Data on openings, hiring show job market healing

The number of U.S. job openings remained near the highest level in 13 years in July, and companies also stepped up hiring that month to the fastest pace in nearly seven years, two signs the job market is slowly healing.

The tally of available jobs ticked down 2,000 to 4.673 million in July, from 4.675 million in June, the Labor Department said Tuesday. June’s figure was the highest since February 2001.

The drop was led by a decline in government job postings. Businesses actually advertised slightly more jobs.

Total hiring, meanwhile, jumped 81,000 to 4.87 million, the highest level since December 2007, when the Great Recession began. That indicates companies are more likely to fill their open jobs. Still, that is below the pre-recession average of just over 5 million hires a month.

Senate panel chair woos GOP to thwart tax breaks

The head of the Senate’s tax-writing panel issued a statement Tuesday offering Republicans a carrot to join Democrats in blocking the ability of some U.S. corporations to shift headquarters overseas to enjoy huge tax breaks called inversions.

“Following efforts in August, it’s clear there is an opportunity for bipartisan agreement on short-term legislation that will make inversions less attractive,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said.

Republicans have insisted that any effort to thwart inversions, which costs the U.S. treasury billions in lost tax revenues, should be done in the context of a broader revamp of the corporate tax system.

That’s a bigger lift, and Wyden is looking for a stopgap measure to block the most egregious examples of corporations moving their headquarters to tax-haven countries.

Barnes & Noble reports smaller loss for quarter

Barnes & Noble, the largest U.S. bookstore chain, reported a narrower first-quarter loss after cutting spending in its Nook e-reader division and moving toward a separation of the business.

The loss shrank to $28.4 million, or 56 cents a share, from $87 million, or $1.56 a share, a year earlier, the New York- based company said Tuesday.

Revenue fell 7 percent to $1.24 billion, including a 5.3 percent sales decrease at the bookstores and a similar percentage decline in same-store sales. Excluding the Nook, comparable-store sales fell 0.4 percent.

Unimpressed by Apple, stock indexes fall again

Stocks fell for a second straight day Tuesday as investors were left unimpressed by Apple’s latest batch of product announcements.

The Dow lost 97.55 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,013.87, its biggest one-day drop in a month. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 13.10 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,988.44, and the Nasdaq composite lost 40 points, or 0.9 percent, to 4,552.29.

Investors had little in the way of economic data to digest, so trading was largely dominated by the news out of Apple.

– From news service reports