Concern about China’s growth pushes oil, stocks down

Worries about the outlook for growth in China and a slide in the price of oil pushed the stock market to its biggest loss in almost seven weeks Monday.

Investors are nervous about China following a run of soft economic data that suggests growth in the world’s second-largest economy is slowing. The worries about China helped push down the price of oil. That in turn weighed on energy stocks.

The stock market has struggled to gain traction this month as investors have weighed signs of an improving economy in the U.S. against evidence of slowing growth in both Europe and Asia.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 16.11 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,994.29. The loss was the biggest one-day decline for the index since Aug. 5. The index is down 0.5 percent this month.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 107.06 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,172.68. The Nasdaq composite dropped 52.10 points, or 1.1 percent, to 4,527.69.

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GM ignition switch-related death toll rises to at least 21

The death toll from crashes involving General Motors small cars with faulty ignition switches is at least 21.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by the company to compensate victims, said Monday in an Internet posting that he received 143 death claims as of Friday, and 21 of those have been deemed eligible for payments.

A spokeswoman said the rest of the claims are under review and not all will be eligible. The death toll rose from a week ago, when Feinberg had determined 19 claims would get payments.

Apple shatters records with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales

Apple sold more than 10 million units of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as the gadgets debuted this past weekend, the company said Monday.

The sales figures, which mark a new record for Apple, came as little surprise after a weekend in which legions of people in many countries around the globe lined up for hours to buy the new phones. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company bested the 9 million phones it sold last year when the iPhone 5s and 5c debuted.

“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin.”

– From news services


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