Business Highlights

___

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to plead to 3 criminal charges

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion. OxyContin is the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic. The charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws. The deal doesn’t release any of the company’s executives or owners from criminal liability, and a criminal investigation is ongoing. Some state attorney generals say that’s not enough. Family members say they had “ethically and lawfully,” while also expressing “deep compassion” for those addicted to opioids.

___

From Detroit to Oakland, pandemic threatens urban renewal

DETROIT (AP) — As office workers continue to stay home during the pandemic, cities that were in the middle of bustling downtown comebacks are feeling a lot of uncertainty. Places like Detroit, Cleveland and Oakland, California, were seeing big downtown growth before the coronavirus hit. Now the revitalizations have been stalled and experts say it’s likely to take the once-struggling cities longer to come back than those with established commercial and residential markets. Many redeveloping cities already were losing population, making comebacks harder. One expert says that if the virus persists, businesses will close, and that will hurt those that remain downtown.

___

U.S. antitrust case against Google mirrors Microsoft battle

WASHINGTON (AP) — Technology may be bringing the future ever closer, but the Trump administration’s legal assault on Google actually feels like a blast from the past. That’s when the U.S. Justice Department filed a high-profile lawsuit against a technology monopoly that leveraged a methodically built monopoly to set up a system that made consumers almost reflexively rely on its stable of products. Only that game-changing case was brought against Microsoft and its personal computer software empire in 1998, around the same time Google was founded. Now things are coming full circle with a strikingly similar argument against Google and its dominant search engine.

___

Tesla posts net profit for fifth straight quarter

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla charged through a summertime auto industry sales slump in the U.S. to post stronger-than-expected net earnings for the third quarter. The electric car and solar panel maker said Wednesday that it made $331 million, or 27 cents per share, for its fifth-straight profitable quarter. Excluding special items such as stock-based compensation, Tesla made 76 cents per share, beating Wall Street estimates of 57 cents. Revenue from July through September was $8.77 billion, also passing analysts’ expectations of $6.3 billion. Tesla relied heavily on revenue from selling electric vehicle credits to other automakers so they can meet government fuel economy and pollution regulations.

___

Fed survey finds tepid growth as US economy battles pandemic

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve survey of business conditions around the country has found that the U.S. economy grew at a “slight to modest” pace in September and early October. But many areas of economic activity were still hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic. The Fed report made public Wednesday said that the pace of economic activity varied greatly among sectors. Housing demand showed solid gains, helped by very low mortgage rates, but conditions in commercial real estate continued to deteriorate. That sector has been hurt by the closing of thousands of restaurants and other retail establishments.

___

CSX profit falls 14% but railroad announces $5B buyback

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — CSX’s third-quarter profit fell 14% but the railroad says it handled nearly as many shipments as last year, as volume recovered from the depths of the shutdowns earlier this year. The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad said Wednesday that it earned $736 million, or 96 cents per share, in the quarter. That’s down from $856 million, or $1.08 per share, a year earlier. In addition to the results that topped Wall Street expectations, CSX announced plans to spend $5 billion repurchasing its own shares. CSX said the total volume of carloads it delivered during the quarter was 3% below last year.

___

UK-EU trade talks back on after bloc offers olive branch

BRUSSELS (AP) — The British government says it will resume trade negotiations with the European Union in London this week just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the talks over. Johnson declared the talks at an end last week, accusing the bloc of expecting Britain to make all the concessions to get a deal. He said they could only proceed if the bloc made a “fundamental” change of policy. On Wednesday, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier struck a conciliatory note on Wednesday and said compromise would be needed from both sides to get a deal. Johnson’s office said that it was “ready to welcome the EU team to London to resume negotiations later this week.”

___

The S&P 500 fell 7.56 points. or 0.2%, to 3,435.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 97.97 points, or 0.4%, to 28,210.82. The Nasdaq composite gave up 31.80 points, or 0.3%, to 11,484.69. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 13.93 points, or 0.7%, to 1,603.78.