Business Highlights

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Tesla shares fall as CEO admits job stress is getting to him

DETROIT (AP) -- Shares of Electric car maker Tesla Inc. tumbled about 9 percent Friday after CEO Elon Musk conceded in a newspaper interview that job stress may be getting the best of him. Tesla shares closed at $305.50, their lowest level since Aug. 1, as analysts and business professors questioned whether the company's board should grant Musk a leave or even replace him with a more seasoned CEO.

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Privacy group tells FTC Google tracking violated 2011 order

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A privacy group says in a letter to Federal Trade Commission that Google has violated the terms of a 2011 settlement because of practices exposed in an Associated Press report this week. The Electronic Privacy Information Center says in the letter to the FTC Friday that Google's recording of time-stamped location data — even after users have turned off a setting called Location History — "clearly violates" the 2011 settlement.

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US regulators target Facebook on discriminatory housing ads

NEW YORK (AP) -- Regulators have served Facebook with a complaint alleging the company's advertising tools allow landlords to engage in housing discrimination. Justice Department lawyers disclosed the complaint by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday in a separate lawsuit by housing advocates. Facebook has denied wrongdoing. The lawsuit says Facebook's systems allow people placing real estate ads to exclude certain audiences from seeing them. Facebook says it doesn't allow discrimination.

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Trump asks SEC to consider ending required quarterly reports

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is calling on federal regulators to consider scrapping the requirement for public companies to report quarterly results, after business executives told him twice-yearly reports would make better economic sense. In a tweet early Friday, Trump said that after speaking with several top business leaders, he's asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether shifting to a six-month reporting requirement would help companies grow faster and create more jobs.

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Merkel, Putin share a headache: Donald Trump

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia's President Vladimir Putin will have plenty to talk about when they meet Saturday — thanks in no small part to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose sanctions and criticisms over trade, Iran and NATO have created new worries, and in some cases common ground, for both leaders. The two leaders will meet at the German government's guest house outside Berlin.

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Birth control app highlights emerging health tech market

LONDON (AP) -- The Natural Cycles mobile fertility app has become the first ever digital contraceptive device to win FDA marketing approval. Its Swedish startup creators say it's an effective method of birth control that lets women avoid side effects. The company came under fire after reports of unwanted pregnancies and investigations by authorities in two countries in Europe, where it received EU certification in 2017. Its makers acknowledge it's not 100 percent effective.

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Sales director for Backpage.com pleads guilty to conspiracy

PHOENIX (AP) -- The sales and marketing director of Backpage.com pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate prostitution in a scheme to give free ads to prostitutes in a bid to draw them away from competitors. The plea Friday by Dan Hyer marked the second Backpage.com employee to plead guilty in cases in Arizona in which the site is accused of ignoring warnings to stop running prostitution ads.

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In a comeback season for Hollywood, a summer without bombs

NEW YORK (AP) -- After the cataclysmic, the-sky-is-falling summer of 2017, when overall grosses slid 14.6 percent from the year before, Hollywood has rebounded. Ticket sales in North America this summer are up 11.3 percent, according to comScore. Amid a remarkably turbulent time for the movie business, this summer has been surprisingly, almost weirdly, steady.

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Stocks jump as hopes rise for progress on China trade talks

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks rise in late trading as investors hope for more progress in trade talks between the US and China. Stocks turned higher after the Wall Street Journal reported that the countries hope to resolve their dispute by November. Tesla took its biggest loss in two years following concerns about a wider SEC investigation into the company and concerns about CEO Elon Musk's health.

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The S&P 500 index rose 9.44 points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,850.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 110.59 points, or 0.4 percent, to 25,669.32. The Nasdaq composite edged up 9.81 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,816.33. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gained 7.19 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,692.95.

U.S. crude picked up 0.7 percent to $65.91 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, added 0.6 percent to $71.83 per barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline dipped 0.3 percent to $1.98 a gallon. Heating oil inched up 0.1 percent to $2.10 a gallon. Natural gas rose 1.3 percent to $2.95 per 1,000 cubic feet.