By Nate Raymond and Tom Hals (Reuters) -At least six U.S. states, including Georgia, did not fully sign on to a proposed $26 billion settlement with three drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson, which have been accused of fueling the nation’s opioid epidemic, according to the states’ attorneys general. States had until Saturday to decide whether to support the $21 billion proposed settlement… Source link

Stock futures opened higher Monday evening, building on advances following a record-setting day.  Contracts on the S&P 500 edged up. The blue-chip index set a record intraday high earlier on Monday, but ended just short of a record close. The Nasdaq outperformed and rallied 1.6% to new highs, led by gains in Big Tech stocks including Amazon (AMZN). “Reopening” stocks including the airlines and cruise lines also added to gains after rising during the regular trading day, with optimism over a… Source link

WASHINGTON — For months, Apple and Google have been fighting a bill in the South Korean legislature that they say could imperil their lucrative app store businesses. The companies have appealed directly to South Korean lawmakers, government officials and the public to try to block the legislation, which is expected to face a crucial vote this week. The companies have also turned to an unlikely ally, one that is also trying to quash their power: The United States government. A group funded… Source link

When Pfizer and BioNTech’s (PFE) COVID-19 vaccine on Monday became the first to receive full Food and Drug Administration approval for people 16 and older, several vaccine mandates came down just that day.  The uptick shows that legal experts and the nation’s top infectious disease expert were on target by predicting that approval would embolden businesses, governments, and schools to mandate vaccines. Just Monday, vaccine mandates came down for staff in New York City and New Jersey schools… Source link

Investors may be wise to tread lightly in the stock market as the Federal Reserve nears the start of its bond tapering program, hints DoubleLine Capital founder and CEO Jeffrey Gundlach.  “It certainly would be a negative for the stock market,” Gundlach — aka the “bond king” — told Yahoo Finance Live in an exclusive interview on the potential impact to markets from Fed tapering. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to signal the beginning of halting its pandemic-era bond-buying program… Source link

Google announced changes to how it calculates and displays app ratings on the Play Store on Monday that could make them more useful and relevant to users and developers (via 9to5Google). In place of one rating for an entire app, which can come in a variety of forms and levels of relative goodness depending on the device, Google plans to break things down with specific ratings for the country your device is registered in and specific ratings for the form factor of the device you’re using… Source link

COVID-19 Delta fears has unleashed the short sellers on the economically sensitive consumer discretionary sector.  Short sellers held 4.57% of outstanding shares in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector at the end of July, according to new data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Taking a short position in a stock is one’s way of betting on a decline in price.  The percentage of short sellers in the consumer discretionary space has trended higher since April as stimulus check spending… Source link

The competition to finance infrastructure projects and expand global influence between the U.S. and China is taking on a new dimension as countries address adverse effects of climate change. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has repeatedly stressed that the U.S. efforts are markedly different from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). “The DFC is very affirmatively seeking to provide an alternative to the type of financing that China provides through its Belt and… Source link

Google Tasks is a straightforward organization tool that’s tightly integrated with Gmail, Calendar, and other Workspace apps. A small redesign of Google Tasks for Android and iOS introduces tabs that let you quickly jump between lists. Update 8/23: The Google Tasks redesign is beginning to roll out as a server-side update today. Tabs are not centered, but rather left-aligned for an odd look if you plan to only use one/a few list(s). Meanwhile, there’s a “+ New list” shortcut… Source link

David Gray | Bloomberg | Getty Images Google is launching a redesigned repository that attempts to explain how its core business functions. On Monday, Google Search liaison Danny Sullivan noted that the company redesigned a website it first created in 2016. It now has more information and easier navigation, including how Google’s ranking systems sort through hundreds of billions of web pages, Sullivan said. With sections such as “How Search works” and “our approach,” the company attempts to… Source link