In brief: U.S. spending down in June at stores, restaurants
WASHINGTON – Americans cut back their spending at stores and restaurants last month, a sign that they remain cautious despite robust job growth in the past year.
Retail sales fell 0.3 percent in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, the weakest showing since February’s harsh weather kept shoppers indoors.
Economists had expected that consumers would rein in their spending after a 1 percent jump in May. But the reversal was much sharper than projected.
Fake story on buyout sends Twitter stock up
NEW YORK – Twitter’s stock briefly spiked on Tuesday after a fake story said the short messaging service received a $31 billion buyout offer.
Although the hoax involves a knockoff news website set up by a secret owner targeting a social media company with a $24 billion market cap, experts said the events look like a modern twist on a stock scam as old as the markets themselves.
The fake story, which cited “people with knowledge of the situation,” appeared on a website made to look like Bloomberg’s business news page.
Woman sues Wal-mart over same-sex benefits
BOSTON – A woman from Massachusetts filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing Wal-Mart of wrongly denying employee benefits for same-sex spouses.
Jacqueline Cote says Wal-Mart repeatedly denied medical insurance for her wife before 2014, when the retail giant started offering benefits for same-sex spouses.
The couple incurred at least $150,000 in medical costs after Cote’s wife, Dee Smithson, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston seeks damages for the couple and for any other Wal-Mart employees who weren’t offered insurance for their same-sex spouses. It asks for money to cover out-of-pocket medical costs and for other punitive damages.
Wal-Mart issued a statement Tuesday noting it expanded benefits last year to include same-sex spouses and domestic partners. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company said its “benefits coverage previous to the 2014 update was consistent with the law.”
Match Group acquires PlentyofFish site
TORONTO – The Match Group, the New York-based company that owns dating websites Match.com, OkCupid and Tinder, said Tuesday that it has purchased Vancouver-based dating website PlentyofFish for $575 million.
Match Group CEO Sam Yagan said it was attracted to PlentyofFish’s consistent growth, and it plans to integrate the Canadian company’s mobile app into its existing family of digital and online dating services.