Business News at a Glance

China Threatens New Tariffs on $60 Billion of U.S. Goods

China threatened Friday to tax an additional $60 billion a year worth of U.S. imports if the Trump administration imposes its own new levies on Chinese goods. The threat comes just two days after President Donald Trump ordered his administration to consider increasing the rate of tariffs it has already proposed on $200 billion a year of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent. Though the escalating trade dispute has been between the world’s two biggest economies, the interconnected nature of the global economy has meant that other regions, like Europe, have also been caught up in the back-and-forth.

Workers Hardest Hit by Recession Are Joining in Recovery

The least educated American workers who took the hardest hit during the Great Recession were also among the slowest to harvest the gains of the recovery. Now they are a striking symbol of a strong economy. The unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma fell to 5.1 percent in July, the Labor Department reported Friday, the lowest since the government began collecting data on such workers in 1992. At the economy’s nadir in the summer of 2009, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts hit 15.6 percent, more than three times the peak unemployment rate for college graduates.

Chemical Maker and Its Chief Indicted for Explosions During Hurricane Harvey

A grand jury has indicted a chemical manufacturer and two of its leaders, saying they were responsible for a plant in Texas “recklessly” releasing a toxic cloud during Hurricane Harvey last year, officials said Friday. The company, Arkema North America, its chief executive, Richard Rowe, and the manager of its plant in Crosby, Texas, Leslie Comardelle, were indicted, according to a statement from Kim Ogg, the district attorney in Harris County. The indictment charged that they all had a role in the chemical release, which risked serious harm to residents and emergency responders, the statement said. Prosecutors maintain the release was preventable.

Inquiry Ends Into Exxon Mobil’s Accounting Tied to Climate Change

The Securities and Exchange Commission has ended an investigation into Exxon Mobil’s policy of not writing down the value of its oil reserves to account for the risk that future climate change regulations might pose to the company. The commission informed Exxon of its decision in a letter Thursday. The inquiry, which began in January 2016, focused on how Exxon calculated the potential costs of complying with regulations meant to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Such regulations could force fossil fuel companies to keep oil, natural gas and coal in the ground.

United States and Mexico Are Nearing NAFTA Compromise

The United States and Mexico are edging closer to agreement on how to rewrite key portions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the two countries making progress on rules related to automobiles and other remaining issues during two days of meetings that ended Friday in Washington. A preliminary agreement between Mexico and the United States would go a long way toward accomplishing President Donald Trump’s goal of revising the quarter-century-old trade pact, which he has frequently criticized as the worst trade deal ever. But talks this week have excluded the pact’s third member, Canada, leaving significant issues unresolved.

Australia’s Big Banks Have Stranglehold on Consumers, Government Says

Australia’s four biggest banks have used their dominant position to exploit customers, deliver inferior products, charge exorbitant fees and block competition, according to a new government report calling for more competition and integrity in the industry. The report, released Friday by the Productivity Commission, found that Australia’s four largest banks control more than 75 percent of the country’s lending, deposit and credit card businesses. The insurance industry is even more concentrated, leading the country’s biggest financial players into habits of abuse and complacency, the report said. "Power needs to be put back in the hands of the customer,” the country’s treasurer, Scott Morrison, said Friday in remarks introducing the report.

Peloton’s New Infusion Made It a $4 Billion Company in 6 Years

For Peloton’s first two years in business, venture capital investors didn’t get it. The company’s founders struggled to convince them that blending stationary bikes and streaming live video classes would work. Six years later, the company is the toast of Silicon Valley. On Friday, Peloton announced it had raised $550 million from prominent investors led by TCV, a firm known for investing in Facebook, Netflix and LinkedIn. Peloton has now raised $1 billion and is valued at $4 billion. The model that initially turned off investors is now viewed as an advantage. After Peloton sells customers a bike for $1,995, the company charges a $39 monthly subscription for the live video classes.