Business Highlights

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Divided America: Diverse millennials are no voting monolith

The oldest millennials - nearing 20 when airplanes slammed into New York City's Twin Towers - are old enough to remember the relative economic prosperity of the 1990s, and when a different Clinton was running for president. The nation's youngest adults - now nearing 20 themselves - find it hard to recall a reality without terrorism and economic worry.

Now millennials have edged out baby boomers as the largest living generation in U.S. history, and more than 75 million of them have come of age. How they vote on Nov. 8 will shape the political landscape for years to come. Yet with less than three months to go before Election Day, the values of young Americans whose coming-of-age was bookended by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the Great Recession are emerging as an unpredictable grab bag of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism.

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Pfizer spends$14B on Medivation in cancer fight

Pfizer will pay about $14 billion to buy cancer drug developer Medivation in a cash deal aimed at fortifying its hold in one of the hottest and most lucrative areas of medicine.

The New York drugmaker said Monday that the acquisition will stock its product portfolio with leading treatments for the most common cancers in men and women by adding Medivation's pricey prostate cancer treatment Xtandi to a lineup that already includes the breast cancer drug Ibrance.

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Global travel spending still growing but at a slower pace

NEW YORK (AP) - Global travel spending is still growing, although at a slower pace, despite weakening economies and fears over terrorism.

The World Travel and Tourism Council, a group backed by travel providers with the mission to promote tourism, said in a report Monday that global travel spending for 2016 is expected to grow by 3.1 percent. That is down from a March forecast of 3.3 percent but still outpacing global economic growth, which the group expects to be 2.3 percent.

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Valeant, attempting to normalize operations, names new CFO

NEW YORK (AP) - Valeant Pharmaceuticals replaced Robert Rosiello as chief financial officer as the embattled company attempts to normalize operations amid a host of ongoing investigations and class action lawsuits.

The Canadian company named Paul Herendeen, former Zoetis chief financial officer, to fill the post immediately on Monday.

The news sent shares up by more than 8 percent to $31.14 in early trading.

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Office Depot CEO will retire next year

NEW YORK (AP) - Office Depot CEO Roland Smith will retire next year after a replacement is found.

The office supplies retailer also said Monday that it is reorganizing its executive committee to bring its retail store, e-commerce and marketing operations together. Troy Rice, who is currently executive vice president, was named to the newly-created position of chief operating officer.

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California high court upholds ban on dredges to extract gold

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California's ban on the use of suction dredges to extract gold from rivers is legal and not overridden by a 19th century federal law that allows mining on federal land, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court's unanimous decision was a victory for environmentalists and a blow to miners, who argued that the ban essentially stopped gold mining because doing it by hand is labor intensive and makes the enterprise unprofitable.

Environmentalists say suction dredge mining risks killing fish and stirring up toxic mercury.

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Thrill-ride accidents spark new demands for regulation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - In some parts of the U.S., the thrill rides that hurl kids upside down, whirl them around or send them shooting down slides are checked out by state inspectors before customers climb on. But in other places, they are not required to get the once-over.

The grisly death of a 10-year-old boy on a Kansas water slide and a Ferris wheel accident that injured three little girls at a county fair in Tennessee this summer have focused attention on what safety experts say is an alarming truth about amusement rides: How closely they are regulated varies greatly from state to state.

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Speedo USA, 3 other sponsors drop Lochte after Rio incident

Less than 24 hours after the close of the Rio Olympics, Ryan Lochte took a major financial hit Monday for a drunken incident he initially tried to pass off as an armed robbery.

In quick succession, four sponsors announced they were dumping the swimmer, who has since apologized and conceded that he embellished what happened during a now-infamous stop at a Rio gas station.

Swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing giant Ralph Lauren and skin-care firm Syneron-Candela issued statements less than three hours apart, all with the same message: Lochte is out. Before the day was done, Japanese mattress maker airweave followed suit, essentially wiping out Lochte's income away from the pool.

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Italy, German, French pay tribute at EU symbolic birthplace

VENTOTENE, Italy (AP) - The leaders of Italy, France and Germany paid their respects Monday at the tomb of one of the founding fathers of European unity in a symbolic bid to relaunch the European project following Britain's decision to leave the EU.

Standing silently together, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Holland placed three bouquets of blue and yellow flowers - the colors of the European Union - on the simple white marble tombstone of Altiero Spinelli in the cemetery on the island of Ventotene.

Spinelli, along with another intellectual confined to Ventotene in the 1940s by Italy's fascist rulers, co-wrote the "Ventotene Manifesto" calling for a federation of European states to counter the nationalism that had led Europe to war.

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Duke Energy, NC agency disputing fine for coal ash pollution

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The nation's largest electric company and North Carolina's environment agency are negotiating over a fine of about $7 million pollution to punish Duke Energy for a big spill of liquefied coal ash.

Attorneys for the state agency and Duke Energy Corp. said delaying Monday's scheduled hearing may help resolve the disputed fine for polluting the Dan River in 2014. Duke Energy has called the proposed fine disproportionate and arbitrary.

Spokeswomen for both sides declined comment.

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The Dow Jones industrial average lost 23.15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,529.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1.23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,182.64 and the Nasdaq composite rose 6.22 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,244.60.

U.S. benchmark crude lost $1.47 to close at $47.05 a barrel and Brent crude, used to price oil internationally, declined $1.72 to close at $49.16 a barrel. Heating oil fell 3 cents to $1.49 a gallon and wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents to $1.48 a gallon. Natural gas rose 9.5 cents to $2.679 per thousand cubic feet.