Twitter relaunching subscriber service

Twitter is once again attempting to launch its premium service, a month after a previous attempt failed.

The social media platform said it would let users buy subscriptions to Twitter Blue to get a blue check mark and access additional features starting Monday.

The company owned by billionaire Elon Musk has also started granting a new gold-colored check mark to businesses on the platform. The gold label began appearing Monday on the account profiles for Coca-cola, Nike, Google and dozens of other big corporations.

“The gold checkmark indicates that the account is an official business account through Twitter Blue for Business,” the company says on a support web page.

Twitter’s blue check mark was originally given to companies, celebrities, government entities and journalists verified by the platform. After Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, he launched a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. But it was inundated by imposter accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk’s businesses Tesla and Spacex, so Twitter suspended the service days after its launch.

The relaunched service will cost $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for iphone and ipad users. Twitter’s website doesn’t say if business accounts must pay extra for the gold label or if it is granted automatically.

Rivian won't make vans with Mercedes

Rivian Automotive in Irvine is shelving plans to jointly build electric vans in Europe with Mercedes-benz AG, aborting a deal signed just three months ago to share costs and technology.

Rivian will no longer pursue the memorandum of understanding signed with the German automaker in September to invest in and jointly operate an existing Mercedes plant, Rivian said in a statement Monday. Mercedes said separately that the factory it was going to share with Rivian in Jawor, Poland, will produce medium and large vans that will hit the market in 2025.

“At this point in time, we believe focusing on our consumer business, as well as our existing commercial business, represent the most attractive near-term opportunities to maximize value for Rivian,” Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said in Rivian’s statement.

Rivian has had to cut jobs and recall almost all the electric vehicles it delivered to customers. Effective in early October, the company laid off 143 people at its Irvine headquarters and another 97 in Santa Clara County.

Markets rise ahead of expected rate increase

Stocks closed higher Monday as Wall Street kicked off a busy week when central banks are likely to unload the year’s final barrage of interest-rate hikes meant to drive down the world’s painfully high inflation.

The S&P 500 rallied 1.4%, trimming its loss for the year to 16.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6% and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.3%. Small company stocks also rose, pushing the Russell 2000 index 1.2% higher. The indexes are coming off their first weekly loss in three weeks.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set rates for mortgages and other loans, rose to 3.61% from 3.59% late Friday. The two-year yield, which tends to more closely track expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.39% from 4.34%.

Technology stocks accounted for a big share of the market’s gains. Microsoft rose 2.9% and was the biggest single force lifting the S&P 500. The London Stock Exchange Group agreed to a 10-year deal where it will move data to Microsoft’s cloud and spend at least $2.8 billion. Microsoft is also taking a 4% ownership stake in the company.