Business Highlights

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Home sales rise as housing market tries a comeback

WASHINGTON (AP) — New home sales rose last month at the fastest clip in more than eight years as buyers eagerly took advantage of bargain prices — a clear sign, economists said, that the real estate market may finally be bouncing back.

Historically low interest rates and a federal tax credit for first-time homeowners also helped push home sales to their highest level since November, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

While home prices are still falling around the country, sales have now risen for three months in a row. Construction of new homes is at the busiest level since last fall. And home resales rose in June for the third straight month.

New home sales rose 11 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, from an upwardly revised May rate of 346,000, the Commerce Department reported Monday. Shares of homebuilders surged on the news.

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Verizon 2Q profit falls, tops view, plans job cuts

NEW YORK (AP) — Cost-cutting at Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireline business failed to keep pace with falling revenues as the nation's largest wireless carrier reported a 21 percent drop in second-quarter profit and announced further job cuts.

The company said Monday it will cut more than 8,000 employee and contractor jobs before the end of the year in the wireline business, speeding up its efforts to keep costs in line, according to chief financial officer John Killian.

In recent years, Verizon has balanced layoffs in wireline with hiring in wireless, but Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl said that would not be the case this time.

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Obama declares new era of cooperation with China

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared a new era of "cooperation, not confrontation" with China on Monday, even though two days of high-level talks were not expected to resolve differences over the two nations' yawning trade gap and China's unease over soaring U.S. budget deficits.

The Obama administration pledged to get control of the deficits once the economic crisis is resolved. It also pressed China to reshape its economy to rely more on domestic demand and less on exports that drive up the U.S. trade deficit.