Stocks close mostly lower; 2 convictions in NC insurance case are thrown out |

Stocks slip, on track for monthly loss

NEW YORK — Stocks ended mostly lower on Wall Street June 29, keeping the market on track for its fourth monthly loss this year.

The S&P 500, which fell 0.1 percent Wednesday, has been volatile all week, and is down 20 percent for the year as investors worry about inflation and rising interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq fell less than 0.1 percent.

Investors snapped up U.S. government bonds, sending yields lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, fell to 3.10 percent from 3.20 percent late Tuesday, a big move.

“Lower yields because we’ve got more economic risk is not a good thing for the market,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at All Star Charts. “It’s on the bulls to prove that they can sustain some strength beyond a few days or a one-week rally.

NC insurance convictions gets tossed

RALEIGH — A federal appeals court has thrown out the 2020 conspiracy and bribery convictions of a former major political donor in North Carolina and his associate.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the convictions and ordered new trials for Greg E. Lindberg and John D. Gray.

The appeals court declared that the trial judge erred in his jury instructions to the point that it called the verdicts into question.

Lindberg is a wealthy insurance and investment firm founder accused by federal investigators of attempting to bribe North Carolina’s insurance commissioner to secure preferential regulatory treatment for his business.

Lindberg, 51, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. He’s been serving his time at an Alabama prison, with an estimated December 2026 release, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Gray, 72, received a 2½-year sentence.

NJ casino strike deadlines nearing 

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Union negotiators were meeting June 29 with management of three Atlantic City casinos in an attempt to reach a new contract and avoid a threatened Friday strike.

Local 54 of the Unite Here union was in talks with representatives of Caesars Entertainment, which owns three of Atlantic City’s nine casinos: Caesars, Harrah’s and the Tropicana.

The union has set a deadline of 12:01 a.m. Friday to reach a new labor agreement with those casinos and with the Borgata, which is owned by MGM Resorts International. A second strike deadline is in place for early Sunday against Hard Rock.

Ben & Jerry’s back in West Bank, kind of

JERUSALEM — Unilever says it has reached a new business arrangement in Israel that will effectively end Ben & Jerry’s policy of not selling ice cream in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Israel hailed the move as a victory against the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. BDS aims to bring economic pressure to bear on Israel over its military occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, had distanced itself from the ice cream maker’s apparent boycott of Israeli settlements. It said Wednesday that it had sold its business interest in Israel to a local company that would sell Ben & Jerry’s ice cream throughout Israel and the West Bank.