows at modest 1.9% rate in third quarter
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy slowed to a modest growth rate of 1.9% in the summer as consumer spending downshifted and businesses continued to trim their investments in response to trade war uncertainty and a weakening global economy.
The Commerce Department reported that the July-September performance for the gross domestic product, the economy's total output of goods and services, was just below the 2% rate of growth in the second quarter.
Economists had been forecasting a much bigger slowdown with fears GDP could slump to 1.4% or less given a number of headwinds.
Still, the GDP gain was far below the 3%-plus increases that President Donald Trump has set as a benchmark to demonstrate that his policies are succeeding in lifting the economy above the modest 2.2% growth of the Obama years.
^ADP EMPLOYMENT
Survey: US businesses added slight 125,000 jobs in October
BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. businesses added a mere 125,000 jobs in October, a slowdown in hiring driven in part by job cuts in the manufacturing and construction.
Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that there hiring in September was also revised down sharply to 93,000 jobs from the initial report of 135,000 jobs. Hiring was solid in the health care industry and among employers with more than 50 workers, but the longest economic expansion in U.S. history has limited the number of people seeking jobs and a global slowdown has weighed on the goods-producing sector.
The ADP's figures don't include government hiring and frequently diverge from the government's official report, which will be released Friday. Economists expect that report will show 90,000 jobs were added.
^JUUL-EXECUTIVE LAWSUIT
Former Juul exec alleges company shipped tainted products
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Juul Labs executive is alleging that the vaping company knowingly shipped 1 million tainted nicotine pods to customers.
The allegation comes in a lawsuit filed by the one-time finance executive who was fired by the vaping giant earlier this year. The lawsuit claims Juul fired the executive for protesting company practices, including shipping the tainted products.
Juul is the best-selling e-cigarette brand in the U.S., marketing several flavored nicotine solutions for use with its battery-powered device. The company is under siege from federal and state regulators amid an explosion of underage vaping.
A company spokesman said Wednesday the allegations that Juul shipped tainted product are "baseless." The spokesman said the executive was fired because he failed to meet expectations for the job.
^OPIOID CRISIS-PURDUE-BANKRUPTCY
Purdue Pharma paid CEO $9M in year before bankruptcy
UNDATED (AP) _ OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma paid its CEO $9 million and its board chairman nearly $4 million in the 12 months before the company's bankruptcy filing last month, according to financial documents filed with the bankruptcy court this week.
Five other board members overseeing the private company were paid a combined $3.7 million over that span. In a statement Wednesday, Purdue said the pay reflects the market.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy in September as part of an effort to settle nearly 2,700 lawsuits that seek to hold the company accountable for its role in the nation's opioid epidemic.
It is trying to reach a settlement that could be worth up to $12 billion over time.
Board chairman Steve Miller, known for helping restructure struggling companies, was brought in last year.
^MARTIN SHKRELI-EX-LAWYER
Court OKs conviction of pharma executive Shkreli's ex-lawyer
NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court in New York says the former lawyer of a notorious pharmaceutical executive was properly convicted in a financial fraud case.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Evan Greebel's challenge to his December 2017 conviction at a Brooklyn trial.
Prosecutors say Greebel helped Shkreli (SHKREL'-ee) steal millions of dollars when he was chief executive of biopharmaceutical company Retrophin.
Greebel's lawyer declined to comment. Greebel was the company's outside counsel from 2011 to 2014.
Shkreli was dubbed Pharma Bro and is perhaps best known for boosting the price of a life-saving drug and trolling his critics on social media.
He was convicted in 2017 of fraud for looting Retrophin of $11 million to pay back investors in failed hedge funds he operated. Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence.
^BRITAIN-FACEBOOK
Facebook agrees to pay fine in Cambridge Analytica scandal
LONDON (AP) — Facebook has agreed to pay a 500,000-pound ($643,000) fine in a privacy case stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, agreeing to accept the fine without admitting any liability.
Britain's Information Commissioner Office had leveled the fine after concluding Facebook processed the personal information of users unfairly by exposing it for use by app developers without informed consent.
Facebook was at pains to underline that the ICO had not found that the data had actually been transferred to Cambridge Analytica, which counted U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign among its clients.
Facebook associate general counsel Harry Kinmonth says the company has "made major changes" to the platform since that time and that it is "significantly restricting the information which app developers could access."
^FORD-SOFTWARE UPDATES
Ford to offer over-the-air software updates across lineup
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Beginning next year, Ford's redesigned vehicle models will allow software updates over the internet or through cellular phone connections.
The company says every model will be equipped with the technology as they are redesigned. The shift will reduce visits to dealers for service and even some computer-related recall repairs.
Once completed, Ford will join electric car maker Tesla Inc. in having over-the-air software updates across its model lineup.
Owners will be able to opt in to the program and get updates over their home wireless network at no cost. The cost for cellular updates has not been announced.
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that it will be able to update nearly all vehicle computer systems once the system is active.
^MOLSON COORS-RESTRUCTURING
Molson Coors restructuring as beer sales decline
CHICAGO (AP) — Molson Coors Brewing Co. is laying off 500 workers worldwide and restructuring its operations as it faces declining beer sales.
The company expects to save $150 million by closing offices in Denver and making Chicago its North American headquarters. Its brewery in Golden, Colorado, will remain.
Molson Coors says it needs to streamline and bring new products to market more quickly, like the canned wine and hard coffee it introduced this year.
It's also dropping "Brewing" from its name to emphasize that it makes more than beer. It will become Molson Coors Beverage Co. in January.
The company's beer brands include Miller, Molson, Coors, and Foster's. It also makes Henry's Hard Soda.
Molson Coors' sales fell 3% to $8.1 billion in the first nine months of the year.
The company's shares slipped 2% to $53.59 in morning trading.
^CRANBERRIES-SOLAR SOLUTION
Cranberry farmers want to build solar panels over their bogs
CARVER, Mass. (AP) — America's cranberry industry is looking to solar power for relief as it struggles with plummeting fruit prices.
Cranberry farmers in Massachusetts, the nation's second largest grower after Wisconsin, are proposing to build solar panels above their bogs.
Jordan Macknick, an analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, says the novel approach to blending solar production with crop cultivation is being researched but hasn't been tried before on a large scale anywhere in the world.
Michael Wainio is a Massachusetts cranberry farmer proposing one of the projects. He says revenue from solar power is essential to maintaining his family's farm near Cape Cod.
University of Massachusetts researchers have launched a study to examine the idea. Opponents argue there would be long-term environmental consequences.
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