Business Highlights: FTX execs’ plea deals, inflation gauge

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Judge kept FTX execs’ plea deals secret to get founder to US

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge kept secret that two of Sam Bankman-Fried’s executive associates were cooperating with investigators so the cryptocurrency entrepreneur wouldn’t get spooked and fight extradition from the Bahamas to the United States. Federal Judge Ronnie Abrams’ decision in Manhattan was revealed Friday with the unsealing of transcripts of guilty pleas by Bankman-Fried’s top fellow executives in the collapsed cryptocurrency empire. The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried was brought to New York Wednesday. A Manhattan judge freed him on $250 million bail to live with his parents in California until trial. Later Friday, Abrams recused herself from the case, saying her husband’s law firm advised FTX in 2021.

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An inflation measure watched by the Fed eases to 5.5%

WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation closely watched by the Federal Reserve slowed last month, another sign that a long surge in consumer prices seems to be easing. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 5.5% in November from a year earlier, down from a revise 6.1% increase in October. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation was up 4.7% over the previous year. On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.1% from October to November after rising 0.4% the previous month. Core prices rose 0.2%.

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Elon Musk tells investors he’ll pause on Tesla stock sales

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — CEO Elon Musk says he won’t sell any more shares in Tesla for 18 months or more, likely an attempt to comfort shareholders of the electric vehicle company who have watched the stock lose nearly half of its value since Musk’s purchase of Twitter went through in October. Musk dumped another $2.58 billion worth of Tesla stock last week and has sold nearly $23 billion worth of his car company’s shares since April, when he started building a position in Twitter. Tesla shares fell more than 1% on Friday, to $123.74. They were around $360 on April 1.

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Funding bill targets online sites amid retail theft concerns

NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers are scoring one win in the governmentwide spending bill. The $1.7 trillion funding package contains legislation that will force online marketplaces like Amazon and Facebook to verify high-volume sellers amid heightened concerns about retail theft. Brick-and-mortar retailers have been voicing concerns about the amount of goods being stolen from their stores and subsequently sold online. The bill, called the INFORM ACT, seeks to combat the sale of these goods and other counterfeit items. It would compel online marketplaces to verify several types of information – such as bank account, tax ID and contact details – of sellers who make at least 200 unique sales and earned a minimum of $5,000 in a given year.

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Facebook parent Meta will pay $725M to settle user data case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook’s corporate parent has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social media platform allowed millions of its users’ personal information to be fed to Cambridge Analytica. That’s a firm that supported Donald Trump’s victorious presidential campaign in 2016. Terms of the settlement reached by Meta Platforms, the holding company for Facebook and Instagram, were disclosed in court documents filed late Thursday. It will still need to be approved by a judge in a San Francisco federal court hearing set for March.

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Wall Street ends higher, still winds up with 3rd weekly loss

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed higher on Wall Street following a batch of mixed news on the economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% Friday. The benchmark index still wound up with its third weekly loss in a row. A key measure of inflation continued to slow, but it’s still far higher than anyone wants to see. Also, growth in consumer spending weakened last month by more than expected, but incomes were a bit stronger than expected. Markets are in a tricky spot where relatively solid economic data reduces the risk of a recession but also raises the threat of higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve.

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Microsoft will fight US over $68.7B Activision Blizzard deal

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft is headed for a battle with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the U.S. will block the tech giant’s planned takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard. Microsoft on Thursday filed a formal response to the FTC lawsuit’s declaring the $68.7 billion deal an illegal acquisition that should be stopped. For years, Microsoft has avoided the political backlash that has been directed at its big tech peers Amazon, Google and Meta. But the software giant now appears to be on a collision course with U.S. regulators emboldened by President Joe Biden’s push to get tough on anti-competitive behavior. The FTC claims the merger could violate antitrust laws by suppressing competitors to Microsoft’s Xbox game console and subscription business.

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Germany formally suspends guarantees for business with Iran

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says it is formally suspending export credit and investment guarantees for business in Iran in the wake of authorities’ crackdown on protests. The Economy Ministry said Friday that it also has suspended other “economic formats” including a dialogue on energy issues, in view of “the very serious situation in Iran.” Credit export guarantees protect German companies from losses when exports aren’t paid for. Investment guarantees are granted to protect direct investments by German companies from political risk in the countries where they are made.

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The S&P 500 rose 22.43 points, or 0.6%, to 3,844.82. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 176.44 points, or 0.5%, to 33,203.93. The Nasdaq gained 21.74 points, or 0.2%, to 10,497.86. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies tacked on 6.85 points, or 0.4%, to 1,760.93.