Stock indexes end mostly higher
NEW YORK — Stock indexes finished mostly higher after a day of bouncing around Tuesday as retailers, energy companies and banks recovered some of their losses from the day before, but technology companies struggled as Facebook dropped again.
Amazon led a rally among retailers, and it passed Alphabet, Google’s parent, as the second most-valuable U.S.-listed company, while energy companies rose with oil prices.
Banks rose along with interest rates as the leaders of the Federal Reserve met. They are expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday.
Facebook sank following reports that the Federal Trade Commission will investigate its handling of user data while authorities in the U.S. and U.K. demanded answers from the company.
Prosecutors in Munich searched BMW’s headquarters Tuesday as part of their continuing investigation into an emissions-cheating scandal that has badly damaged other German carmakers.
The raids on Tuesday, in which about 100 investigators targeted BMW offices in Munich and an engine factory in Austria, suggested that all of Germany’s top domestic automakers may have evaded emissions rules.
Munich prosecutors said in a statement they were investigating whether the software in some BMW diesel models functioned like defeat devices, cranking up pollution controls when a car’s engine computer detects an emissions test in progress and allowing excess exhaust under real-world conditions.
Federal officials say they’re exploring new ways to reach out to car owners to get more people to participate in the Takata air bag recall.
Heidi King of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says millions of potentially lethal air bags remain in use and repair rates are “not where we want them to be.”
The Takata recall involves 19 vehicle manufacturers.
King says automakers have made progress in persuading customers to bring their vehicles in, but calls that progress “uneven.” Walmart is continuing to build on its efforts to become a one-stop shop in the internet age. The retailer on Tuesday said it is adding FedEx Office locations, where customers can ship packages, drop off returns and pick up deliveries, to 500 of its U.S. stores.
The announcement follows a pilot program in which the companies tested FedEx stores in 46 Walmart locations in six years. Under the new program, FedEx Office will expand to about 10 percent of Walmart’s U.S. stores over the next two years.
The partnership “builds on a shared goal of providing customers convenience and value, so they can save both time and money,” Brian Philips, chief executive of FedEx Office, said in a statement. Orbitz says one of its older websites may have been hacked, potentially exposing the personal information of people who made purchases online between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 22, 2017.
The current Orbitz.com website was not involved in the incident. Orbitz is now owned by Expedia Inc. of Belleview, Washington.
Orbitz said Tuesday about 880,000 payment cards were impacted.
Data that was likely exposed includes name, address, payment card information, date of birth, phone number, email address and gender. Social Security information was not hacked, however. The company said evidence suggests that an attacker may have accessed information stored on the platform — which was for both consumers and business partners — between Oct. 1, 2017, and Dec. 22, 2017.