Update on the latest in business: | Ap

FINANCIAL MARKETS

US stocks rising

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising today as retailers including Urban Outfitters and Target climb. That's helping retailers recover some of the sharp losses they took a day earlier.

Health care and technology companies are also trading higher. Energy companies are lagging the rest of the market as the price of oil turns lower.

At 12:58 p.m. Eastern Time, the S&P 500 index rose 6 points, to 2,471. The Dow Jones industrial average added 63 points, to 22,062. And the Nasdaq composite rose 25 points, to 6,358.

At noon Eastern time, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies jumped 7 points, to 1,390.

TRUMP UPDATE

Another two CEOs quit presidential council

NEW YORK (AP) — Another two company CEOs have quit President Donald Trump's manufacturing council.

3M CEO Inge Thulin (ING'-geh too-LEEN') announced in a statement today, his resignation from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative panel, saying sustainability, diversity and inclusion are his personal values and are also fundamental to 3M's vision.

Campbell Soup Company CEO and president Denise Morrison also has stepped down, saying, "Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville."

Several CEOs have now resigned from the manufacturing council following President Donald Trump response to last weekend's violence during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

TRADE-NAFTA

US demands big NAFTA changes, setting stage for tough talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. trade negotiator says that the United States won't settle for cosmetic changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement as negotiations to rework terms of the pact began.

President Donald Trump has called the 23-year-old trade pact the "worst" in history.

In a statement today, U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer said Trump "is not interested in a mere tweaking of a few provisions and an updating of a few chapters. We believe NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement."

Lighthizer's comments suggest the negotiations could prove contentious. The Canadian and Mexican negotiators defended NAFTA as an economic success story but acknowledged it needs to be updated to reflect economic and technological changes.

HOME CONSTRUCTION

US home construction slumped in July

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homebuilders pulled back sharply on construction of apartment complexes in July, causing housing starts to tumble to a three-month low.

The Commerce Department says housing starts fell 4.8 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 million. Groundbreakings for multi-family buildings such as apartments slumped 17.1 percent, while single-family house construction slipped 0.5 percent.

Home construction has increased 2.4 percent year-to-date, but the gains have done little to offset the dwindling number of homes listed for sale. The shortage of properties for sale has pushed price growth well above the gains in income, making home ownership less affordable.

Housing starts dropped in the Northeast, Midwest and West but rose modestly in the South.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, decreased 4.1 percent to 1.22 million.

TRUMP-AMAZON

Trump renews Twitter criticism of Amazon

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is renewing his attacks on e-commerce giant Amazon, and he says the company is "doing great damage to tax paying retailers."

Trump tweets that "towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt - many jobs being lost!"

The president has often criticized the company and CEO Jeff Bezos (BAY'-zohs), who also owns The Washington Post.

Many traditional retailers are closing stores and blaming Amazon for a shift to buying goods online. But the company has been hiring thousands of warehouse workers on the spot at job fairs across the country. Amazon has announced goal of adding 100,000 full-time workers by the middle of next year.

Amazon has not responded to a request for comment.

UNION PACIFIC LAYOFFS

Union Pacific lays off 500 managers, 250 other rail workers

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific is laying off 500 managers and 250 other railroad workers to reduce costs.

The cuts will eliminate about 8 percent of Union Pacific's managers. The railroad told the affected workers today that their jobs will be eliminated by mid-September.

Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz says that eliminating open positions through attrition and improving productivity isn't enough to cut costs.

Most of the layoffs will be at the railroad's headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, but they will affect Union Pacific's 23-state network. In the second quarter, Union Pacific had about 42,000 employees.

Railroads have been under pressure to reduce costs because of weak growth in freight shipments overall and a sharp decline in coal shipments in recent years.

UNITEDHEALTH-NEW CEO

UnitedHealth CEO to step down after run of more than decade

UNDATED (AP) — UnitedHealth Group will change leaders next month, promoting long-time executive David Wichmann to replace CEO Stephen Hemsley, who has led the nation's largest health insurer since 2006.

The 54-year-old Wichmann currently is the company president and has overseen its biggest business, which focuses on health benefits, since 2014. Wichmann joined the company in 1998, a year after the 65-year-old Hemsley arrived.

The company says Wichmann will take over Sept. 1 and Hemsley will become executive chairman of the board. Current Chairman Richard Burke will become lead independent director.

GERMANY-DHL-ELECTRIC VAN

DHL, Ford unveil jointly made electric delivery van

BERLIN (AP) — Deutsche Post DHL Group and U.S. automaker Ford have unveiled a jointly manufactured electric delivery van amid growing demand for emission-free utility vehicles.

The StreetScooter WORK XL merges a Ford Transit chassis with an electric drivetrain designed for the German logistics giant.

It's the third and largest electric delivery van made by DHL, which began manufacturing its own vehicles after finding none that met its specifications.

DHL plans to put 2,500 of the new electric vans on the streets of major cities by the end of 2018. Each van will save 5 metrics tons (5.5 tons) of carbon dioxide a year.

The company has started selling its smaller models to third parties and said Wednesday that the StreetScooter WORK XL should be available for purchase as well in future.

WIND POWER-TRANSMISSION

Missouri regulators reject massive Midwest wind power line

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri utility regulators have rejected a proposed high-voltage power line to carry wind power across the Midwest to eastern states.

Today's decision by the Missouri Public Service Commission creates a significant hurdle for Clean Line Energy Partners, which wants to build one of the nation's longest transmission lines.

All the other states along its route already have granted approval. The line would run from Kansas through Missouri and Illinois to Indiana, where it would connect with a power grid for eastern states.

Missouri regulators initially rejected the project in 2015, while questioning its benefits and burden on landowners.

This time, the regulatory commission cited a recent state appeals court ruling that said utilities must first get consent from affected counties before state approval can be granted.

Clean Line lacks local approval from several counties in its path.

EUROPE-FOOD SAFETY-EGGS

Belgium joins legal action against tainted egg 'cheats'

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium's agriculture minister says the government will join in legal action against those responsible for the egg contamination scandal, which has hit at least 17 countries.

He tells The Associated Press that "the Belgian government wants to take part in civil proceedings."

The agriculture minister says the move is "not merely symbolic," and that any money won would be used to help support the agriculture sector. He says "the cheats will have to pay."

Millions of eggs have been destroyed or pulled from supermarket shelves since July 20. The pesticide Fipronil was found to have been illegally mixed in an insect spray for chickens.

TAKATA BANKRUPTCY

Judge OKs Takata request to halt some lawsuits over air bags

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware bankruptcy judge is temporarily halting the prosecution of lawsuits filed by Hawaii, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands against Japanese auto-parts supplier Takata over its lethally defective air bag inflators.

Judge Brendan Shannon ordered the 90-day stay today after hearing arguments last week on Takata's request to halt hundreds of air bag-related lawsuits while it works on a reorganization plan.

Shannon also granted Takata's request to temporarily halt individual lawsuits against automobile manufacturers who installed the faulty air bags. But he refused to extend that ruling to scores of lawsuits consolidated in a federal multi-district litigation case in Miami.

Takata said allowing the lawsuits to proceed would jeopardize its restructuring efforts. Takata was forced into bankruptcy amid lawsuits, multimillion-dollar fines and crushing air bag recall costs.

NEO-NAZI WEBSITE SUED

Radio host sues neo-Nazi website for linking him to bombing

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal lawsuit claims the publisher of a notorious neo-Nazi website defamed a Muslim-American radio host by falsely labeling him the "mastermind" behind a deadly bombing at a concert in England.

SiriusXM Radio show host Dean Obeidallah filed suit in Ohio today against The Daily Stormer's publisher, Andrew Anglin.

The suit says the site fabricated tweets to back up its false claim that Obeidallah took responsibility for the May 22 terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.