Business Highlights: McDonald’s ex-CEO, Musk tweet review
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SEC charges former McDonald’s CEO with misleading investors
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging McDonald’s former CEO Stephen Easterbrook with making false and misleading statements to investors about the circumstances leading to his firing in November 2019. Easterbrook was ousted for engaging in an inappropriate personal relationship with a McDonald’s employee in violation of company policy. That’s according to the Securities and Exchange Commission in its order Monday. But the separation agreement with McDonald’s concluded that his termination was without cause, which allowed him to keep substantial compensation in McDonald’s stock that otherwise would have been forfeited.
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Stocks end up mixed on Wall Street after early gains fade
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks gave up early gains and drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street. Weakness in health care companies worsened throughout the day. Stocks are coming off their first weekly gain in five on hopes the Federal Reserve may ease up on its economy-shaking hikes to interest rates as inflation cools. The S&P 500 ended up just barely lower on Monday after being up as much as 1.4% in the early going. Gains for tech companies mostly held up, leaving the Nasdaq 0.6% higher. The Dow fell 0.3%. Treasury yields fell further as traders adjust bets for what the Fed will do.
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Feds reviewing Musk tweet about disabling driver monitoring
DETROIT (AP) — A tweet from Elon Musk indicating that Tesla might allow some owners who are testing a “Full Self-Driving” system to disable an alert that reminds them to keep their hands on the steering wheel has drawn attention from U.S. safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it asked Tesla for more information about the tweet. Last week, the agency said the issue is now part of a broader investigation into Teslas using the Autopilot driver assist system that have crashed into emergency vehicles. Tesla has been beta testing “Full Self-Driving” using untrained owners since 2021. Earlier this year the company said 160,000 were participating. Tesla didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
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Buffett’s firm keeps selling BYD shares despite past praise
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s company continues selling off its BYD shares despite the positive comments he made in the past about the Chinese electric car maker, but Berkshire Hathaway remains a major shareholder. Berkshire said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange Monday that it had sold another 1 million shares, leaving it with 13.97% of the Hong Kong-issued shares of BYD. Buffett hasn’t explained why he is selling the shares he bought back in 2008 for $232 million. But the sales do allow Berkshire to bank some of the tremendous gains the stock has recorded since the market for electric vehicles took off in China. Berkshire’s remaining stake is worth a little under $4 billion.
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Nurses go on strike at 2 big New York City hospitals
NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of nurses have gone on strike at two of New York City’s major hospitals. The walkout began Monday after contract negotiations stalled over staffing and salaries nearly three years into the coronavirus pandemic. As many as 3,500 nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and about 3,600 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan are off the job. The privately owned, nonprofit hospitals are postponing nonemergency surgeries, diverting ambulances to other medical centers and pulling in temporary staffers. Talks at are set to resume Monday afternoon at Montefiore, but there’s no immediate word on when bargaining might resume at Mount Sinai.
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Elevated US traffic deaths slipped in 1st 9 months of 2022
DETROIT (AP) — The number of traffic deaths on U.S. roadways fell slightly during the first nine months of 2022, but pedestrian and cyclist deaths continued to rise. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 31,785 people were killed in crashes from January through September, down 0.2% from the same period of 2021. The agency also estimates that fatalities dropped slightly in the third quarter of the year, the second straight quarterly decline after seven quarters of year-over-year increases. Agency Acting Administrator Ann Carlson says that there’s still more work to do to address a crisis on the nation’s roads. She’s urging people to drive safely and watch out for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
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UK government meets unions but fails to end wave of strikes
LONDON (AP) — British government ministers have met trade union leaders but have fallen short of ending a wave of strikes that has hobbled the U.K.’s rail network and overburdened health system. Health Secretary Steve Barclay held talks Monday with health care unions. Other ministers met with railway unions who have staged months of strikes, and teaching unions that are considering classroom walkouts. Some union leaders said the meetings were constructive but strikes by nurses and ambulance staff planned for this month would go ahead. Britain is going through its biggest strike wave for decades, with airport baggage handlers, border staff, driving instructors, bus drivers and postal workers among those who have walked off their jobs to demand higher pay.
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John Deere, farm group reach deal on fixing equipment
MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — Equipment manufacturer John Deere and the American Farm Bureau Federation have signed an agreement that ensures farmers and ranchers have the right to repair their own farm equipment. They say the deal signed Sunday at the Farm Bureau Federation convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, follows several years of discussions between the two sides. Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall says the deal ”addresses a long-running issue for farmers and ranchers when it comes to accessing tools, information and resources while protecting John Deere’s intellectual property rights and ensuring equipment safety.”
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The S&P 500 fell 2.99 points, or 0.1%, to 3,892.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 112.96 points, or 0.3%, to 33,517.65. The Nasdaq rose 66.36 points, or 0.6%, to 10,635.65. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gained 3.11 points, or 0.2%, to 1,795.91.