The daily business briefing: September 18, 2017

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1. Rolling Stone to go up for sale
2. Stocks on track to start week with fresh records
3. Northrop Grumman near deal to buy Orbital
4. Cuomo to unveil new rules for credit reporting agencies after Equifax breach
5. GM workers strike at key Chevy SUV plant

published 18 September 2017

1. Rolling Stone to go up for sale

Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner's company is putting its majority stake in the magazine up for sale, The New York Times reported Sunday. Wenner said he and his son Gus Wenner — Wenner Media's president and chief operating officer — decided selling is "just the smart thing to do" in a changing media landscape. The magazine was launched in 1967 and became a counterculture icon, but its fortunes have faded as the publishing industry struggled in the digital age. A botched story three years ago about an unproven gang rape at the University of Virginia damaged the magazine's credibility. Wenner Media recently sold Us Weekly and Men's Journal, and last year sold a 49 percent stake in Rolling Stone to BandLab Technologies of Singapore.

Global stocks gained on Monday in a sign of relief that the weekend passed with no new provocations from North Korea. The isolated communist regime's missile and nuclear weapons tests will be in focus Tuesday when President Trump addresses the United Nations. Investors also are looking ahead to this week's two-day Federal Reserve meeting, hoping for signs on where U.S. central bank leaders will raise interest rates again and start selling off bonds the Fed bought after the 2008 financial crisis to boost the economy. U.S. stocks were poised to start the week with fresh records. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up by 0.3 percent early Monday. S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures rose by 0.2 percent.

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Northrop Grumman Corp. is nearing a deal to buy Orbital ATK Inc., The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported Sunday. Orbital is valued at $6.3 billion, so the deal could be valued around $7.5 billion assuming Northrop Grumman will be paying a premium. The acquisition could be announced as soon as Monday, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the transaction. Neither company, both of which have defense contracts, immediately commented. The deal comes as tensions rise with North Korea. Northrop Grumman received in August a $328 million contract to work on replacing aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. Orbital has contracts with NASA and the U.S. Army.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is expected to propose new regulations on credit reporting agencies on Monday in response to the massive security breach at Equifax. The proposal would require credit reporting agencies, including Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, to register with the state's Department of Financial Services, as banks and insurance companies must do. The department's leaders will have broad powers to strip the agencies of their authorization to operate in the state if they fail to follow state rules protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive, or predatory practices. Equifax announced last week that hackers had accessed the personal information of 143 million consumers. Cuomo called the breach "a wake-up call."

General Motors union workers went on strike late Sunday at an Ontario, Canada, plant where the popular Chevrolet Equinox compact SUV is manufactured. The move came after negotiators failed to agree on a new contract. The union, Unifor Local 88, posted the announcement on its website. "These workers are standing up for good jobs. Not just for themselves, but for the entire community," Unifor National President Jerry Dias said in a news release. GM said it was disappointed that no deal was reached despite "very positive progress on several issues over the past weeks," and encouraged the union to resume talks.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.