Business News at a Glance

Foreclosure Cases Resume in Puerto Rico

The foreclosure machine that ground to a halt in Puerto Rico after the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in September is slowly cranking up again. Over the last four months, nearly 300 new foreclosure actions were filed in federal court in San Juan and in local courts across the island. The filings are some of the first since several federal agencies imposed moratoriums on new foreclosures and legal actions in existing cases after the hurricane devastated the U.S. territory. The moratoriums have begun to expire, setting the stage for a wave of home foreclosures.

Bargain Bin Books Can List for Thousands

Many booksellers on Amazon strive to sell their wares as cheaply as possible in a competitive marketplace. Other merchants favor a counterintuitive approach: Mark the price up to the moon. Romance author Deborah Macgillivray last month discovered her 2009 novel, “One Snowy Knight,” being offered for $2,630.52; other copies of the paperback were being sold elsewhere on Amazon for as little as 99 cents. Amazon directly sells some books, while others are sold by third parties. The wild pricing happens with the latter. The company said in a statement that “we actively monitor and remove” offers that violate its policies.

Marketers’ Interest Rising in YouTube’s Celebrities

Deals between big brands and viral online video performers, once an informal alternative to traditional celebrity sponsorships, are quickly maturing into a business estimated to reach $10 billion in 2020. Some brands pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single sponsored video. As the attention and money paid to stars on sites like YouTube and Instagram balloon, the stakes for both them and the brands are rising. Many popular online personalities built a huge audience by pushing the envelope. But when those creators go too far, companies that work with them risk being guilty by association.

LA Times to Appeal Order to Delete Portion of Article

A federal judge ordered The Los Angeles Times to remove information from a published article Saturday, a step that legal experts said was extremely unusual and conflicted with the First Amendment. The newspaper said it was appealing the order but chose to abide by it rather than risk being held in contempt of court. The article described a plea agreement between prosecutors and a police narcotics detective who was accused of colluding with a Mexican crime syndicate. The judge ordered the plea agreement sealed, but a reporter found it posted online Friday in a public database of federal court documents.

Canadian Chain Pulls Ivanka Trump’s Brand

Canada’s largest full-line department store chain, the Hudson’s Bay Co., has pulled clothing, shoes and other merchandise bearing Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand from its website and said it would wind down their sale in its stores across the country. The move by the retailer, which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor in the United States, comes at a time when many Canadians say they are boycotting American products because of President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. The decision to drop the brand was reportedly made last fall.

‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ Towers Over ‘Skyscraper’ at Box Office

Dwayne Johnson can save cities, but he couldn’t defeat a vacationing cartoon vampire at the box office. “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” made $44.1 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend, easily besting Johnson’s “Skyscraper." Each of the three films in Sony’s “Hotel Transylvania” franchise has cleared $40 million on its opening weekend. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” made $28.8 million, good for second place, in its second week. “Skyscraper” arrived in third place, with $25.5 million, a big drop-off compared with Johnson’s other recent action films.