Business News at a Glance

The Economy Is Purring, but Stocks Are Growling

Unemployment is near lows not seen in half a century. The economy is set for its best year since 2005. Large corporations are producing giant profits. And the stock markets are a mess. The losses extended on Tuesday, as the S&P 500 turned negative for the year, stoking fears that one of the longest bull markets in history could be at risk. Stocks often act as an early warning system, picking up subtle changes before they appear in the economic data. The S&P 500 closed on Tuesday at 2,641.89, down 1.8 percent. Other markets also flashed warnings, with oil dropping by 6.8 percent.

5 Giants Take an $822 Billion Tumble

Wall Street’s turn against big tech is adding up. As investors have dumped shares of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Netflix, $822 billion has been wiped off their combined market value since August amid worries about growth and lackluster earnings. That is a marked reversal for one of the most popular trades on Wall Street. Investors piled into shares of the largest tech companies, betting their revenue would continue to grow strongly as these behemoths upended industries from retail to communication to media. By the end of August, the market value of Apple and Amazon had each surpassed $1 trillion, and Alphabet was flirting with $900 billion.

Renault and Nissan Wrestle With Fallout From Arrest

French carmaker Renault appointed a temporary leadership team on Tuesday to fill the gap left by the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, its chief executive, who is facing questions of alleged financial misconduct, as a management crisis deepened inside the world’s biggest auto alliance. Prosecutors in Japan are investigating claims that Ghosn, who is also chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, underreported his taxable income by half for several years. His arrest Monday stunned the auto sector and sent Nissan’s share price falling. But even as Nissan and Mitsubishi prepared to sever ties with Ghosn, the French government, which is Renault’s biggest shareholder, was proceeding more cautiously.

Wildfires Move California Closer to Insurance Crisis

California’s wildfires keep growing bigger, more frequent and more destructive. Of the 20 worst wildfires in state history, four were just last year, giving rise to a record $12.6 billion of insurance claims. It hasn’t gotten any better this year. This has put pressure on property insurers, some of which have been declining to renew homeowners’ policies in fire-prone areas. When the houses that burned this year are rebuilt, their owners may find that no one is writing insurance there — at least not at affordable prices. “We’re slowly marching toward a world that’s uninsurable,” said Dave Jones, California’s insurance commissioner.

Senators Ask Companies About Pregnancy Bias

Nine senators, led by Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Elizabeth Warren, Mass., wrote letters to the chief executives of Verizon and XPO Logistics demanding that the companies account for the conditions in a Memphis warehouse where several women suffered miscarriages. The inquiry was spurred by a New York Times investigation that revealed that six women had lost their pregnancies after being denied breaks from heavy lifting at the warehouse. The facility is operated by XPO Logistics and handles cellphones, tablets and other gadgets that Verizon ships to customers on the East Coast. Representatives of XPO and Verizon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Glamour, Stalwart of Gloss, Ends Print Run

Condé Nast, the legacy publisher of glossy and aesthetically rich magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, announced on Tuesday that it was ending regular print publication of Glamour. Two moves foreshadowed the change. Last year, Condé Nast reduced Glamour’s frequency to 11 issues a year, from 12. And in January, the company installed a digital journalist, Samantha Barry, as the magazine’s new top editor. Glamour’s digital audience has grown since Barry took the helm. The magazine’s monthly unique viewers have risen 12 percent, to 6.3 million. Subscribers to Glamour’s YouTube channel have increased more than 110 percent, to about 1.6 million.