Avie Schneider

No deal yet.

The brief trade talks in Shanghai this week between top U.S. and Chinese officials were "constructive," the White House said Wednesday, adding that negotiations are expected to pick up again in Washington, D.C., in early September.

"The two sides discussed topics such as forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, services, non-tariff barriers, and agriculture," the White House said in a short statement. It said China pledged to buy more U.S. farm goods.

Updated at 10:59 a.m. ET

U.S. economic growth fell to a 2.1% annual rate in the second quarter — down from a 3.1% pace in the first three months of 2019, the Commerce Department said. But growth came in slightly stronger than many analysts had expected.

Updated at 12:16 p.m. ET

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will have to personally answer to federal regulators under an agreement to settle a privacy case with the Federal Trade Commission that includes a $5 billion penalty for the giant social media company, the agency announced Wednesday. Separately, Facebook will pay $100 million to settle a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission for making misleading disclosures about the risk that users' data would be misused, the SEC said.

Updated at 11:25 a.m. ET

Equifax will pay up to $700 million in fines and monetary relief to consumers over a 2017 data breach at the credit reporting bureau that affected nearly 150 million people.

Updated at 1:25 p.m. ET

Given Facebook's track record of broken promises over privacy, U.S. senators said Tuesday that the social media giant can't be trusted when it comes to plans to launch a digital currency.

"Facebook is dangerous," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. "Like a toddler who's gotten his hands on a book of matches, Facebook has burned down the house over and over, and called every arson a learning experience."

FedEx has been caught in the crossfire in the conflict between the Trump administration and China's Huawei Technologies. Now, the giant shipper is suing the U.S. Commerce Department to block the agency from enforcing export regulations against FedEx.

"FedEx is a transportation company, not a law enforcement agency," the company said in a statement announcing the lawsuit on Monday.

Updated at 11:34 a.m. ET

The Trump administration will delay tariffs on cars and auto parts imports for six months while it negotiates trade deals with Japan and the European Union, the White House announced Friday.

Updated at 1:24 p.m. ET

Stephen Moore, a Trump campaign adviser and conservative pundit, has withdrawn his name from consideration to serve on the Federal Reserve Board, President Trump said Thursday.

"Steve Moore, a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person, has decided to withdraw from the Fed process," Trump said in a tweet.

Updated at 4:28 p.m. ET

Uncertainty.

That's what Boeing says is in store for the company and its investors as it tries to get approval for its 737 Max to return to the air.

Boeing said Wednesday its profits fell 13% in the first quarter and that the grounding of its 737 Max aircraft following two deadly crashes will cost the company at least $1 billion.

With its folding 7.3-inch screen, Samsung's Galaxy Fold was touted as the biggest Galaxy phone yet. Priced at nearly $2,000, the folding smartphone was due to go on sale this Friday. But Samsung announced on Monday that it's delaying the release after reviewers found problems with the phone's screen.

Apple announced on Monday a new video-streaming service, Apple TV+, to compete with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others. It also unveiled a new credit card, tied to Apple Pay, and Apple News+, a subscription news service.

The iPhone has traditionally been Apple's biggest moneymaker, but those sales have been slowing, so the company is looking to make services a bigger part of its business.

Updated at 5:17 p.m. ET

The Boeing 737 Max is the fastest-selling plane in the company's history. And now it's under immense global scrutiny after the plane has been involved in two deadly crashes soon after takeoff in less than five months.

Updated at 10:35 a.m. ET

The U.S. economy added only 20,000 jobs — far fewer than expected — last month, the Labor Department said Friday. But the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent from January's 4 percent, and earnings growth picked up.

The increase in jobs was below the 180,000 projected by private analysts and the smallest gain since September 2017. February's increase was dramatically smaller than January's revised gain of 311,000 and December's revised 227,000.

Updated at 1:05 p.m. ET

Amazon, the giant online retailer, is closing all 87 of its U.S. pop-up kiosks, which let customers try and buy gadgets such as smart speakers and tablets in malls, Kohl's department stores and Whole Foods groceries.

Updated at 6:02 p.m. ET

Gap Inc. plans to separate into two publicly traded companies, spinning off Old Navy into a separate firm as it closes about 230 Gap stores over the next two years.

As Old Navy becomes its own company, the other company, which has not been named yet, will consist of the Gap brand, Athleta, Banana Republic, Intermix and Hill City, Gap Inc. said.

Microsoft workers are calling on the giant tech company to cancel its nearly $480 million U.S. Army contract, saying the deal has "crossed the line" into weapons development by Microsoft for the first time. They say the use of the company's HoloLens augmented reality technology under the contract "is designed to help people kill."

Updated at 2:28 p.m. ET

The Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands are worth a lot less — as much as $15.4 billion less than they had been.

Big name brands have been under pressure to cut costs as consumer tastes have been changing. Many are turning to cheaper store brands or are doing their shopping online.

Members of the Hartford Courant newsroom are moving to form a union, NPR has learned. It's the latest Tribune Publishing newspaper where journalists have been pushing to organize.

Updated at 9:27 a.m. ET

Job growth picked up for the 100th consecutive month in January even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed during the partial government shutdown, the Labor Department said Friday.

Employers added 304,000 jobs last month — topping analysts' expectations and the 223,000 average monthly gain in 2018. The string of job growth underscores the long economic expansion since the Great Recession.

In the latest revelation to raise privacy concerns about Silicon Valley's tech titans, reports have surfaced that Facebook and Google offered adults and teens gift cards for installing apps that would let the companies collect data on their smartphones.

Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET

The economy is growing at a "solid rate" and inflation is hovering near the Federal Reserve's target, the central bank said Wednesday. As expected, the Fed did not raise its key interest rate. But in a reversal from December, the Fed said it will be "patient" as it decides when to change them again.

Updated at 9:47 a.m. ET Thursday

Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard who made investing and retirement affordable for millions, died Wednesday at the age of 89, the company said.

Bogle transformed the way people invest their money when he created the first index mutual fund for individual investors in 1975.

Updated at 1:08 p.m. ET

A major credit rating agency is warning that it will reconsider the nation's AAA rating if the partial U.S. government shutdown continues into March and raises doubts about the ability of Congress to lift the debt ceiling.

A downgrade of the nation's pristine credit rating could lead to higher borrowing costs for the U.S. Treasury, companies and consumers.

Updated at 4:07 p.m. ET

The markets have been a mess, but companies are still hiring — a lot.

The economy ended the year by adding a much-stronger-than-expected 312,000 jobs in December — the biggest gain in 10 months, the Labor Department said Friday.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate jumped to 3.9 percent — the highest rate since August — as more people felt confident enough to quit their jobs and look for new ones.

Updated at 9:39 a.m. ET Thursday

Apple is cutting billions from its revenue estimates for the just-ended holiday season, citing sharply slower iPhone sales in China.

"While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China," CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday in a letter to Apple investors.

Updated at 11:51 a.m. ET Wednesday

As the partial government shutdown continues into its second week, President Trump has invited a bipartisan group of top lawmakers to the White House for talks.

Ignoring pressure from President Trump to keep the oil flowing, OPEC, Russia and other producers have agreed to cut production. They pledged to pare output by 1.2 million barrels a day, hoping to stem a sharp drop in oil prices.

The price of crude jumped nearly 4.5 percent Friday morning, to $53.75 per barrel, on word of the agreement, which called for a bigger reduction than analysts had expected.

Updated at 4:14 p.m. ET Friday

The jobless rate remained at a nearly 50-year low of 3.7 percent in November as employers added 155,000 jobs, fewer than in October and less than expected by private analysts.

Meanwhile, wages grew 3.1 percent over the past 12 months, the same rate as in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Average earnings climbed to $27.35 an hour.

Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET

U.S. stock markets recovered most of their losses after plunging on reports that a Chinese technology executive was arrested in Canada. The arrest escalated U.S.-China tensions at a time when the two sides vowed to work to ease their trade war.