US stocks slip in morning as energy shares slump

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks inched mostly lower in morning trading on Monday as a slide in crude oil prices to a five-year low pushed energy stocks down. Investors are also weighing weak Chinese trade figures and news that Japan's recession is deeper than initially thought.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slipped seven points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,952 as of 11:07 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell less than one point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,075. The Nasdaq composite rose 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,792.

OIL IMPACT: Energy shares slumped as the prospect of weaker growth in Asia helped push down oil prices. The benchmark New York rate was down $1.99, or 3 percent, at $63.85 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent crude, which is used to price oil sold on international markets, dropped $2.32, or 3.4 percent, to $66.75. Both prices are at their lowest levels since 2009.

Chevron fell $3.53, or 3 percent, to $107.34.

BURGER BLUES: McDonald's said a key global sales figure fell 2.2 percent in November, as U.S. sales continued to fall and as the company fought to recover from a food-safety scandal in China. The stock fell $3.36, or 3.5 percent, to $92.95.

MERCK DEAL: Merck &Co. said it would pay $8.4 billion to buy Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a leader in developing drugs to fight so-called superbugs that have evolved to resist antibiotics. Cubist jumped $26.32, or 35 percent, to $100.68. Merck was barely changed, down 0.3 percent.

STUMBLE IN ASIA: In China, the world's No. 2 economy, exports growth slumped last month and imports unexpectedly contracted. But Chinese stocks jumped. Investors hope the weak figures will spur the government will dole out more stimulus.

In Japan, figures showed that the world's No. 3 economy shrank 1.9 percent in the July-September period.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1 percent, South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.4 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite in mainland China broke through 3,000, soaring 2.8 percent to 3,020.26, a level it hasn't closed at since April 2011. The index is up 25 percent in the past month.

ANALYST TAKE: "An implosion in Chinese trade data and a bigger-than-expected Japanese contraction in the third quarter demonstrate the constraints that Asia's two largest economies are putting on global growth," said Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets.

EUROPE DROPS: In Europe, France's CAC 40 was down 0.7 percent while Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.8 percent lower.

CURRENCIES and BONDS: The dollar was mixed. The euro was flat at $1.2290 while the dollar fell 0.5 percent to 120.89 yen. U.S. government bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.29 percent.

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Death toll from GM ignition switches rises to 38

DETROIT — At least 38 people have died and 51 have been injured in crashes involving General Motors cars with defective ignition switches.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by GM to compensate victims, updated the totals Monday.

Feinberg says he has received 239 death claims and 2,023 injury claims since August.

The fund so far has deemed a total of 89 claims eligible for compensation.

GM knew about faulty ignition switches in Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars for more than a decade but didn't recall them until February. The switches can slip out of the "on" position, which causes the cars to stall, knocks out power steering and turns off the air bags.

Feinberg will accept claims until Jan. 31.

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New Delhi bans Uber after alleged rape by driver

NEW DELHI — The Indian capital on Monday banned taxi-booking service Uber after a woman accused one of its drivers of raping her.

Transport official Satish Mathur made the announcement as the 32-year-old suspect appeared in a New Delhi court.

The court ordered Shiv Kumar Yadav held for three days for police questioning over allegations that he raped the finance company employee after being hired to ferry her home from a dinner engagement on Friday night. The court also ordered Yadav's cellphone confiscated, according to Press Trust of India.

The case, almost two years after a young woman was fatally gang raped on a bus in the capital, has renewed national anger over sexual violence in India and demands for more effort to ensure women's safety.

The government rushed through legislation last year to double prison terms for rape to 20 years and to criminalize voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. But activists say much more needs to be done, including better educating youths and adding basic infrastructure such as street lights and public bathrooms.

The CEO of San Francisco-based Uber, Travis Kalanick, said the company would do "everything to bring the perpetrator to justice and to support the victim and her family in her recovery."

He also sought to deflect some of the blame on to officials, saying the company would work with the government to establish clear background checks that are "currently absent in their commercial transportation licensing programs."

It was not immediately clear if Uber itself performed any background check, nor was it clear whether Yadav would even have been flagged. Police told Press Trust of India they were working to verify Yadav's claims that he had been acquitted of rape charges in 2011, after spending seven months in jail. PTI did not give any further details or name the police source.

The New Delhi ban is a blow for Uber, which has courted acclamation and controversy around the world with a service based on hailing taxis from a smartphone app. It has faced restrictions in other countries after licensed taxi operators claimed the service was competing unfairly.

The service, which uses private cars rather than licensed cabs, promises a quicker response time that is often less than 10 minutes. Drivers respond using their own Uber-provided smartphones mounted on the dashboard and follow a GPS map to an exact location.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the government "strongly condemns this dastardly act" and pledged justice in the case.

He said the 26-year-old victim had fallen asleep during the ride home. When she woke up, she found the car parked in a secluded place. The driver then threatened her, raped her and then took her home around 1 a.m. Saturday.

Police arrested the driver Sunday night in his hometown of Mathura, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the capital, after he had abandoned the Uber-registered car and fled New Delhi. The car has been brought to Delhi for forensic examination, Singh told parliament.

Dozens of angry protesters rallied outside the home minister's house on Monday morning to demand more action to ensure women's safety. Police detained several people who were part of another anti-violence protest group that burned an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front of his political party's headquarters.

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Associated Press writers Nirmala George and Chonchui Ngashangva contributed to this report.

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Super Bowl ads: GoDaddy kicks off early-bird advertising for big game

NBC won't televise Super Bowl XLIX for more than a month, but advertisers have already commenced what has become the inevitable rush to promote their participation in the event weeks before most fans have even started working on a game-day menu.

Doritos, part of PepsiCo's Frito-Lay snacks unit, has already put out its annual call for amateur submissions for ad concepts that will air during the Super Bowl next February 1. And Web-service company GoDaddy is expected to announce Monday that is has selected a nine-week old golden retriever to star in its planned ad for the 2015 gridiron classic alongside spokeswoman Danica Patrick, as well as the fact that the pooch needs a name. Fans will be asked to submit ideas before t the company starts shooting on Thursday - that's the commercial, not the dog.

In doing so, GoDaddy seems to be kicking off what has become the de rigueur thing to do for Super Bowl advertisers since 2011: Get started early. "it really feels like the conversation has moved into the pre-game part of things," said Barb Rechterman, GoDaddy's chief marketing officer, in an interview. "At the game, people are pretty much done talking about it" (Doritos will not unveil its finalists until January).

Three years ago, in December of 2011, Volkswagen sparked reams of pokes, likes, tweets and shares by posting online a clever Super Bowl ad in which a child pretends to be Darth Vader. The ad notched 10 million online views before the Super Bowl started.

Sensing that social media can help them gain millions of dollars in free publicity for ads that cost millions of dollars just to put on the air (NBC is seeking $4.4 million to $4.5 million for a 30-second ad in next year's game), most advertisers followed the trail of Volkswagen's exhaust. Only a few, like Chrysler Group, still keep the content of their Super Bowl ads under wraps until the last minute.

Last year, freshman Super Bowl sponsor Jaguar kicked things off in mid-November by running a "teaser" ad that offered viewers a look at the theme it had chosen for its debut commercial.

GoDaddy is best known for Super Bowl ads featuring scantily-clad actresses but the company has in fact been one of the early leaders of the pre-game trend. For several years, the company would make early versions of its ads available online, hoping to galvanize fans to push TV networks to allow the saucy commercials on air without demanding revisions.

"Building up and educating people about the commercial gets the engagement via social media," said GoDaddy's Rechterman. "And that has become really fruitful in advance of the game."

Critics note that the new method has ruined much of the surprise of the ads in the most recent Super Bowl Sundays. GoDaddy intends to maintain an element of surprise, said Rechterman, even as it urges fans to pick the dog's name, and in days to come, gives them a chance to follow the pup on social media. She promises a humorous twist to the Super Bowl ads that will not be disclosed until the spot runs next February 1.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Sony Playstation network reportedly was taken down by hackers again

Sony's PlayStation Network suffered an outage of several hours Sunday night, extending into early Monday morning U.S. time, with a group that previously claimed to have disabled PSN reportedly taking credit for the attack.

According to Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation Network was mostly down from 8:52 a.m. to 11:18 a.m. Tokyo time, with some users seeing the message: "Page not found. It's not you. It's the internet's fault," FT reported.

Reps for Sony Computer Entertainment did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The latest PSN outage may be completely separate from the attack two weeks ago on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The studio has been reeling from that hack, which disabled its internal systems for about a week and has resulted in employee info, other data and at least five movies being posted online. Cyber-attckers with ties to North Korea have been suspected in the SPE incident; the communist regime has officially denied responsibility for that attack, while also calling it "a righteous deed" that may have been executed by supporters.

In the recent PlayStation Network outage, a group called Lizard Squad -- which had previously claimed responsibility for PSN and Microsoft Xbox Live outages in August 2014 -- appeared to take credit, FT reported. On Sunday, the group tweeted: "PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad" after the PlayStation Network went down. Lizard Squad last week tweeted "Xbox Live #offline" after Microsoft's Xbox Live users had trouble signing in.

The August 2014 outage of PlayStation Network (which another group also claimed to be behind) was the result of a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which bogus information overwhelms a system's servers. In such a DDoS attack, private data is not accessed. By contrast, a security breach in 2011 exposed the names and passwords of millions of PlayStation Network customers.

Sony's official PlayStation twitter account posted a message at about 9 p.m. Eastern Sunday about the issue:

At 4:05 ET Monday, the PlayStation twitter account had an update that said, "If you had difficulties signing into PlayStation Network, give it a try now."

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US stocks slip in morning as energy shares slump

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks inched mostly lower in morning trading on Monday as a slide in crude oil prices to a five-year low pushed energy stocks down. Investors are also weighing weak Chinese trade figures and news that Japan's recession is deeper than initially thought.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slipped seven points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,952 as of 11:07 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell less than one point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,075. The Nasdaq composite rose 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,792.

OIL IMPACT: Energy shares slumped as the prospect of weaker growth in Asia helped push down oil prices. The benchmark New York rate was down $1.99, or 3 percent, at $63.85 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent crude, which is used to price oil sold on international markets, dropped $2.32, or 3.4 percent, to $66.75. Both prices are at their lowest levels since 2009.

Chevron fell $3.53, or 3 percent, to $107.34.

BURGER BLUES: McDonald's said a key global sales figure fell 2.2 percent in November, as U.S. sales continued to fall and as the company fought to recover from a food-safety scandal in China. The stock fell $3.36, or 3.5 percent, to $92.95.

MERCK DEAL: Merck &Co. said it would pay $8.4 billion to buy Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a leader in developing drugs to fight so-called superbugs that have evolved to resist antibiotics. Cubist jumped $26.32, or 35 percent, to $100.68. Merck was barely changed, down 0.3 percent.

STUMBLE IN ASIA: In China, the world's No. 2 economy, exports growth slumped last month and imports unexpectedly contracted. But Chinese stocks jumped. Investors hope the weak figures will spur the government will dole out more stimulus.

In Japan, figures showed that the world's No. 3 economy shrank 1.9 percent in the July-September period.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1 percent, South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.4 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite in mainland China broke through 3,000, soaring 2.8 percent to 3,020.26, a level it hasn't closed at since April 2011. The index is up 25 percent in the past month.

ANALYST TAKE: "An implosion in Chinese trade data and a bigger-than-expected Japanese contraction in the third quarter demonstrate the constraints that Asia's two largest economies are putting on global growth," said Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets.

EUROPE DROPS: In Europe, France's CAC 40 was down 0.7 percent while Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.8 percent lower.

CURRENCIES and BONDS: The dollar was mixed. The euro was flat at $1.2290 while the dollar fell 0.5 percent to 120.89 yen. U.S. government bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.29 percent.

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Pulitzer Prizes expand eligibility in 2 categories

NEW YORK — The Pulitzer Prizes have expanded eligibility for two categories.

The board overseeing the journalism awards announced Monday that the Investigative Reporting and Feature Writing categories will now include many online and print magazines.

The board has also amended its rules regarding partnerships.

Eligible news organizations will now be allowed to nominate journalists employed by partnering organizations even if those organizations are themselves ineligible to compete for Pulitzer Prizes.

Danielle Allen, chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, says great journalism is reaching American audiences "in new formats and new channels" that the panel supports "cross-media partnerships, new platforms and new tools to strengthen the cause of journalism."

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Pioneer of video games, Simon dies at 92

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Ralph Baer, a video game pioneer who created both the precursor to "Pong" and the electronic memory game Simon and led the team that developed the first home video game console, has died. He was 92.

Baer, a longtime resident of Manchester, died at his home Saturday, the Goodwin Funeral Home in Manchester confirmed Monday.

Born in Germany, Baer escaped the Holocaust with his family.

He started thinking about what later became the home video game console while working as a television set designer in the 1950s. In the next decade, he started working on television games as chief engineer for Sanders Associates, now BAE Systems.

That led to The Brown Box, which was licensed by Magnavox and came out with the Odyssey in the early 1970s. The console, which connected to a television, could play about two dozen games, including one called "Table Tennis" that was a precursor to "Pong."

Baer received the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush in 2006 and was inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2010.

Before inventing the system that became known as the Magnavox Odyssey, Baer said he often was asked by co-workers how the group would make any money from the project.

"People thought I was wasting my time and the company's money for that matter," he said in 2010. "There's no way anybody could have predicted how fast this industry would take off."

A version of The Brown Box is now at the American History Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian plans to open a gallery next year with a focus on innovation and is including Baer's workshop.

Baer later formed his own consulting business, through which he created or assisted in developing numerous electronic toys and games. In Simon, still in production today, the player has to duplicate an increasingly complicated pattern of lights and sounds.

Baer told The Telegraph of Nashua in 2012 that he kept inventing. He almost couldn't help it.

"If you have it in your genes, it's almost like breathing," he said.

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Gas in Massachusetts down 7 more cents

BOSTON — Gasoline prices in Massachusetts have now fallen each week for the past three months.

AAA Southern New England said Monday that its weekly survey of gas stations in the Bay State found self-serve regular selling for an average of $2.78 cents per gallon. That's seven cents lower than a week ago and 18 cents below the average price one month ago.

Mary Maguire, a spokeswoman for AAA, called the latest drop in prices a "holiday gift to consumers."

A year ago at this time, the average price in Massachusetts was 63 cents higher at $3.41 per gallon.

The current national average for self-serve regular is $2.67 per gallon.

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Big Mac hurting as customers get pickier

NEW YORK — Hold the pickles, onions and special sauce. The Big Mac is becoming a victim of finicky tastes.

As sales continue to slide in the U.S., McDonald's plans to expand a test that lets people build their own burgers by tapping on a touchscreen to pick the bread, cheese and toppings they want. The company says it will bring the option to 2,000 of its 14,000 U.S. locations next year.

The "Create Your Taste" program is a departure for McDonald's, which was built to deliver food consistently, quickly and affordably. That model has come under pressure as people gravitate toward places like Chipotle, which lets people pick what goes on their bowls and burritos as they walk down a line.

According to industry executives and analysts, the ability to customize food orders is becoming more important, particularly among people in their 20s and 30s. McDonald's has already been trying to adjust by installing new kitchen prep tables that can hold more toppings and sauces.

The plans to offer greater customization come as McDonald's fights to boost declining sales and customer traffic. On Monday, it said U.S. sales fell 4.6 percent in November at established locations. The figure fell 4 percent in the unit that includes the Asia-Pacific region, where the company is fighting to recover from a food supplier scandal. Overall, global sales declined 2.2 percent for the month.

Back in the U.S., CEO Don Thompson has conceded the company hasn't done enough to keep up with shifting habits and that changes are in store.

"We haven't been changing at the same rate as our customers' eating-out expectations," Thompson said in October.

Offering greater customization could be a challenge for McDonald's, however. For "complicated" orders, burgers might take as long as five to seven minutes to prepare, Greg Watson, senior vice president of menu innovation, said in a phone interview. That's more than the couple of minutes it should take for regular orders, he said.

The customized burgers are also more expensive than core items like Big Macs, Watson said. But it's not clear whether people will be willing to wait longer or shell out more money for a burger from McDonald's.

Watson said McDonald's hasn't yet decided on expansion of "Create Your Taste" beyond the 2,000 locations next year. In Australia, McDonald's said earlier this year a customized burger option would be expanded nationally. The locations that have the "Create Your Taste" option still offer the regular menu as well.

As for the regular menu, McDonald's plans to remove some items "with slower movement" from the national menu in the U.S. The Bacon Clubhouse burger, which McDonald's introduced this year as a premium offering, could become a regional offering, Watson said.

In the meantime, McDonald's is also trying to address long-held perceptions about the quality of its food. It recently launched a campaign that answers questions about its food, such as, "Does McDonald's beef contain worms?" and is planning new marketing for the year ahead.

McDonald's troubles aren't isolated to the U.S. In Asia, the company has been trying to bounce back since the summer, when a TV report in China showed workers at one of its suppliers repackaging meat that was alleged to be expired. The claim has not been publicly confirmed by the supplier or the government.

The Oak Brook, Illinois, company said comparable sales for Europe fell 2 percent in November with a strong performance in the U.K. more than offset by weakness in Russia, France and Germany.

McDonald's has more than 35,000 locations in more than 100 countries. Its stock fell $2.81, or 2.9 percent, to $93.50 before the market opened Monday.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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