Ticker: Meta trial begins with vulnerability arguments

The day’s business news at a glance

Opening statements started Tuesday in a pivotal trial for Meta Platforms in a California federal court, where states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children.

Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are seeking extensive financial damages plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram. Twenty-nine states sued the tech giant in 2023 over child safety and privacy. The other 25 will go to trial later. The company also faces lawsuits in state courts. Meta said in a statement that it believes it has a strong case.

Watchdog calls for US import ban

A human rights group says that forced labor persists on massive sugarcane plantations across the Dominican Republic. The U.S. is its largest market for sugar and other products.

The nonprofit Corporate Accountability Lab said in a report published Tuesday that it spent more than three years investigating working conditions on plantations owned by Central Romana Corporation, Ltd. It is the largest employer and landowner in the Dominican Republic, and its owners have ties to U.S. President Donald Trump. The human rights group called on the U.S. to reinstate a 2022 ban on imports of sugar and related products made by the company that was reversed last year.

AI stocks pull Wall Street further from its record

Wall Street pulled further from its all-time high as AI stocks got back to sinking.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7% Tuesday for a third straight modest loss since setting its all-time high on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.3%. Nvidia, Micron Technology and Broadcom were some of the heaviest weights on the market amid criticism that their prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI.

Trump taking credit for declining drug prices

President Donald Trump has been promoting new data showing U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.8% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago.

Trump's Republican administration credits "most favored nation" drug deals and the TrumpRx website for the drop. However, experts say the picture is more complex. They point to factors like a law from Democratic President Joe Biden's time in office allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and increased competition from generic and biosimilar products.

Whistleblower alleges political pressure

A whistleblower is alleging that a Trump administration task force created to combat antisemitism pushed for settlements with Ivy League universities.

That's despite government investigations the whistleblower says were rushed and incomplete or that failed to establish legal violations by the schools. The complaint made public Tuesday details allegations made by a former Justice Department attorney who was involved in the task force. The complaint alleges that the investigations into some of the nation's most prestigious academic institutions were designed to strong-arm the schools into cutting deals for political purposes.

Small projects lift Home Depot quarterly sales

Home Depot's sales improved during its fiscal second quarter as customers spent more during the summer months and concentrated on smaller projects.

Revenue for the Atlanta-based company increased to $47.86 billion from $45.28 billion. Wall Street was calling for $47.24 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer's health, climbed 1.7%. In the U.S., comparable store sales rose 1.3%.