Business News at a Glance

Microsoft Says It Will Sell Pentagon Artificial Intelligence and Other Advanced Technology

Microsoft said on Friday that it would sell the military and intelligence agencies whatever advanced technologies they needed “to build a strong defense,” just months after Google told the Pentagon it would refuse to provide artificial intelligence products that could build more accurate drones or compete with China for next-generation weapons. The announcement starkly illustrated the radically different paths these leading American technology companies are taking as they struggle with their role in creating a new generation of cyberweapons to help, and perhaps someday replace, American warriors. But the divergent paths also underscore concerns about how the United States will take on a rising China.

Racial Remark Sinks NBC Star Lured From Fox

The four days that sank Megyn Kelly and sparked a vicious standoff inside NBC News began with a simple, cheery welcome to her “Today” show audience. “I have to give you a fair warning,” Kelly said as the cameras went live Tuesday. “I’m a little fired up over Halloween costumes this morning.” By day’s end, Kelly — the former Fox News anchor — was in crisis, besieged with criticism for wondering aloud on-air why it was inappropriate for white people to dress up in blackface. On Friday, NBC announced that “Megyn Kelly Today” was no more.

Republicans Look to Safety Net Programs as Deficit Balloons

With the federal deficit growing and President Donald Trump suddenly talking about another tax cut, the conversation in Washington has turned to the inevitable question of how — or whether — Congress will engage in any type of fiscal discipline. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got people in Washington talking when he suggested this month that changes to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid were needed to tame the deficit. This month, the Treasury Department recorded a $779 billion deficit for the 2018 fiscal year, stemming in large part from a sharp decline in corporate tax revenue after a $1.5 trillion tax cut last year.

Google Workers Fume Over Executives’ Payouts After Sexual Misconduct Claims

At Google’s weekly staff meeting Thursday, the top question employees voted to ask Larry Page, a co-founder, and Sundar Pichai, the chief executive, was about sexual harassment. “Multiple company actions strongly indicate that protection of powerful abusers is literally and figuratively more valuable to the company than the well-being of their victims,” read the question. “What concrete and meaningful actions will be taken to turn this around?” The query was part of an outpouring from Google employees after a New York Times article reported how the company had paid millions of dollars in exit packages to male executives accused of misconduct and stayed silent about their transgressions.

Stocks Resume Slide, Pulling S&P 500 Briefly Into a Correction

Disappointing earnings reports from tech giants Amazon and Alphabet set off another turbulent day on Wall Street on Friday, and the benchmark stock-market index briefly dipped into a correction. Amazon ended down nearly 8 percent and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, fell 1.8 percent after they reported quarterly results Thursday evening. Their reports did little to calm jittery investors who have focused on quarterly corporate updates in search of clues to the economic outlook for 2019. By the close of trading Friday, the S&P 500 was down more 9 percent from that late-September high, and is now in negative territory for the year.

U.S. Economy Charged Ahead in the Third Quarter

The U.S. economy barreled ahead in the third quarter as consumers spent more, keeping it on track for the best annual performance since 2005. The government said Friday that the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent between July and September after the 4.2 percent pace in the previous quarter. But there were signs that the growth could cool in the coming months. Businesses remain hesitant to increase spending, despite the large corporate tax cut enacted last year. Some of the gains were also one-offs that could fade, like the restocking of shelves at stores and warehouses, which contributed more than half the growth.

Trump’s Trade War May Create New Auto Jobs. In China.

President Donald Trump has said he started a trade war to create jobs in America. But foreign carmakers that employ thousands of workers in the United States are gauging whether tariffs, the main weapon in that war, may compel them to shift jobs to, of all places, China. Carmakers’ early hopes that congressional Republicans could restrain Trump have faded. Instead, manufacturers are girding for a protracted period of conflict that will disrupt supply chains and change the companies’ calculations about where to expand and where to cut back. BMW has already moved some production of its popular X3 SUV from South Carolina to a factory in Shenyang, China.