Deal on veterans' health care costs at least $15B

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan deal to improve veterans health care would authorize at least $15 billion in emergency spending to fix a veterans health program scandalized by long patient wait times and falsified records covering up delays.

Congressional aides say the agreement includes $10 billion to make it easier for veterans who can't get prompt appointments with Veterans Affairs doctors to obtain outside care and $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

The chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees have scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon to unveil the bill, which also grants the VA secretary authority to immediately fire senior executives, while providing employees with streamlined appeal rights.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate veterans panel, proposed a bill last week that would cost about $25 billion over three years. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., his House counterpart, responded with a plan to approve $10 billion in emergency spending, with a promise of more spending in future years under the normal congressional budget process.

The compromise measure is expected to authorize the VA to lease 27 new clinics across the country, as well as require the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay private doctors to treat qualifying veterans who can't get prompt appointments at the VA's nearly 1,000 hospitals and outpatient clinics, or those who live at least 40 miles from one of them.

The bill would limit the number of veterans who can get outside care by restricting it to those who are enrolled as of Aug. 1, according to a summary of the legislation obtained by The Associated Press. Veterans also would have to show they could not get an appointment within current wait time goals for the VA, or live at least 40 miles for a VA site.

The proposed restrictions are important in controlling costs for the program. Congressional budget analysts had projected that tens of thousands of veterans who currently are not treated by the VA would likely seek VA care if they could see a private doctor paid for by the government.

Sanders and Miller reached agreement Sunday after more than six weeks of sometimes testy talks.

The deal requires a vote by a conference committee of House and Senate negotiators, and votes in the full House and Senate.

Miller and Sanders said in a joint statement Sunday that they "made significant progress" over the weekend toward agreement on legislation to reform the Veterans Affairs Department, which has been rocked by reports of patients dying while awaiting VA treatment and mounting evidence that workers falsified or omitted appointment schedules to mask frequent, long delays. The resulting election-year firestorm forced VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign in late May.

The plan set to be announced Monday is intended to "make VA more accountable and to help the department recruit more doctors, nurses and other health care professionals," Miller and Sanders said.

Louis Celli, legislative director for the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans group, said the deal would provide crucial help to veterans who have been waiting months or even years for VA health care.

"There is an emergency need to get veterans off the waiting lists. That's what this is all about," Celli said Sunday.

Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the agreement was good news — although several months late.

"It's about time they're doing their jobs," he said of Sanders, Miller and other members of Congress. "You don't get a medal for doing your job."

Veterans waiting two months for medical appointments "don't care about all this back and forth" in Congress, Tarantino said. "That's what should be driving decisions."

An updated audit by the VA this month showed that about 10 percent of veterans seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics still have to wait at least 30 days for an appointment. About 46,000 veterans have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments, the report said, and an additional 7,000 veterans who asked for appointments over the past decade never got them.

Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson has said the VA is making improvements, but said veterans in many communities still are waiting too long to receive needed care. The VA provides health care to nearly 9 million enrolled veterans.

The House and Senate are set to adjourn at the end of the week until early September, and lawmakers from both parties have said completing a bill on veterans' health care is a top priority.

The Senate is expected to vote this week to confirm former Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald as the new VA secretary, replacing Gibson.

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Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

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Red Lobster goes vertical on plate to push quality

NEW YORK — Red Lobster wants to be seen as a purveyor of quality seafood, so it's getting rid of some of its promotional discounts and stacking the food higher on plates, as is the style at fancier restaurants.

The changes mark the latest attempt by the struggling seafood to stop a years-long sales decline as it embarks on a new era. On Monday, Darden Restaurants Inc. said it completed its sale of the chain to investment firm Golden Gate Capital, despite contentious protests from activist investors.

In his first interview as Red Lobster's new CEO, Kim Lopdrup outlined the missteps he thought his predecessors made and why he thinks Red Lobster can win back customers.

"At the end of the day, people are not going to go a Chipotle for their anniversary or their birthday," he said.

Sit-down chains like Red Lobster have been struggling since the economic downturn as people cut back on spending. Such chains are also losing business to places like Chipotle and Panera, where people feel they can get restaurant quality food without paying as much. And Darden's recent attempts to spark turnarounds at Red Lobster and Olive Garden haven't worked.

Amid intensifying pressure from investors, the company announced late last year it would hold onto Olive Garden but get rid of Red Lobster. The company, based in Orlando, Florida, noted Red Lobster's customers were increasingly from lower-income groups, compared with Olive Garden and its specialty chains such as Capital Grille. Investors Barington Capital and Starboard Value wanted the breakup structured differently, with the latter filing a lawsuit last week for records related to the sale.

In the meantime, Lopdrup said, many people still view Red Lobster as "fine-dining for the middle class." But changing perceptions about the quality of Red Lobster's food could be a challenge, given recent promotions like "30 shrimp for $11.99," or a lobster pot pie that had just a half-ounce of lobster meat.

Lopdrup, who served as president of Red Lobster from 2004 to 2011 before moving on to head other aspects of Darden's business, said he planned to end such steep discounting.

"You're not going to see any of these low-priced specials that we're not proud of," he said. Popular promotions like "Endless Shrimp" and "Crabfest" will stay, however.

About two weeks ago, Red Lobster also starting rolling out a new plating style for its fish dishes that will expand to other parts of the menu.

Previously, fish dishes were served on rectangular plates, with the fish, rice and vegetables spread out in separate corners. Now when customers order off the "Fresh Fish" menu, they get a round plate on which slabs of fish are piled over the rice, a vertical presentation commonly found at higher-end establishments.

"The food arranged in a way that's more like you'd see at a fine-dining restaurant," Lopdrup said. "The seafood is the star."

As for the food itself, that hasn't changed.

Lopdrup also said he planned to reverse the decision in late 2012 to expand non-seafood options to up to a quarter of the menu and bring the figure back down to around 10 to 15 percent by November.

He declined to provide details on other menu changes planned for coming months. But he said the chain will take a "barbell strategy," meaning it will continue to offer pricier items, including dishes that are more than $30, as well as affordable options more akin to the recently introduced lobster tacos.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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UN condemns terrorist oil sales from Iraq, Syria

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned any sale of oil from Syria or Iraq by terrorist groups and reminded all countries that buying this illegally obtained oil violates U.N. sanctions.

A presidential statement approved by all 15 council members targets two terrorist groups already subject to U.N. sanctions: Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the most powerful Syrian rebel groups; and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which has seized a wide swath of territory in eastern Syria and western Iraq and now calls itself the Islamic State.

It expresses "grave concern" at reports that these two groups have seized oilfields and pipelines in Syria and Iraq and warns that they could face further sanctions.

The Russian-drafted statement expresses concern that oilfields or infrastructure controlled by terrorist organizations "could generate material income for terrorists, which would support their recruitment efforts, including of foreign terrorist fighters, and strengthen their operational capability to organize and carry out terrorist attacks."

The Security Council reminded all countries "that they are required to ensure that their nationals and any persons within their territory not engage in any commercial or financial transactions" with Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State terrorist groups, "notably with respect to oil in Syria and Iraq.

Presidential statements are a step below resolutions and are not legally binding but they do become part of the Security Council's official record and must be approved by all 15 council members.

When the draft resolution was circulated in late June, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that with the Islamic State group's advances there is a real prospect of a terrorist state springing up from Syria's second-largest city Aleppo to Iraq's capital Baghdad. He cited many reports of the Islamic State group selling oil from captured fields, and indicated this was taking place in both Syria and Iraq.

The original draft only mentioned oil fields in Syria, a close Russian ally, but Iraq was added during negotiations on the final text.

The presidential statement refers to several previous Security Council resolutions, including one in January reaffirming that all countries are required to prevent the financing of terrorism and one in June on sanctions against al-Qaida.

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US companies increasingly fish for growth overseas

SAN FRANCISCO — Major U.S. companies are starting to reap their most rapid growth in fertile lands of opportunity far from home.

Technology trendsetters Apple Inc., Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc. all mined foreign countries to produce earnings or revenue that exceeded analysts' projections in their latest quarters. Prodded by the steadily rising demand for Internet access and online services in developing countries, these technology companies will likely be wading even deeper into overseas markets for years to come.

"The philosophy is to start your growth in the states and then take your fight overseas," says BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. "That's what the big guys are doing."

The intensifying international focus extends beyond technology. Century-old companies such as Coca-Cola Co. and Ford Motor Co. also are hoping to make more money in countries including China and India.

Few U.S. industries are tying their fortunes to overseas markets as aggressively as the technology sector, where new sources of revenue are often just a matter of equipping people with a computing device and an Internet connection.

Soaring sales of iPhones in China, Russia, India and Brazil during the April-June period helped Apple overcome softening demand for the device in the U.S. and Europe, where consumers seem to be more interested in waiting for the autumn release of a new iPhone that's expected to feature a larger screen.

Google generated 58 percent of its revenue outside the U.S. in its second quarter, the highest level yet for the Internet's most powerful company.

Facebook already gets 55 percent of its revenue overseas, and the growth in those markets is outpacing by what's happening in the U.S. The social networking service has attracted 1.1 billion users in foreign markets versus 200 million in the U.S. and Canada.

Netflix's Internet video service added 1.1 million international subscribers, nearly doubling the number it gained in the U.S during the April-June quarter. The company expects the trend to continue as Netflix enters six more European markets, including France and Germany, in September.

Corporate profits will probably need to keep rising to sustain the U.S. stock market's record-breaking run. The Standard & Poor's 500 index has already climbed nearly 8 percent this year, well ahead of its average pace historically, while analysts expect earnings to increase 8 percent this year. Low interest rates and an improving economy have helped to create a climate of optimism, said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial.

"Everything is going well right now," McMillan said. "That's what's driving the market up."

Like many other money managers, McMillan isn't convinced companies will be able to live up to investors' high hopes.

Overall sales have been slow, and profit margins are at record levels after years of cost-cutting. Those factors will make it tougher for companies to find ways to ratchet their earnings even higher.

The natural response for many companies? Look abroad because that's where most of the potential customers are. The U.S. population accounts for less than 5 percent of the world's roughly 7.2 billion people.

The U.S., though, still boasts the world's largest economy with a mass market of consumers who can afford more products and services than most other parts of the world. That means growth in other countries, especially in markets outside of Europe, Japan and South Korea, often isn't as lucrative as it is in the U.S.

Apple, which has always demanded premium prices, is discovering this as it sells more devices overseas. For instance, the iPhone's average selling price fell to $561 in Apple's most recent quarter, a 3 percent drop from a year ago and a 13 percent decline from $647 two years ago.

Google's growth in foreign markets outside Europe is one of the reasons that the company's average advertising prices have been falling for nearly three years.

Advertisers so far haven't been willing to pay as much to peddle their wares to consumers who don't have as much disposable income as people in the U.S.

Facebook is experiencing a similar phenomenon. The company reaped an average of $6.44 per user in the U.S. and Canada during the second quarter, compared with just $2.84 per user in Europe, $1.08 per user in Asia and 86 cents per user in the rest of the world.

Although the company remains profitable overall, Netflix still isn't making money on an international expansion that began nearly four years ago. The company's international losses have exceeded $800 million so far, with more likely to come with the move into France and Germany looming.

Most publicly held companies are willing to endure short-term financial pain in return for what they expect will be a long-term gain in growth. That's one of the reasons Ford Motor is building four plants in China and two in India. By 2020, the automaker hopes Asia Pacific and the Middle East will account for one-third of its sales. The regions accounted for 22 percent of Ford's sales in the latest quarter.

Coca-Cola is looking abroad for growth largely because it's becoming tougher for beverage makers to increase revenue in a U.S. market already awash in soda and other refreshments. Things look much different in some large overseas markets where billions of people only recently have begun to develop a taste for the company's products. In 2012, for instance, the per capita consumption of Coca Cola's beverages was 403 servings of 8-ounce drinks annually in the U.S., compared with 39 annual servings in China and just 14 in India.

An increasing thirst for Coca-Cola products in China, India and the Middle East helped boost the company's international sales by 3 percent in the second quarter while volume remained flat in North America.

Even large U.S. companies that are growing faster domestically realize they need to keep pushing in countries where many consumers may not make enough money to buy their products yet. That's one reason General Motors CEO Mary Barra told analysts on a conference call last week that her company remains bullish on China, even though car sales there have been slowing.

"As the market grows, we need to participate in that growth ... in a disproportionate fashion to make sure that we are seizing the opportunity," Barra said.

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AP Business Writers Matthew Craft and Candice Choi in New York and AP Business Writers Dee-Ann Durbin and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this story.

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Lloyds bank settles with US, UK over market fixing

LONDON — Lloyds Banking Group is paying $369 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations it manipulated a key global interest rate.

Lloyds, one of the world's largest banks, on Monday became the sixth financial firm sanctioned in the international rate-rigging scandal. The U.S. and British regulators said Lloyds attempted to manipulate, and in some cases succeeded, in manipulating the London interbank offered rate, known as LIBOR.

The LIBOR, the rate used by banks to borrow from each other, affects trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages, bonds and consumer loans.

Under an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, Lloyds will be allowed to avoid criminal prosecution in exchange for admitting responsibility for misconduct and continuing to cooperate in the investigation of major banks' actions regarding LIBOR.

The $369 million that Lloyds is paying includes about $178 million levied by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, an $86 million criminal penalty to the Justice Department and a $105 million civil penalty to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The misconduct by Lloyds occurred between May 2006 and 2009, according to the British and U.S. regulators. They said traders at Lloyds rigged the estimates of borrowing costs submitted by the bank to help set the LIBOR rate, to benefit their own trading positions and those of their friends.

British banks Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, and Rabobank of the Netherlands have also been fined for LIBOR rigging. Nine individuals have been criminally charged by the Justice Department. The settlements with Lloyds bring the banks' total payments to date to nearly $4 billion.

"Because investors and consumers rely on LIBOR's integrity, rate-rigging fundamentally undermines confidence in financial markets," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said in a statement.

In its agreement with the CFTC, Lloyds agreed to establish controls and employee training "to ensure the integrity and reliability" of the reports submitted by the bank in the LIBOR-setting process.

Lloyds said in a statement it has "fundamentally overhauled systems and controls across the bank" over the past three years. The actions cited by the regulators "were restricted to a specific area of the business and were not known about or condoned by the senior management" of the bank at the time, Lloyds said.

The bank said it regards the actions of the individuals responsible "as totally unacceptable and unrepresentative of the cultural changes" it has made.

The process of setting the LIBOR came under scrutiny after Barclays admitted in June 2012 that it had submitted false information to keep the rate low. Barclays agreed to pay a $453 million fine, and its chief executive and chairman both resigned.

A number of U.S. cities and municipal agencies have filed lawsuits against banks that set the LIBOR rate. They are seeking damages for losses suffered as a result of an artificially low rate. Local governments hold bonds and other investments whose value is pegged to LIBOR.

Under a change taking effect this year, the Atlanta-based company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, IntercontinentalExchange, took over supervising the setting of LIBOR from the British Bankers' Association.

In addition to Lloyds, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Rabobank, the banks that set LIBOR are Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank and Norinchukin Bank.

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Gordon reported from Washington.

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Tyson to sell Mexico, Brazil poultry operations

SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Tyson Foods plans to sell its poultry businesses in Mexico and Brazil for $575 million in cash to help pay debt from its recently announced acquisition of Hillshire Brands.

The Springdale, Arkansas, meat processor said Monday that it still plans to expand its international operations, especially in Asia, but the businesses it will sell didn't have the scale to gain leading positions in their markets. Tyson made the announcement the same day it reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that climbed more than 4 percent but missed analyst expectations.

Tyson Foods Inc. said it expects the sale of its Mexico and Brazil operations to JBS SA will be completed by the end of the year. JBS SA is the parent of JBS USA Holdings Inc., which owns Pilgrim's Pride. Tyson's Mexican business will be acquired through Pilgrim's Pride.

Tyson's Mexico and Brazil operations employ more than 10,000 people combined. Tyson said the new owners expect to maintain all operations and labor contracts in both countries.

Also on Monday, Tyson said its third-quarter earnings climbed to $260 million, or 73 cents per share, from $249 million, or 68 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Adjusted earnings totaled 75 cents per share, which missed average analyst expectations of 83 cents per share, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue climbed 11 percent to $9.68 billion.

Tyson, which employs about 115,000 people globally, said last week it would close three U.S. plants that have struggled financially. Those plants are located in Cherokee, Iowa; Buffalo, New York; and Santa Teresa, New Mexico. They employ a total of 950 workers.

The company said the action will enable it to move some of the operations and equipment at the plants to other, more cost-efficient Tyson plants.

Earlier this month, it signed a $7.75 billion deal to buy Hillshire Brands Co., the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs.

Company shares slipped 53 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $39.01 in premarket trading Monday about an hour and a half before the market opening. The stock had increased $6.08, or 18 percent, to $39.54 since the beginning of the year through Friday's close, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 7 percent.

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Dollar Tree steps up fight, buys Family Dollar

NEW YORK — The fight for penny pinchers is intensifying.

Dollar Tree said Monday it is buying rival discounter Family Dollar for $8.5 billion, significantly broadening its reach as it looks to fend off Wal-Mart, which has been stepping up its courtship of lower-income customers

The deal makes Dollar Tree the biggest player in the dollar store segment, with its more than 13,000 combined locations eclipsing current leader Dollar General Corp., which has about 11,300.

Dollar stores grew during the recession as people across income groups searched for cheaper options. To attract a broader array of customers, dollar stores also expanded their offerings to include more groceries and brand-name products, instead of just the party favors and other knickknacks people often associated with them.

More recently, however, sales at dollar stores have been suffering because the lower-income customers who go to them are facing persistent job instability and slow wage growth in the aftermath of the recession. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kroger Co. also have been opening smaller store formats to directly compete with dollar stores.

Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, said Dollar Tree's deal will allow it to ultimately lower prices because it will be able to cut expenses by merging some operations. That will enable it to better compete with Wal-Mart, which built its business on having everyday low prices.

"Now they're going to take the fight back to Wal-Mart," Sozzi said.

The deal gives Dollar Tree more flexibility.

Dollar Tree is true to its name, with everything in its stores costing just a buck. The fixed pricing has helped attract more customers and boosted sales, but it also puts the company in a tough spot as inflation pushes up its costs and pressures profit margins. Family Dollar is far more flexible in its pricing, which allows it to sell a greater variety of items, including Kraft cheese and Tide laundry soap, at various price points.

Still, Family Dollar, which has more than 8,000 locations, has been shuttering stores and cutting prices in hopes of boosting its financial performance. Last month, investor Carl Icahn urged the company to put itself up for sale. Icahn has built up a stake in the company of more than 9 percent, according to regulatory filings. Based on his purchase price at the time, he stands to make nearly $200 million from the deal.

On Monday, Dollar Tree CEO Bob Sasser said that the two companies "co-locate really well" and offer complementary merchandise.

The companies did not say if any Dollar Tree or Family Dollar stores would be closed. Dollar Tree, which has about 5,000 locations, will continue to operate under the existing Dollar Tree, Deals, and Dollar Tree Canada store banners. It will keep the Family Dollar brand as well, with Chairman and CEO Howard Levine reporting to Sasser.

Representatives for Wal-Mart and Kroger weren't immediately available for comment. A representative for Dollar General, which last year reported sales growth of 9 percent, was not immediately available for comment.

Stockholders of Family Dollar Stores will receive $59.60 in cash and the equivalent of $14.90 in shares of Dollar Tree for each share they own. The companies put the value of the transaction at $74.50 per share, which is an approximately 23 percent premium to Family Dollar's Friday closing price of $60.66.

Including debt and other costs, the companies estimate the deal to be worth more than $9 billion.

Family Dollar stockholders will own somewhere between 12.7 percent and 15.1 percent of Dollar Tree's outstanding common shares at closing. Dollar Tree plans to finance the deal with available cash, bank debt and bonds.

The boards of both companies unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close by early next year. It still needs approval from Family Dollar shareholders.

Shares of Family Dollar Stores Inc., which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, surged $14.89 to $75.55 in premarket trading. The record high during regular trading is $75.29.

Shares of Dollar Tree Inc., based in Chesapeake, Virginia, jumped 10 percent, or $5.50 to $59.72. The all-time high for that stock is $60.19.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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US stocks remain lower at midday

NEW YORK — Major U.S. stock market indexes nudged lower in midday trading on Monday, weighed down by a report of sluggish sales in the housing market.

KEEPING SCORE: As of 12:24 p.m. Eastern time, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down four points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,973. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 30 points, 0.2 percent, to 16,930 while the Nasdaq composite dropped 17 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,431.

HOUSING: Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in June, as the real estate market appears to have cooled off this summer. The National Association of Realtors said that pending home sales index slipped 1.1 percent last month. A combination of meager wage growth and higher home prices have helped slow down sales.

FOR SALE: Family Dollar soared after Dollar Tree announced plans to buy the rival discount store for roughly $8.5 billion. Family Dollar has responded to recent struggles by cutting prices, shedding workers and closing stores. Last month, Carl Icahn, who has built up a stake in the company, urged Family Dollar to put itself up for sale. In midday trading, Family Dollar's stock shot up $14.34, or 24 percent, to $75. It rose the most in the S&P 500.

HOUSE SURFING: Trulia jumped on news that Zillow, a rival real-estate listing service, said it has agreed to buy it for $3.5 billion. Boards of both companies have already signed off on the deal, but shareholders need to approve it. Trulia advanced $6.88, or 12 percent, to $63.23. Zillow slumped $3.46, or 2 percent, to $155.40.

EARNINGS PARADE: Wall Street is in the middle of second-quarter earnings season, when big companies turn in their springtime results and tell investors how they think the rest of the year will shape up. This week, ExxonMobil and MasterCard are among the heavyweights posting earnings. American Express and Merck report Tuesday.

NOT BAD: So far, the news has been much better than many expected. Of the 229 companies that have posted results, nearly seven out of 10 have reported higher profits than analysts projected, according to S&P Capital IQ. Banks have been the big surprise.

RUSSIA: Tensions between Western powers and Russia remained a concern for investors. On Monday, an international court ordered Russia to pay over $50 billion to a group of investors for the expropriation of now-defunct oil company Yukos. The ruling comes as European countries are considering imposing sanctions on trade in defense, technology and other goods and restricting access to European capital markets for Russia's state-owned companies.

STRATEGIST'S VIEW: "I think the market is doing what it should be doing," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners, a wealth management firm. "It's not getting sucked into all the bad news out there. Russia is lobbing bombs into Ukraine, and that appears like it could spiral out of control. The Middle East looks out of control. But the stock market is trading near an all-time high."

KEY REPORTS: A collection of major U.S. economic data comes out later this week. On Wednesday, the government's report on second-quarter gross domestic product is expected to show growth picking up. On Friday, economists forecast that the monthly jobs report will show employers added between 235,000 and 255,000 workers to their payrolls in July.

EUROPE: In European markets, France's CAC 40 rose 0.3 percent while Germany's DAX shed 0.5 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was flat.

CHINA'S STABLE SIGNS: News that profits at China's industrial enterprises soared 17.9 percent in June over a year earlier suggested that the world's No. 2 economy has stabilized and gave Asian markets a boost. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surged 2.4 percent.

CURRENCIES, OIL: The euro edged up to $1.3436 from the previous session's $1.3431. The dollar rose to 101.85 yen from 101.83 yen. The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil declined 79 cents to $101.30 per barrel.

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Argentina in last-ditch effort to avert default

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina's government said Monday it will make another effort to reach a deal with US. creditors ahead of a looming deadline that risks sending the country into its second default in 13 years.

Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said that an Argentine delegation will travel to New York and meet a court-appointed mediator there on Tuesday, just a day ahead of the deadline.

"Argentina's position is to reach a dialogue that establishes fair, legal and sustainable conditions for negotiation with 100 percent of the bondholders," Capitanich said in a press conference at the presidential palace.

But the mediator, Daniel A. Pollack, said in a statement that while the Argentines will meet him, they have not yet accepted his recommendation of face-to-face talks with the plaintiffs in the dispute, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer's NML Capital Ltd.

Those creditors bought Argentine bonds on the cheap and rejected the government's restructuring offers following its record $100 billion default in 2001. They are demanding payment of some $1.5 billion in unpaid debts.

By Wednesday, Argentina has to make a payment to other creditors who accepted the restructured bonds or fall into default. But U.S. federal District Judge Thomas Griesa has forbidden Argentina to pay them without paying the holdouts as well.

In June, he ordered Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to return to Argentina $539 million it had deposited to pay holders of restructured debt.

Argentina already is struggling with recession, a shortage of dollars and one of the world's highest inflation rates. But the government says default would have no effect on most Argentines.

"There's no link to the economic activity. It's independent to the evolution of these restructuring processes," Capitanich said, adding that Argentina's cash flow is guaranteed by the surplus in its trade balance and recent investment deals signed with China.

Many economic analysts and bond buyers agree that the effect of a default would be limited because, in contrast to 2001, Argentina is now solvent.

"Argentine authorities seem to have reached the conclusion that to default now and renegotiate later would the less costly option," said Carlos Caicedo, principal Latin America analyst at IHS Country Risk.

Full payment to the hedge funds would likely trigger lawsuits from other bondholders demanding to be paid on similar terms. While Argentina has nearly $29 billion in foreign reserves, those include loans to other countries, deposits with the IMF and other assets that are not easily used.

Troubled countries often find investors willing to lend them money to pay other creditors. But Argentina has been locked out of the bond markets for more than a decade. Any money it could borrow would likely come at high interest rates — and at great political cost for the center-left government that has rallied public support against paying what President Cristina Fernandez calls "vulture funds."

Restoring Argentina's sense of pride and sovereignty after the 2001-2002 economic collapse has been a central goal of Fernandez and her predecessor and late husband, Nestor Kirchner. The two negotiated or paid off most of Argentina's defaulted debt, nationalized the pension system, kept energy cheap through subsidies and dug deep into the treasury to redirect revenue to the poor through handouts.

"A default would taint (the president's legacy), but most important, it would seriously damage the chances of any presidential candidate being sponsored by her," Caidedo said.

"A group of leaders who received a country in default in 2003 and defaulted 11 years later are certain to be punished by voters."

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Luis Henao reported from Santiago, Chile.

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Virgin America files plans for IPO

NEW YORK — Virgin America's next destination is Wall Street.

The California-based airline filed on Monday for an initial public offering of shares.

Virgin America Inc., which operates out of Los Angeles and San Francisco, flies to 22 airports in the United States and Mexico and has a fleet of 53 planes. It is known for offering a variety of perks on its jets, including live TV, movies, leather seats and purple mood lighting.

But it's still a small player. Virgin America carried 6.3 million passengers last year, less than one percent of the total passengers that flew on U.S. airlines. And its fleet is a tiny fraction of what larger carriers have. For instance, United Airlines has more than 1,200 aircraft in its fleet. Virgin America was founded in 2004 but wasn't approved for flying until the summer of 2007.

The company has been unprofitable until last year, when it had earnings of $10.1 million. In recent years, the U.S. airline industry has posted record profits, while Virgin America has struggled. Since 2009 it has lost about $407.5 million. Revenue in 2013 rose 6.9 percent to $1.42 billion from $1.33 billion in 2012, according to the filling.

The company licenses the Virgin brand name from the Virgin Group, which was started by businessman Sir Richard Branson. The Virgin Group's parent company, VX Holdings, has a 22.1 percent stake in Virgin America, according to the filing.

Most of Virgin America's executives have worked at larger airlines. CEO and President C. David Cush, who has led the company since 2007, worked at American Airlines for 20 years. Senior Vice President E. Frances Fiorillo came from Canadian Airlines. Others have worked for Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

For the purpose of the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it could raise as much as $115 million, but that number is likely to change.

The company, which has its headquarters in Burlingame, California, did not say when it expects the IPO to happen, how many shares it plans to offer, how much each share will cost or which exchange they will trade on.

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