Postal Service Reports a Decline in Losses

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Markets in Flux After Mixed Data Reports

U.S. stocks declined slightly on Monday after mixed economic reports, which showed a slowdown in growth in the U.S. services sector and a rebound in new orders for factory goods.

The technology sector was the day’s leading decliner after a downgrade by Morgan Stanley. Notes on Twitter and eBay weighed on the shares of both companies.

Despite the day’s decline, the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 were still significantly above than their 200-day moving averages - a move below these technical levels often triggers more selling.

In the United States, data showed the pace of growth in the services sector slowed for a second straight month in December while new orders for U.S. factory goods rebounded in November.

Globally, service industry growth slowed sharply in China in December but picked up across most of Europe, suggesting that an uneven global economic performance persists.

“We believe a slower, extended economic recovery provides a supportive backdrop for stocks,” said Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. market strategist at RBC Capital Markets, in New York. The firm raised its year-end target on the S&P 500 to 2,075, about 13 percent above current levels.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 percent to close at 16,425.10. The S&P 500 ended the day at 1,826.77, while The Nasdaq Composite closed at 4,113.68.

Volume was expected to be lighter than usual due to icy conditions that snarled travel across the U.S. Midwest. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed over the weekend, as forecasters warned that life-threatening cold was heading eastward.

Apparel retailer Men’s Wearhouse mounted a hostile bid for rival Jos. A. Bank Clothiers with an increased offer, days after the smaller rival raised its buyout defenses. Men’s Wearhouse shares gained 2.2 percent to $51.68, and Jos. A Bank shares added 4.5 percent to $56.87.

Twitter shares fell 3.9 percent to $66.29 after being downgraded by Morgan Stanley. The stock had surged nearly 70 percent in the past six weeks.

Morgan Stanley cut eBay to “neutral weight,” sending its shares down 2.8 percent to $51.78.

Ford Motor Co and its local partners boosted sales in China by nearly 50 percent last year, nudging past Japanese giants Toyota and Honda to make big inroads into the world’s largest auto market. Ford shares rose 0.7 percent to $15.58.

Solar panel shares were in focus. ReneSola rose 3.7 percent to $4.22 after the company secured a contract to supply solar panels to a solar project developer based in Japan. SolarCity jumped 9.1 percent to $64.67 after Goldman Sachs added the stock to its “conviction buy” list.

The U.S. Senate is set to vote at 5:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) to confirm Janet Yellen as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Yellen, who has been the Fed’s vice chair since 2010, is poised to become the first woman to head the U.S. central bank. She is widely seen as continuing the policies set in place by Ben Bernanke, who will step down as Fed chairman at month’s end.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

Business Briefing | Company News: Berkshire Reports 29% Jump in Quarterly Profit

States shouldn’t be allowed to register anonymous shell companies, which can be used for tax evasion and other bad deeds.

The epic Douglas firs that rule the Oregon woods grow from something small. So does a song, Eric Earley writes.

Looking Ahead: Economic Reports for the Week of Sept. 2

ECONOMIC REPORTS Information to be released this week includes construction spending for July and the Institute for Supply Management index of manufacturing activity in August (Tuesday); the United States trade deficit for July, the Federal Reserve’s beige book regional economic report, and the Challenger, Gray & Christmas report on job cuts in August (Wednesday); weekly jobless claims, ADP employment for August, and factory orders for July (Thursday); and the United States unemployment report for August (Friday).

CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies scheduled to report results include H&R Block (Tuesday); Dollar General (Wednesday); Smith & Wesson (Thursday); and Smithfield Foods (Friday).

IN THE UNITED STATES On Monday, banks, financial markets, government offices and many businesses will be closed in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

On Wednesday, automakers are scheduled to report on North American vehicle sales in August.

OVERSEAS On Monday, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, will brief a government budget committee on Greece’s third financial assistance package, and the governor of the Bank of England, Mark J. Carney, will hold a news conference before the meeting of the Group of 20 nations.

On Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will issue its assessment of the economies of the Group of 7 industrialized nations and China.

On Thursday, the Group of 20 nations will begin its annual two-day conference in St. Petersburg, Russia; and the Bank of England and the European Central Bank will issue decisions on interest rates and monetary policy.

Reports See New Roles for Megyn Kelly and Alec Baldwin

The Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and the actor Alec Baldwin were at the center of unconfirmed reports this week about programming changes said to be planned at two of the cable news networks.

Ms. Kelly, according to an account first reported this week by the Drudge Report, is expected to get the 9 p.m. weeknight show on Fox News, a slot now occupied by Sean Hannity. There has been wide speculation about where Fox planned to place Ms. Kelly, a rising star at the network, since the network’s chief executive, Roger Ailes, announced that she would definitely join the Fox News prime-time lineup.

MSNBC is said to be planning a show for Mr. Baldwin that would be broadcast once a week on Fridays at 10 p.m., according to the Mediaite Web site, which first reported the item on Thursday.

For the moment at least, the moves remain unconfirmed. The role for Ms. Kelly is considered plausible, because it is consistent with versions of Fox’s plans for prime-time adjustments that have emerged in the last several weeks.

Fox responded to the online speculation with a statement: “We will neither confirm nor deny any programming schedule changes. As previously stated, the network has signed long-term deals with Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier, Shepard Smith, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren.”

Mr. Ailes also appeared at a business conference with Neil Cavuto, an anchor on the Fox Business Network, on Thursday and told him that Mr. Hannity was someone that viewers “want to see.” The shift most widely predicted is for Mr. Hannity to move up to 7 p.m., with Mr. Smith moving to anchor a midday newscast, perhaps at 1 p.m.

Fox News continues to dominate the ratings among the news networks, but of late its audience has aged upward, losing ground among the viewers most news advertisers seek to reach, those between the ages of 25 and 54.

All the anchors involved in the rumored switches are well within that age range themselves. Ms. Kelly is 42. Mr. Hannity is 51. And Mr. Smith is 49.

Mr. Baldwin is just over the line at 55, but he has just come off a multi-award-winning tenure on NBC’s comedy “30 Rock.” He has also attracted praise for his Internet podcast, where he interviews both celebrities and newsmakers.

Mr. Baldwin has been outspoken in his support of many liberal political issues, so he would presumably fit the profile of most hosts on MSNBC.

The network declined to comment publicly on the potential show, but one senior executive, who asked not to be identified, said, “We’re fans of Alec, but we don’t have anything to say regarding the unconfirmed reports.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 9, 2013

A previous version of this article misidentified the network associated with the anchor Neil Cavuto. It is the Fox Business Network, not the Fox Business Channel.

Looking Ahead: Economic Reports for the Week of Aug. 5

ECONOMIC REPORTS The market will be closely watching remarks by Federal Reserve policy makers this week for more clues on when the central bank might begin to reduce its bond-buying stimulus policy, despite mixed signals from the job market. The latest job report on Friday showed nonfarm payrolls rose by 162,000 in July, below expectations, but the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent, its lowest since December 2008. On Monday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Richard W. Fisher, is to deliver a speech on the economy. On Tuesday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Charles L. Evans, is scheduled to speak.

The Institute of Supply Management releases its nonmanufacturing index (Monday); the Census Bureau releases its report on the balance of trade in June (Tuesday); the Federal Reserve releases its report on consumer credit in June (Wednesday); the Labor Department releases its report on initial claims for unemployment benefits (Thursday); the Census Bureau releases its report on wholesale inventories (Friday).

CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies scheduled to report results include HSBC (Monday); Archer Daniels Midland, CVS Caremark, Tenet Healthcare, Molson Coors, Walt Disney, Crédit Agricole, Porsche and Standard Chartered (Tuesday); Carlyle Group, Time Warner, AOL, Tesla Motors and Groupon (Wednesday); Dean Foods, T-Mobile, Apollo Global, Commerzbank, Deutsche Telekom, Nestlé and Rio Tinto (Thursday); and J.C. Penney (Friday).

July Rally Seems to Wane as Shares Slip, Pending Major Economic Reports

The July rally in the stock market appears to be fading.

Stocks edged lower on Monday as investors awaited major economic news this week. Several big-name mergers were not enough to push the main market indexes higher.

The government will report its first estimate of economic growth for the second quarter on Wednesday, and it will release its employment report for July on Friday.

The Federal Reserve may give some indication about the future of its economic stimulus program on Wednesday after the central bank’s two-day policy meeting. The Fed’s stimulus has been a major factor supporting a four-year rally in stocks.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index dropped 6.32 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 1,685.33.

Seven of the 10 sectors in the S.& P. 500 fell. The declines were led by energy companies and banks.

The S.& P. 500 is still up 4.9 percent in July, and it appears to be on track to have its best month since January. The index reached a nominal closing high on July 22, after Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, assured investors that the central bank would not cut its stimulus before the economy was ready. The Fed is buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities to help keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and hiring.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 36.86 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,521.97. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 14.02 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,599.14.

Stocks may struggle to add to their gains, given that expectations for the economy remain modest, said Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.

Economists estimate that the economy grew at an annual rate of just less than 1 percent in the second quarter. That would be about half the 1.8 percent annual growth rate in the first quarter.

“I don’t think you’re going to see the market sustain much higher levels than this,” Mr. Wren said. “All this data is going to show that we are slowly improving, but it’s a slow process and there’s not much to get excited about.”

Three corporate deals did not excite the broader stock market.

The luxury retailer Saks rose 64 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $15.95 after the Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay, the parent company of Lord & Taylor, agreed to buy it for $2.4 billion, or $16 a share.

The Interpublic Group, a big advertising company, jumped 74 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $16.61 after the Omnicom Group agreed to combine with Publicis Groupe of France to create the world’s largest advertising company. Interpublic’s stock gained even after the company’s chief executive, Michael Roth, said that he saw no need for a major merger to keep the company moving forward.

Omnicom shares climbed as high as $70.50 in early trading, but ended the day down 36 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $64.75.

Perrigo stock fell $9.06, or 6.75 percent, to $125.17 after the drug maker agreed to buy the Irish biotechnology company Elan in a deal valued at $8.6 billion.

The deals should encourage more merger activity, said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management. “Companies are struggling to grow organically,” he said. “So, how do they grow? They grow by buying other businesses.”

In government bond trading, the price of the 10-year Treasury note fell 9/32, to 92 23/32, while its yield rose to 2.60 percent, from 2.56 percent late Friday. The 10-year note’s yield is up nearly 1 percentage point since the start of May, when it hit 1.62 percent, its low point of the year.

Looking Ahead: Economic Reports for the Week of July 29

ECONOMIC REPORTS Data to be released will include pending home sales for June (Monday); the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index for May and the consumer confidence index for July (Tuesday); the first estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product, ADP employment for July, and the Chicago Purchasing Manager Index report for July (Wednesday); weekly jobless claims, Institute for Supply Management data for July and auto sales for July (Thursday); and the United States unemployment report for July, factory orders for June and consumer spending for June (Friday).

CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies scheduled to report results include Express Scripts (Monday); Aflac, Banco Santander, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Fiat, Merck, Pfizer, and UBS (Tuesday); Allstate, Anheuser-Busch, BNP Paribas, CBS, Comcast, EADS, MasterCard, MetLife, Volkswagen and Whole Foods Market (Wednesday); American International Group, BMW, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Kellogg, Lloyds Banking Group, The New York Times Company, Procter & Gamble and Société Générale (Thursday); and Allianz, Axa, Chevron, Royal Bank of Scotland, Toyota Motor and Viacom (Friday).

IN THE UNITED STATES On Monday, the civil fraud trial of Fabrice P. Tourre, a former trader at Goldman Sachs, continues.

On Tuesday, the Federal Open Market Committee, headed by Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, begins a two-day meeting, with a statement on monetary policy to be released on Wednesday; the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, and the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, are scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee about how the Dodd-Frank Act is being carried out; and President Obama is scheduled to speak on the economy in Chattanooga, Tenn.

On Wednesday, the Treasury will announce its quarterly refunding plans.

On Thursday, the International Trade commission is expected to release a final decision on Apple’s patent-infringement case against Samsung Electronics.

On Friday, Dell is scheduled to hold its twice-adjourned shareholder meeting on a proposed buyout of the computer company by its founder, Michael S. Dell, and the private equity firm Silver Lake.

OVERSEAS On Monday, BMW will show off a production version of its i3 electric car in Beijing, London and New York.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will release statements on monetary policy.

Verizon Reports 23% Profit Gain, Aided by Wireless Expansion

A surge in wireless subscribers and smartphone sales, combined with more subscribers to its digital TV and Internet services, propelled the company to a profit of $2.25 billion in the second quarter, up 23 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Verizon, which is based in New York, said investment in its fourth-generation wireless network, called LTE, helped its growth. For its wireless business, the company added 941,000 contract subscribers, the most valuable type of customer.

The company also reported improved smartphone sales, partly on the back of demand for the iPhone. In the quarter, Verizon sold 7.5 million smartphones, including 3.9 million iPhones. In the year-ago quarter it sold 5.9 million smartphones, including 2.7 million iPhones.

Like other wireless carriers, though, Verizon appears to be keeping an eye on industry data showing that fewer people are upgrading to new smartphones year after year. To combat that trend, two of its top competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile USA, recently announced plans that would make it cheaper for customers to upgrade their phones before the typical two-year wait.

On Thursday, Verizon, the No. 1 wireless carrier, announced a similar plan. Verizon’s program, called Edge, will allow customers to pick the phone they want and then sign up for a monthly payment plan. The full price of the phone will be spread over 24 months. The customer can upgrade in as little as six months by paying off 50 percent of the original phone by then.

“Our customers have been asking for another option,” said Francis J. Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer, on the company’s earnings call. He said some people did not want to wait two years before buying a new smartphone.

But Verizon’s early-upgrade plan appears likely to attract only a small portion of the market, the high-spenders who must have the latest and greatest smartphones. Craig Moffett, an analyst at Moffett Research, said that plan was unlikely to add much to the company’s profits. But Verizon’s move, he said, shows that it is reacting to T-Mobile, the fourth-largest American carrier, which was the first carrier to introduce early-upgrade plans.

“I think T-Mobile’s plan is taking share, and they have to do something about it,” he said.

Over all, Verizon’s revenue rose 4.3 percent, to $29.8 billion, compared with the same quarter a year ago. The company’s net income was 78 cents a share, compared with 64 cents a share in the period a year ago. After excluding a one-time gain related to pension benefits, Verizon’s net income was 73 cents a share, beating analyst expectations of 72 cents, according to data from Thomson Reuters. Shares of the company were down 1.5 percent to close at $49.97 on Thursday.

Verizon is planning to invest even more money in the 4G network. It said it would increase capital spending this year to between $16.4 billion and $16.6 billion, an increase from its original plan to spend $16.2 billion.

The company also said that it added 161,000 subscribers to its Internet service and 140,000 to its video service. Verizon’s Internet service now has 5.8 million subscribers and its video service has 5 million.

Shares End the Week Down After 2 Dissatisfying Reports

Disappointing reports about the economy helped push the stock market lower on Friday.

Concern that the Federal Reserve could announce plans to cut back its stimulus program next week also weighed on the mood of investors.

Americans’ confidence in the economy weakened in June and was lower than economists had estimated, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey released on Friday. Another report said factories were not as busy as expected.

The International Monetary Fund, a global lender, offered no help. The I.M.F. said Friday in its annual report on the American economy that spending cuts by the United States government that kicked in March 1 were “ill designed” and slowed the economy. Though in a statment, the fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, said, “There are signs that the U.S. recovery is gaining ground and becoming more durable.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index sank 9.63 points, or 0.59 percent, to 1,626.73. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 105.90 points, or 0.7 percent, to 15,070.18. The Nasdaq composite index lost 21.81 points, or 0.63 percent, to 3,423.56.

American Express led the Dow lower, losing $2.24, or 3 percent, to $72.97. The media company Gannett fell the most, dropping 6 percent, or $1.61, to $24.99.

“There was just no good news today,” said Cam Albright, a director at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors in Wilmington, Del. Add the handful of economic reports out Friday to the anxiety over the Fed’s stimulus program, “and you have the recipe for a soft market to finish the week,” he said.

Market indexes flitted from slight gains to losses in morning trading, a contrast to the sudden lurches in previous days. All three major indexes lost 1 percent or more this week.

Trading has been volatile since late May as investors try to figure out when the Fed will dial back its aggressive support for the economy. The Fed buys $85 billion in bonds every month as part of a campaign to keep interest rates extremely low. The aim is to encourage borrowing, spending and investing. Some investors worry that long-term interest rates could spike when the Fed pulls back, raising borrowing costs and threatening the economic recovery. Higher yields for government bonds have already started pushing mortgage rates up.

Policy makers at the Fed will start a two-day meeting on Tuesday to discuss the central bank’s next steps. Afterward, the bank will release its policy statement and the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, will hold a news conference.

Banks led nine of the 10 industry groups in the S.& P. 500 lower. Utilities made slight gains. Investors tend to favor these safety plays when they want stable companies that pay steady dividends.

The S.& P. 500 hit a record of 1,669 on May 21. The next day, Fed officials said they would consider pulling back on its stimulus program once the economy looked healthy. The index has lost 2 percent since.

The price of oil rose $1.15, to $98.07 a barrel, near its highest level of the year, as traders reacted to news that the United States would provide weapons to rebel forces in Syria.

Gold rose $9.70, to $1,387.30 an ounce.

In the market for government bonds, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 5/32 to 96 20/32, sending the yield down to 2.13 percent from 2.15 percent late Thursday. The yield reached a 14-month high of 2.29 percent on Tuesday.

Expectations that the Fed would pare its bond buying have helped drive the yield up from 1.63 percent on May 3, when it was at its lowest level this year.

Employers Pull Applicants’ Credit Reports

He been laid off early in the recession and then had the bad fortune of tearing tendons in his knee just when he didn’t have health insurance. The job market was terrible and he had been out of work for more than a year. But the managers at the first two shoe stores to which he applied in the summer of 2010 seemed to be taken by his résumé. He had sold shoes for six years at Salvatore Ferragamo on Fifth Avenue and later at J. M. Weston, where a pair of men’s dress shoes can cost $2,000. The manager at one shop was already discussing salary. The other, he said, invited him to fill out the paperwork normally done on the first day on a job.

“Who does that if they’re not planning on hiring you?” Mr. Carpenter asked.

Yet neither job materialized. One manager, he said, “basically hung up on me.”

A friend at Bergdorf Goodman, the high-end clothier, secured him an interview for an opening in the shoe department. But when Mr. Carpenter confided to his friend that his finances were a mess, “he tells me, ‘Oh, you’ve got bad credit? They’ll never hire you.’ ” Sure enough, a week or two later, Mr. Carpenter said, he received a notice from Bergdorf informing him that while running a credit check, the store found information that played a role in its hiring decision. It was a so-called adverse action letter that by law a business conducting a credit report is supposed to send to an applicant.

Mr. Carpenter kept applying for jobs and kept checking off the box granting his would-be employer permission to look into his past. And he kept being turned down. There was the recession and there may have been dozens of applicants for each of these jobs. But while Bergdorf was the only company to follow up a job rejection with an adverse action letter, Mr. Carpenter became convinced that his credit report was a curse.

“No one lets me explain, ‘Hey, I had this freak injury when I didn’t have health insurance,’ ” he said. “It’s black and white: ‘You have these bad marks on your record, you don’t get hired.’ ” Down to his last $200, he applied for and was granted food stamps and federal housing assistance.

“There’s no reason,” he said, “a strong, able guy like me should have to go on welfare.”

PEOPLE tend to think of banks and other lenders as the main users of credit reports. But over the last several decades, credit reporting bureaus have been selling their services to a much wider range of buyers.

“Credit reports are really seeping into the soil,” said Sarah Ludwig, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a New York-based nonprofit. “It’s taken an outsized role in employment, housing and insurance.”

For those seeking a job, it can lead to what Chi Chi Wu, a staff lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, calls “a bizarre, Kafkaesque experience.”

“Someone loses their job,” Ms. Wu said, “so they can’t pay their bills — and now they can’t get a job because they couldn’t pay their bills because they lost a job? It’s this Catch-22 that makes no sense.” It can also be a kind of backdoor job discrimination, Ms. Wu contends, given the numerous studies that demonstrate that those black, Latino or simply poor are more likely to have lower credit scores than those who are white and have means.

Experian, one of the big three credit reporting bureaus, states in its marketing materials, “Credit information provides insight into an applicant’s integrity and responsibility toward his or her financial obligations.”

But to Ms. Wu and others, a credit report says more about a person’s economic circumstances than his or her moral character. “Some people can go to daddy and say, ‘I can’t pay my bills, will you bail me out?’ ” Ms. Wu said. “And others can’t.”

Nearly half — 47 percent — of employers use credit checks when making a hiring decision, according to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Most businesses use credit checks only to screen for certain positions, but one in eight, the survey found, does a credit check before every hire. “We’ve heard from dozens of people over the past several years who say they’re being denied jobs specifically because of a credit check,” Ms. Ludwig said. The people contacting her group, she said, are “mostly lower-wage workers,” especially those applying to big retail chains.

McDonald’s Reports Lower Sales in April

The company, which had warned of a decline last month, said same-store sales fell 0.6 percent globally. That reflected an increase of 0.7 percent in the United States, where it recently introduced its chicken McWraps.

But sales fell 2.4 percent in Europe, its biggest market by revenue. The company said it was seeking to improve results in the region by emphasizing “everyday affordability” and keeping stores open longer.

In the region encompassing Asia, the Middle East and Africa, sales were down 2.9 percent. The chain blamed the impact of the avian flu in China for the decline, as well as softness in Japan and Australia.

Yum Brands, which owns KFC and is China’s biggest Western fast-food company, has been hurt by the new strain of avian flu as well. It warned late last month that sales at established restaurants in China were down about 30 percent in April. Yum is also trying to recover from a controversy over its chicken suppliers that surfaced late last year.

After years of outperforming rivals, McDonald’s has been struggling to increase sales as it faces intensifying competition, changing eating habits and weak growth in the broader restaurant industry. Late last year, the company reported a decline in its monthly sales figure for the first time in nearly a decade. Soon after, the company ousted the head of its American division.

Sales at restaurants open at least 13 months is an important measurement because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations.

McDonald’s, which has more than 34,000 locations around the world, noted that it had one fewer Sunday and one more Tuesday in April of this year compared with last April. The chain’s sales are generally stronger on weekends.

Looking Ahead: Economic Reports for the Week of May 6

ECONOMIC REPORTS Information to be released includes the euro area purchasing managers’ index for April (Monday); United States consumer credit for March and China trade data for April (Tuesday); China inflation for April (Wednesday); and weekly initial jobless claims and United States wholesale inventories for March (Thursday).

CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies scheduled to release quarterly results include Apollo Global and Target (Monday); HSBC, Société Générale, Walt Disney, Electronic Arts and Whole Foods (Tuesday); Toyota, Deutsche Telekom, Standard Chartered, AOL, Tesla, Groupon, Green Mountain and News Corporation (Wednesday); and Sony and Carlyle (Thursday).

IN THE UNITED STATES On Monday, the Senate votes on the Internet retail tax bill.

On Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on credit reports; the House Energy Committee will hold a hearing on the global energy landscape; and the House Science Committee will hold a hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline.

On Thursday, Daniel Loeb and Sam Zell will address the SALT conference in Las Vegas.

On Friday, Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, will address the annual conference of the Chicago Federal Reserve.

OVERSEAS On Wednesday, the European Parliament will meet with the so-called troika on the Cyprus bailout.

On Friday, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 7 nations will begin a two-day meeting in Britain.

Sirius XM Reports Gains in Income and Subscribers

Sirius XM said revenue rose 12 percent, $897 million, from the period a year earlier, but was lower than the $906 million analysts had predicted.

Net income increased 15 percent to $124 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization — adjusted to eliminate some charges including the effect of the 2008 merger between Sirius and XM — were $262 million, up 26 percent from a year earlier.

Sirius XM earned 2 cents a share, one cent less than analysts had predicted.

The company’s subscriber growth continued to be a bright spot, even after a rare price increase last year. It was the first time Sirius had raised the subscription rate; XM had done it once before. Sirius XM gained 453,000 subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total to 24.4 million. In the last two years its subscriber ranks have grown 19 percent.

“Sirius XM’s first-quarter results show a continuation of our trend of strong, profitable growth,” Mr. Meyer said in a statement.

One concern for investors, however, is an increase in “churn” rate, a measurement of subscriber turnover. In recent years, that number had been gradually reduced to 1.9 percent, but in the most recent quarter it was 2 percent.

Mr. Meyer, who had been Sirius’s president for sales and operations since 2004, was named interim chief executive in December after the departure of Mel Karmazin. He was appointed to the post permanently in a separate announcement on Tuesday by Gregory B. Maffei, who became chairman on April 10.

Mr. Maffei is the president and chief executive of Liberty Media, which since 2009 had been Sirius XM’s largest investor and took over the company, which is based in New York, last year by acquiring a majority of its shares.

Sirius XM shares rose 18 cents, or 5.9 percent, to close at $3.25 on Tuesday.

Anheuser-Busch InBev Reports a Small Profit Increase

Core profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, rose 0.9 percent to $3.43 billion, but was below even the lowest forecast in a Reuters poll of brokers. Anheuser-Busch also reported sales declines in every region except Asia, where China was exceptionally strong.

The company, which has a two-thirds share of the Brazilian beer market, said consumers there drank 8.2 percent less beer than a year ago because of the earlier timing of the Carnival, poor weather and high food inflation. It also lost market share.

“Brazil has been a great banker for years. It wobbled a bit last year. Now, it’s taken a further leg down,” said Andrew Holland, beverage analyst at Societe Generale.

The company, which makes Budweiser, Stella and Beck’s, missed first-quarter profit forecasts, and said that Brazilian sales volumes were likely to be flat or down by a low-single-digit percentage this year. It had previously forecast low- to mid-single digit growth there.

The world’s top brewers are relying on emerging markets for growth amid a prolonged squeeze on consumer incomes in austerity-hit Europe and limited expansion in the United States. But bad weather and tax-related price increases have posed challenges recently.

Felipe Dutra, the company’s chief financial officer, said the early Carnival in Brazil, which shortened the summer drinking season, and wet weather had been known factors. But March proved particularly weak, with industry volumes down by a percentage in the high teens.

“We had continued weak weather into March,” Mr. Dutra said. “But we also saw a peak in food inflation which impacts real disposable income.”

Brazilian inflation accelerated in March to 6.59 percent, breaching the official target ceiling of 6.5 percent for the first time since November 2011.

Zynga Reports Fewer Players of Its Online Games and Shares Drop

Shares fell 10 percent to $2.99 in extended trading.

The San Francisco-based publisher behind games like "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends" said its number of monthly players continued its decline to 253 million, the lowest figure since the number peaked at 331 million at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

On an adjusted basis, Zynga reported earnings of 1 cent per share, beating analyst expectations of a loss of 4 cents per share. But the company also projected that its second-quarter loss would be between 3 to 5 cents per share, exceeding the 1 cent per share loss analysts had expected.

"The second quarter guidance is light," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "We continue to think that any hope for real growth for this nebulous company really depends on what it can do in real-money gaming."

Zynga has struggled to keep users, who once flocked to its games on Facebook Inc's website. In recent months, Zynga and Facebook have revised their business partnership, as Zynga has sought to establish itself as a more independent gaming network at the risk of receiving less visitor traffic from Facebook.

Zynga has promised investors that it could tap into a potentially lucrative new revenue stream by launching real-money casino games around the world.

The company reported revenues of $263.6 million, down 18 percent from the year-ago quarter but above Wall Street's depressed expectations as the online game maker wrung more sales than expected out of its shrinking user base.

Zynga's quarterly bookings of $229.8 million also topped estimates but represented a 30 percent decline from a year ago.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

Zynga Reports Fewer Players of Its Online Games and Shares Drop

Shares fell 10 percent to $2.99 in extended trading.

The San Francisco-based publisher behind games like "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends" said its number of monthly players continued its decline to 253 million, the lowest figure since the number peaked at 331 million at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

On an adjusted basis, Zynga reported earnings of 1 cent per share, beating analyst expectations of a loss of 4 cents per share. But the company also projected that its second-quarter loss would be between 3 to 5 cents per share, exceeding the 1 cent per share loss analysts had expected.

"The second quarter guidance is light," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "We continue to think that any hope for real growth for this nebulous company really depends on what it can do in real-money gaming."

Zynga has struggled to keep users, who once flocked to its games on Facebook Inc's website. In recent months, Zynga and Facebook have revised their business partnership, as Zynga has sought to establish itself as a more independent gaming network at the risk of receiving less visitor traffic from Facebook.

Zynga has promised investors that it could tap into a potentially lucrative new revenue stream by launching real-money casino games around the world.

The company reported revenues of $263.6 million, down 18 percent from the year-ago quarter but above Wall Street's depressed expectations as the online game maker wrung more sales than expected out of its shrinking user base.

Zynga's quarterly bookings of $229.8 million also topped estimates but represented a 30 percent decline from a year ago.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

After Disappointing Reports, Zynga Bets on Draw Something 2

The company continues to lose money, employees and gamers, who no longer want to play its games. Analysts soberly warn that Zynga desperately needs a series of new mobile hits to improve its profitability and restore some of the luster of its earlier years. Earnings reports in recent quarters have been dismal.

This quarter was no exception. The company reported that its revenue was down 18 percent from the year-ago quarter, results that prompted shares to slip in after-hours trading. Zynga’s number of daily active users, or people who logged into its games once a day, dropped 21 percent. However, it did report a small profit.

But the company hopes that a new game, which it is releasing Wednesday evening, will be the beginning of a new chapter — one flush with profits and praise from users — that will help it regain some of the footing in the gaming industry that it helped shape.

The new game is a sequel to Draw Something, the popular, turn-based drawing game that has entertained millions of players who sketched images for their friends in a modified, touch-screen version of Pictionary. Last March, Zynga paid $180 million to buy Draw Something, which was created by a New York start-up, Omgpop. Then it watched as players lost interest in the once popular game and took their time elsewhere.

Although the company says the game still has millions of users worldwide, it is betting that the new version will bring back former fans who had become bored.

The success of Draw Something 2 is more about salvaging the remains of an expensive acquisition. It is a crucial test to see whether Zynga can spin any of its former traction on the Web to mobile — essential if the company wants to remain relevant and continue as a competitive gaming company in the future.

Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG, a global trading firm, said it is normal for players to lose interest, especially when there is no shortage of games across an assortment of consoles, phones, tablets and hand-held devices. None of the top games currently charting in the iTunes App Store are games developed by Zynga, he said, but rather by relatively unknown upstarts.

“Why aren’t those Zynga games?” he said. “Why can’t they make great hits on mobile? They are saying they are a mobile-first company and, yet, they haven’t been able to launch a hit mobile game.”

For the new game, Zynga added new drawing tools and accessories as well as features that make Draw Something 2 more closely resemble a social network, with buttons to allow them to share their creation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In addition, users can find and follow other people who are playing the game, browse their shared drawings and “like” and comment on them.

Zynga has also enlisted celebrities on this version of the game, including the pop performers Will.i.am and Carly Rae Jespen, so that their fans can see their drawings through the application as well.

“We want to reactivate people who played and loved Draw Something 1 but lapsed,” Travis Boatman, a senior vice president of mobile at Zynga, said in an interview at the company’s New York headquarters.

Zynga is going all out for the release of the new game, with a partnership with Universal Pictures around the coming animated film “Despicable Me 2” to show related advertisements in the game as well as base drawing challenges around the movie.

Caitlin Turosky, a marketing manager at Zynga, said advertising deals like that one had great potential. Zynga currently makes money by showing ads in the free versions of its games, by selling premium versions of its games and by allowing players to make in-app purchases. But eventually, Ms. Turosky said, the company could even show players advertisements based around the topics and objects they are sketching.

Zynga is also experimenting with games using real money , but those efforts are largely located in the United Kingdom.

In the company’s earnings report, it said it earned just a penny a share, or $263.6 million in revenue. During the same quarter of last year, the company reported revenue of $321 million. Even so, the company beat analysts’ expectations, who estimated that the social gaming giant would report revenue of $203 million and a loss of 4 cents a share. But Wall Street was unimpressed; the stock fell slightly in after-hours trading. The company also posted a modest profit of $4.1 million, compared with a loss of $85 million in the year-ago quarter.

“They’ve been going through a rough couple of quarters,” said Brian Blau, an analyst with Gartner Research who follows the company.

Reports Show Income Is Up, and So Is Spending

Data reported on Friday also showed a rebound in income growth, putting the economy in a better shape to deal with tighter fiscal policy, particularly $85 billion in across-the-board federal government spending cuts known as the sequester.

“The economy is in a good place now in terms of momentum and strength, and it will need it as the government spending cuts will take something off growth as the year progresses,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.

Consumer spending increased 0.7 percent last month after a 0.4 percent rise in January, the Commerce Department said.

Part of the increase in spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of United States economic activity, was because of higher gasoline prices. But Americans also bought long-lasting goods like automobiles and spent more on services. The price of gas rose 35 cents a gallon last month.

After adjusting for inflation, spending was up 0.3 percent after rising by the same margin in January. Economists said it was headed toward its fastest growth pace since 2010.

“It appears that consumer spending actually accelerated in the first quarter despite the tax hikes implemented at the start of the year,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

Some economists bumped up their first-quarter economic growth estimates.

Barclays raised its gross domestic product forecast by 0.7 percentage point, to 3.3 percent. Macroeconomic Advisers lifted its estimate by three-tenths of a point to 3.5 percent. The economy grew a 0.4 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter.

A separate report showed that households this month seemed to shrug off the deep government spending cuts. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to a reading of 78.6, from 77.6 in February.

“Consumers have discounted the administration’s warning that economic catastrophe would follow the reductions in federal spending, and consumers have renewed their expectation that gains in employment will accelerate through the rest of 2013,” said the survey’s director, Richard Curtin.

And they have reason to be optimistic. With steady improvement in the labor market, income increased a healthy 1.1 percent after tumbling 3.7 percent in January.

Employment growth gained steam in February, factory activity touched a one-and-a-half-year high and first-time filings for jobless benefits have increased just modestly so far in March.

Last month, the income at the disposal of households after inflation and taxes increased 0.7 percent, after dropping 4 percent in January.

With income growth outpacing spending, the saving rate — the percentage of disposable income that households save — rose to 2.6 percent, from 2.2 percent in January.

The higher gasoline prices pushed up inflation, with a price index for consumer spending rising 0.4 percent after being flat for two straight months. February’s increase in the PCE index was the largest since August.

But a core reading that strips out food and energy costs rose only 0.1 percent after increasing 0.2 percent in January, showing no sign of underlying inflation pressures. Core prices were up 1.3 percent, well below the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.

The benign inflation picture should give the Fed room to continue with its monetary stimulus as it seeks to bolster job growth.

Wall Street Closes Lower as Earnings Reports Begin

Stocks trading on Wall Street ticked lower on Tuesday as an earnings season that is expected to show sluggish corporate growth got under way.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed 0.3 percent lower, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.2 percent.

Over the next couple of weeks, reports on fourth-quarter profits are expected to come in above the previous quarter’s lackluster results, but analysts’ current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.8 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

German data showed industrial orders fell more than forecast in November because of a sharp drop in demand from abroad, reinforcing concerns that Europe’s largest economy may have contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012.

“I’m surprised futures are holding up, given the relative disappointment that German data showed, but I think all eyes are on the beginning of earnings season,” said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

European shares ended mixed after the German report, with the DAX index in Frankfurt down 0.5 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris up slightly.

Monsanto shares rose 2 percent after the world’s largest seed company raised its earnings outlook for fiscal 2013 and posted strong first-quarter results.

Shares of the restaurant-chain operator Yum Brands fell 4.2 percent. On Monday, the company, which owns KFC, warned that sales in China, its largest market, shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter.

Vodafone shares rose 2 percent in London after its American partner in the joint venture Verizon Wireless said it would be “feasible” to buy out the British group.

Sears Holdings shares were 6.4 percent lower a day after the company said its chief executive would step down for family health reasons.

GameStop shares fell 6.3 percent after it reported sales for the holiday season and cut its guidance.