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8B Daily News – Tuesday, August 6, 2013 Stocks slip on a quiet day on Wall Street NEW YORK (AP) — A quiet day of trading left stock indexes mixed Monday. There was little in the way of news to shake the market out of a summertime stupor, other than a report from the Institute for Supply Management that the U.S. service sector expanded in July, helped by a rise in new orders. It was the latest piece of data that economists and investors puzzled through as they try to judge how well the U.S. economy is doing. Last Thursday, the ISM reported that manufacturing increased last month. The next day, the government reported that companies weren't hiring as many workers as economists had predicted. The report out Monday wasn't enough to drive the market above its already high levels. Wall Street "I think it's flat for a reason," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank's wealth management group. "With broad indexes near alltime highs, we're due for a pause." The Standard & Poor's 500 index breached 1,700 points for the first time last week. An improving U.S. economy and rising corporate profits have helped push the index up 19.7 percent this year. The S&P 500 index slipped 2.53 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 1,707.14 on Monday. Utilities led eight of the 10 industry groups in the index lower. Technology and consumer-staples companies eked out gains. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 46.23 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,612.13. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 3.36 points, or 0.09 percent, to 3,692.95. Apple, the biggest company in the Nasdaq, rose after news that President Barack Obama's administration prevented a ban on imports of some iPhones and iPads. Apple gained $6.91, or 1 percent, to $469.45. In June, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that the Apple devices violated a patent held by Samsung and issued the ban. The Obama administration had 60 days to decide whether to let it take effect. Among other companies in the news, Berkshire Hathaway crept higher on the first day of trading after its earnings report. Warren Buffett's conglomerate posted a 46 percent rise in profit late Friday, easily beating Wall Street's estimates. Berkshire reported big paper gains on the value of its derivative contracts and higher earnings from its BNSF railroad. Its stock edged up 41 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $118.23. Big companies have been reporting better second-quarter results. Analysts estimate that earnings for companies in the S&P 500 increased 4.4 percent over the same period a year earlier. In the market for U.S. government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 2.64 percent from 2.60 percent in late Friday trading. The dollar edged lower against the Japanese yen and rose slightly against the euro. Gold fell $8.10 to $1,302.40 an ounce and oil fell 38 cents to $106.50 a barrel. Trading volume was well below average. Just 2.5 billion shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange, versus a recent average of 3.4 billion. Washington Post to be sold to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos WASHINGTON - The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, ending the Graham family's stewardship of one of America's leading news Attention local business operators! Tehama County-Wide WED AUG 14 through SAT AUG 17 The Daily News has created discounted ad packages for these dates only to make it easy for Tehama County businesses and professionals to say THANK YOU to local shoppers for their support! Ad Deadline: Thursday, August 8 Window Posters and advance promotion of participating pusinesses in the paper, and online Contact your Daily News advertising representative today! DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF organizations after four generations. Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world's richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses. Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will change to a new, stillundecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without The Post thereafter. The deal represents a sudden and stunning turn of events for The Post, Washington's leading newspaper for decades and a powerful force in shaping the nation's politics and policy. Few people were aware that a sale was in the works for the paper, whose reporters have bro- ken such stories as the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandals and disclosures about the National Security Administration's surveillance program in May. For much of the past decade, however, the paper has been unable to escape the financial turmoil that has engulfed newspapers and other "legacy" media organizations. The rise of the Internet and the epochal change from print to digital technology have created a massive wave of competition for traditional news companies, scattering readers and advertisers across a radically altered news and information landscape and triggering mergers, bankruptcies and consolidation among the owners of print and broadcasting properties. "Every member of my family started out with the same emotion—shock— in even thinking about" selling The Post, said Donald Graham, the Post Co.'s chief executive, in an interview Monday. "But when the idea of a transaction with Jeff Bezos came up, it altered my feelings." Added Graham, "The Post could have survived under the company's ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future. But we wanted to do more than survive. I'm not saying this guarantees success but it gives us a much greater chance of success." The Washington Post Co.'s newspaper division, of which The Post newspaper is the most prominent part, has suffered a 44 percent decline in operating revenue over the past six years. Although the paper is one of the most popular news sources online, print circulation has dwindled, too, falling another 7 percent daily and Sundays during the first half of this year. Ultimately, the paper's financial challenges prompted the company's board to consider a sale, a step once regarded as unthinkable by insiders and the Graham family itself. Spring Leagues now forming TEHAMA COUNTY www.redbluffdailynews.com Gayla Eckels: 527-2151 x108 geckels@redbluffdailynews.com Suzy Noble: 527-2151 x103 snoble@redbluffdailynews.com OPENINGS FOR TEAMS & INDIVIDUALS CALL 527-2720 TO SIGN UP TODAY!! Providing year round family fun since 1958 FREE KIDS SCOOP with purchase of equal or greater value Must present coupon 365 S. 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