Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped last week to the lowest level in a month as fewer homes were purchased or refinanced.

Facebook Inc., owner of the top social networking service, unveiled a tool that helps developers advertise their wares, adding to services aimed at boosting sales from people who socialize using smartphones and tablets.

Shares of Bloomin' Brands, which operates Outback Steakhouse and other restaurant chains, are proving a tasty treat for investors, though only after the portion size was reduced.

Google is creating an information bridge between its influential Internet search engine and its widely used Gmail service in its latest attempt to deliver more personal responses more quickly.

Space shuttle Endeavour once zoomed through the cosmos at 17,500 mph. But its final journey will be a crawl through the streets of Los Angeles at 2 mph.

Fannie Mae earned $2.2 billion from April through June, its second quarterly gain in net income since being taken over by the government during the 2008 financial crisis.

The overseer of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks said it may take action in an attempt to block municipalities’ use of eminent domain to seize mortgages backing securities.

The historic but empty federal courthouse in downtown Miami is a costly symbol of the government's sluggishness at selling or finding new purposes for some 14,000 vacant or underused properties nationwide, Republican lawmakers said at a House panel hearing Monday.

Pitching for the women's vote, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that Republicans intent on undoing his health care law would be eliminating benefits for women and funding for contraceptive services. GOP rival Mitt Romney took a potshot at California when he compared it to financially troubled Greece.

The Golden Arches are starting to lose some of their shine.

Do an Internet search for microcredit, and images of colorfully dressed women in Africa, South Asia and Central America pop up. But the international trend that began more than three decades ago in Bangladesh is increasingly finding a home in the United States.

Bank of America Corp.’s law firm defending the company against MBIA Inc. in a dispute over defective mortgages said that a court ruling in a separate case means lenders should reevaluate their reserves for bad loans.

U.S. homeowners are getting better about keeping up with their mortgage payments, driving the percentage of borrowers who have fallen behind to a three-year low, according to a new report.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Oil in New York fell for the first time in four days after a government report showed fuel demand weakened last week and on concern that the Federal Reserve won’t implement additional stimulus measures.

Romney on Saturday begins a four-state bus tour, with stops in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Ohio -- swing states where the race is hotly contested.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Oil dropped from the highest close in more than two months in New York amid signs of weakening demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest crude consumer, and slowing growth in Germany.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The productivity of U.S. workers rebounded in the second quarter as employers sought to protect earnings by squeezing more out of existing staff.

Stock futures are heading lower as worrisome indicators in Europe finally overtook what has been a healthy earnings season for U.S. corporations.

France's central bank is expecting the country to slip into recession during the third quarter.

Shares of technology services provider Computer Sciences Corp. climbed Wednesday after the company's fiscal first-quarter net income and revenue surpassed Wall Street's estimates.

Attorneys for Facebook and the American Civil Liberties Union want a federal appeals court to rule that clicking “Like” on the social networking site is constitutionally-protected free speech.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., trying to prove that Samsung Electronics Co. copied the iPhone, is citing some of the same patented technology to prevent HTC Corp. from its efforts to rebuild.

Cardinal Health Inc.'s board of directors has approved a new share buyback authorization for up to $750 million of the health care products distributor's common stock.

Liberty Media Corp. on Wednesday said that it will spin off its Starz cable channels into a separate company, continuing a series of financial machinations in the Liberty family, which is controlled by cable magnate John Malone.

Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. soared Wednesday after the company reported second-quarter results well above Wall Street's expectations, helped by improvements in both its semiconductor materials and solar energy businesses.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. is beefing up security for resetting user passwords after a journalist wrote about a hack affecting his personal data, highlighting possible weaknesses in the system protecting more than 400 million user accounts.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, said sales at stores open at least 13 months were unchanged worldwide in July as competitors wooed away some customers and the weak U.S. economy weighed on consumers.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Great Portland Estates Plc didn’t have to build a thing to boost the value of its development site in London’s Mayfair district. The 1.3-acre plot appreciated by 10 percent in the second quarter, almost twice the return that income-producing office buildings there will generate this year.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae said it won’t need aid from the U.S. Treasury for a second straight quarter as rising home prices bolster the housing market.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Fitch Ratings said it’s unlikely to grant the best credit grades to securities backed by single- family U.S. rental properties, a move that may curb potential sales of the debt if other ratings companies follow suit.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will complete its purchase of diabetes drug maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. Wednesday.

Pilots for American Airlines expressed their anger with management by overwhelmingly rejecting the company's final contract offer, but mechanics approved a contract by a razor-thin margin.

HollyFrontier Corp. said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit more than doubled, although its revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Calgon Carbon Corp. said Wednesday that its second-quarter net income fell 3.6 percent, as higher costs offset sales growth.

The company benefitted from good pricing, expense control and positive _ but still relatively anemic -- patient volumes, Jefferies analyst Arthur I. Henderson said in a separate note. He also noted that the hospital operator was not facing a federal inquiry into its cardiology clinical practices like competitor HCA Holdings Inc.

Investors became more cautious during the week ended Aug. 1, withdrawing money from stock mutual funds at a rapid pace while continuing to deposit cash into bond funds.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc., owner of the top social-networking service, unveiled a tool that helps developers advertise their wares, adding to services aimed at boosting sales from people who socialize using smartphones and tablets.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- For millions of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, an experimental drug from Eli Lilly & Co. may now be their last hope for treatment.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- New York Times Co. climbed 6.1 percent after the newspaper publisher entered talks to sell About.com, aiming to salvage a portion of its ill-fated bet on the website.

A half century after Elvis Presley had a hit with “Return to Sender,” a Dartmouth College professor and three other economists have used the same idea to rate the efficiency of the world's governments.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp., billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s media company, reported a $1.55 billion fourth-quarter loss after writing down the value of Australian newspapers and other parts of its global publishing empire.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Dish Network Corp., the second- largest U.S. satellite-television provider, fell after reporting second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- As Fannie Mae ends its second straight quarter without requiring an infusion of aid from the U.S. Treasury, the Washington-based company’s executives today made the case that they’re running a viable long-term business.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Paulson & Co., the hedge fund run by billionaire John Paulson, purchased more than 875 acres of land in a resort community in the Las Vegas area, a bet on a housing recovery in the region as the supply of homes shrinks.

Seven people scammed by a business called Save Your House received restitution checks Wednesday, and Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto offered their experience as a lesson for homeowners seeking to modify mortgages in the state hardest hit by foreclosures.

Monster Beverage Corp. reported explosive growth in its second quarter as consumers downed more of its energy drinks, but its shares fell in after-hours trading Wednesday as the results missed analysts' expectations.

News Corp. posted a $1.55 billion loss in the fourth quarter after booking a large write-down on its publishing assets.

Biotech drugmaker Amgen Inc. said Wednesday that it is halting a study of an experimental drug for reoccurring pancreatic cancer due to disappointing results.

Ralph Lauren Corp. said Wednesday that its fiscal first-quarter net income rose 5 percent, but the clothing and home goods maker forecast a revenue decline in the current quarter and sounded a note of caution about the weak global economy hurting consumer spending.

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Chimera Investment Corp. rose the most in almost nine months as the mortgage investor gave details of a restatement of its results since 2008, saying it plans to maintain a reduced dividend in the second half this year.

Dutch brewer Heineken NV said Wednesday it will keep fighting to buy the shares it doesn't already own of Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd of Singapore, the owner of Tiger beer, despite efforts to upset the deal by a Thai tycoon.

Fifty miles outside the nation's fourth-largest city is a massive field of waist-high grass, buzzing bees and palm-size butterflies, just waiting to be ripped up by an entrepreneur.

underlining concerns that Europe's debt crisis is increasingly weighing on the region's biggest economy.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The euro weakened as reports showing declines in German industrial production and exports added to evidence Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is hurting the region’s largest economies.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A gauge of U.S. corporate debt risk rose for a second day after Greece’s credit outlook was revised to negative by Standard & Poor’s and data showed German exports fell, signaling the euro-area’s financial woes are worsening.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said adequate economic stimulus is in place and that global central banks may not have the capacity to undertake additional measures.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is developing a new strategic cruise missile, which has successfully passed two launch tests, Interfax reported, citing First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Sukhorukov.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries erased gains, pushing the 10-year note yield to 1.62 percent in New York trading.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Media Corp., the company controlled by billionaire John Malone, plans to spin off its Starz business to unlock growth opportunities at the cable- programming unit.

U.S. companies got slightly more out of their workers this spring after scaling back on hiring. The modest 1.6 percent annualized gain in productivity from April through June signals employers may need to hire more if demand picks up.

The nation's crude oil supplies declined last week, the government said Wednesday.

Markets gave up some recent gains Wednesday after more downbeat European economic news and ahead of a raft of Chinese data that will shed light on the state of the world's second-largest economy.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The housing market is where the Great Recession started. It’s the main thing delaying recovery, and the reason fiscal and monetary stimulus (traditional and modern) haven’t worked better. The U.S. and U.K., especially, could have done a lot about it, but chose not to.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd. jumped the most in seven months amid speculation by a Jefferies & Co analyst that Samsung Electronics Co. may license the struggling BlackBerry maker’s new software or consider buying the company.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Nikon Corp., a Japanese maker of cameras and chipmaking equipment, lowered its forecast for annual profit, saying global economic growth may slow and a stronger yen may erode overseas profit.

Women's underwear maker Maidenform Brands Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter net income edged down 1.6 percent on a double-digit drop in sales to warehouse stores and other mass merchants.

Wildfires raging in southern Greece for a second day have forced highway closures in the country's Peloponnese region.

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- On First Avenue in Manhattan, right before the 96th Street entrance of FDR Drive, there is a large open parking lot, in front of the Stanley M. Isaacs Houses, a public-housing project.

A university professor who wrote emails outlining a graphic plan to attack a California high school had been searching for information online about guns, gun laws, ammonium fertilizer and auto explosions in the months before he was arrested on arson charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The California Fish and Game Commission removed its president on Wednesday, months after he was criticized for killing a mountain lion in Idaho.

Five years after a doomed New York City landmark was rescued and hauled from the Big Apple to Wyoming, the diner made famous in movies and television appears kaput.

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, was recovering Wednesday from heart surgery, days after his 82nd birthday.