NEW YORK (AP) — A burst of buying Friday in U.S. stocks defied slumps in other markets and offered hope for investors shaken by geopolitical turmoil. The rally on Wall Street contrasted with price declines in European and Asian stock markets. Fear has been creeping into stock and bond markets around the world in recent weeks against a backdrop of escalating global conflicts. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's state investment company said Friday it plans to make Malaysia Airlines fully government owned, removing it from the country's stock exchange before carrying out an overhaul of the carrier that is reeling from double disasters. Khazanah Nasional, which owns 69 percent of Malaysia Airlines, said it has proposed to the carrier's board that it buy out minority shareholders at 27 sen (8 cents) a share, which is 29 percent higher than the airline's average share price over the previous three months. [...] many market analysts and some farmers expect the USDA to revise expectations upward in a report based on field surveys that's due out Tuesday. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge rejected as too low a $324.5 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging Google and Apple conspired with several other technology companies to block their top workers from getting better job offers. The Friday ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh concludes the more than 60,000 high-tech workers represented in the 3-year-old lawsuit deserve to be paid more money, based on the evidence indicating their earning power was undermined by the collusion among their employers. ROME (AP) — Fast-growing Etihad Airways took effective control of Italy's loss-making national carrier Alitalia on Friday, injecting 560 million euros ($750 million) in a deal that will see the Gulf airline gain access to one of Europe's major markets. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department said Friday that that productivity increased 2.5 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in the April-June quarter, after plummeting 4.5 percent in the first quarter. Greater productivity increases living standards because it enables companies to pay their workers more without having to increase prices, which can boost inflation. Argentina had sought to bring the case to the International Court of Justice in the Hague after a series of rulings in U.S. courts forced the South American country into a default on its sovereign debt.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 20 hours ago.
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