Ticker: US stocks edge further from their records

The day\'s business news at a glance

U.S. stocks slipped a bit further from their records, while oil prices kept swinging on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow crude to flow freely again.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% Tuesday for a second modest drop since setting its all-time high at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.6%.

Trump extends Jones Act waiver 90 days

President Donald Trump has extended a waiver for 90 days, allowing foreign ships to transport goods among U.S. ports. This includes oil, fertilizers, and other fossil fuel products.

The president first waived the Jones Act on March 17 to ease transportation and reduce price pressures after the war with Iran began. The latest extension takes effect on August 17. The Pentagon will consult with the Maritime Administration to decide which voyages are exempt. The waiver applies to energy sources and agricultural commodities.

Trump media company announces massive loss

The president's media company posted a massive loss in the latest quarter and plans to ditch new business lines and refocus as a forum for users to post their views.

The company behind the Truth Social platform said Monday that it lost $238 million in the three months through June as it branched into businesses unrelated to media, including crypto. That was more than 10 times the loss from a year earlier.

Hiroshi Okuda, former Toyota chief, dies

Hiroshi Okuda, the former chief executive of Toyota, who led the Japanese automaker's stellar rise in global markets, has died.

The company said Wednesday that he was 93, but did not immediately have the date or the cause of his death. Okuda served as president then chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. from 1995 through 2006. In his 45-year career at Toyota, Okuda is especially remembered for having led the development of the gas-electric hybrid Prius in 1997, a model with the fuel-efficient technology that was ground-breaking at that time.

US existing homes sales fall 1.7% in July

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed again in July as record prices and the highest mortgage rates in more than a year prove to be an insurmountable hurdle for many prospective homebuyers.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that existing home sales fell 1.7% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million units. July sales, however, were up 0.7% compared with last year. Home prices continued to rise, hitting unprecedented levels for July. The U.S. median sales price increased 2% from a year earlier, to $434,100.

Ultrarare Mario game cartridges discovered

A set of unique, extremely rare Super Mario cartridges was found in a gaming store in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and will be auctioned off starting Friday.

Jason Ganos with Nintendo Wire said he discovered the products after they had been hidden away in a storage unit for decades, and while he is not sure how much the games are worth, the ultrarare find is truly a life-changing discovery. Ganos stumbled upon the cartridges because of his lifelong passion for collecting video games. For as long as he can remember, Nintendo has been a massive part of his life, Ganos said. He has operated Nintendo Wire, a news service for Nintendo announcements, for over 10 years.