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In this Nov. 21, 1996, file photo, tourists cast their shadows on the ancient Anasazi ruins of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. Advocates for greater restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling near ancient Native American cultural sites in the Southwest are urging Congress to establish new precautions.
In this Nov. 21, 1996, file photo, tourists cast their shadows on the ancient Anasazi ruins of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. Advocates for greater restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling near ancient Native American cultural sites in the Southwest are urging Congress to establish new precautions.

Merger doubts touch Sprint, T-Mobile

NEW YORK -- Sprint and T-Mobile shares dropped Tuesday morning after a Wall Street Journal report cast doubt on the likelihood of government approval of the companies' $26.5 billion merger, but the shares recovered by the close of trading.

The Journal said Justice Department antitrust personnel, who are reviewing the takeover, questioned the companies' reasoning for it in a meeting this month. The report said the government and the companies are still talking. It cited people familiar with the matter.

At one point, Sprint Corp. shares fell more than 9 percent. T-Mobile stock slid almost 4 percent. Sprint stocks closed up 2.2 percent at $6.01; T-Mobile shares closed up 0.42 percent at $74.10.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted that the premise of the Journal's story, "as summarized in the first paragraph, is simply untrue." That paragraph states that Justice Department staff members told the companies that the planned merger is unlikely to be approved as currently structured.

Wall Street has grown more skeptical of the merger being completed in recent months. House Democrats grilled the companies at a hearing in February.

The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission must both approve the deal.

-- The Associated Press

Study: Gays often denied home loans

Gay couples are a lot less likely to be approved for home loans, and they pay more for the mortgages they get, according to a new analysis of more than 30 million U.S. home loans from 1990 to 2015.

Same-sex couples were 73 percent more likely to be denied loans than male-female couples with the same financial profile, according to the study by Iowa State University's Ivy College of Business. The higher fees, an average of 0.2 percentage points, are small for individual borrowers but add up to as much as $86 million a year, according to the research, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The penalties aren't limited to LGBT borrowers. As more same-sex couples seek loans in a neighborhood, rejection rates and fees rise for other borrowers, as well.

Although the U.S. has become far more accepting in recent decades, LGBT people are not explicitly protected from discrimination in federal lending laws, and a majority of states don't prohibit housing and accommodation discrimination against LGBT residents.

-- Bloomberg News

Ex-agency chief sees no uranium threat

A former U.S. energy secretary dismissed the idea that an influx of foreign uranium imports is a threat to national security.

"I have never considered uranium to be a major security issue," said Ernest Moniz, who led the Department of Energy under former President Barack Obama. "I think uranium supply -- especially a commodity like that, that you can store lots and lots of it -- I don't consider it to be a driving national security issue."

The Commerce Department, at the behest of two small domestic uranium producers, Energy Fuels Inc. and Ur-Energy Inc., recently concluded an investigation of whether imports of the radioactive metal harm national security. Moniz said the ability to stockpile uranium undercuts the argument from domestic miners that the U.S. relies too heavily on foreign producers for its future supply.

These two companies asked the White House to reserve 25 percent of the domestic market for U.S. producers using the same law that President Donald Trump's administration cited last year to bypass Congress to levy tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Nuclear reactor operators, which import nearly all of their uranium from countries including Canada, Russia, and Kazakhstan, argue that such a move could increase their costs by as much as $800 million a year.

If the Commerce Department finds imports of uranium threaten national security, Trump would have authority to impose an import quota or some other trade remedy -- or do nothing at all.

-- Bloomberg News

Drilling near sacred sites irks tribes

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Leaders of the Navajo Nation and Pueblo tribes expressed frustration Monday with federal oversight of oil and gas leases on public holdings near ancient American Indian cultural sites, and they endorsed legislation to restrict natural gas development around Chaco Culture National Historic Park.

Acoma Pueblo tribal Gov. Brian Vallo told members of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources at a hearing in New Mexico that not enough is being done to safeguard sacred sites scattered beyond the national park at Chaco Canyon.

Many of the sites involve more than just physical features that can be surveyed by archaeologists, he said, referring to the less tangible aspects of Chaco.

"Only we can identify these resources," he said.

-- The Associated Press

Netflix adds 9.6 million new accounts

Netflix signed up more new paying subscribers than expected during the first quarter, attracting 9.6 million new accounts during the period -- the biggest addition in the company's history.

The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company reported earnings of 76 cents per share, easily beating guidance of 56 cents per share, with revenue coming in at $4.52 billion, outpacing guidance of $4.49 billion. The results marked significant growth from the year-ago quarter, which saw earnings of 64 cents per share on revenue of $3.7 billion.

Markets tend to watch Netflix's new subscriptions as the most reliable indicator of future profitability. For the quarter, the digital entertainment streaming giant got a record 9.6 million new paying subscribers, up nearly 16 percent from 8.3 million in the year-before period.

Despite the strong results, Netflix shareholders were spooked by less-than-stellar guidance for the second quarter.

Netflix predicted just 5 million new paid subscribers for the quarter, down from 5.5 million in the second quarter of last year. Analysts polled by FactSet estimated nearly 6 million net additions in the second quarter.

The company also forecast earnings of 55 cents per share for the quarter, down from 85 cents in the year-before period.

As a result, shares of Netflix dropped during after-hours trading Tuesday.

-- Tribune News Service

Business on 04/17/2019

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