The news at a glance

Media: Hulu owners reverse course on sale

Hulu’s not for sale after all, said Brian Stelter in The New York Times. The streaming video site’s corporate owners—21st Century Fox, the Walt Disney Co., and NBC Universal—said they had called off plans to sell the property and would instead invest $750 million into making it better. The decision puts “an anticlimactic end to months of sale speculation and disappointed bidders,” including DirecTV, Yahoo, and Time Warner Cable. Hulu will use its new cash infusion to acquire, commission, and market more original programming, “in a strategy similar to that of Netflix, which has gained attention for expensive shows like House of Cards.”

It’s an ambitious plan, said Amol Sharma, Shalini Ramachandran, and William Launder in The Wall Street Journal. Hulu’s owners hope to expand the site’s reach “by bulking up on library and third-party content.” Disney CEO Bob Iger insists the decision not to sell Hulu “had nothing to do with the offers on the table.” But this isn’t the first time Hulu’s co-owners have yanked it from the market, and they have reportedly been at odds over its future. “Disney wanted to push the free, ad-supported Hulu service,” while Fox “favored the $7.99-per-month premium subscription service that, while not profitable, is growing more quickly.”

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Housing: Starts fall unexpectedly

The real estate recovery suffered a setback last week, said Lucia Mutikani in Reuters.com. Commerce Department figures showed that housing starts and permits for future home construction fell in June to their lowest point since August 2012. But economists “shrugged off the decline and said wet weather in many parts of the country had dampened activity.” Citing homebuilder confidence, observers remained hopeful that homebuilding “will bounce back in July and through the remainder of this year.”

Economy: Fed chief briefs Congress

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told House lawmakers this week that the economy “still faces headwinds,” said Paul Davidson in USA Today. “Markets have been volatile” since Bernanke hinted in May that the Fed would rein in its bond-buying stimulus as the labor market improves. But in his testimony this week, Bernanke said the central bank is in no hurry to change course, reiterating that the Fed’s short-term interest rate will likely remain near zero “for the foreseeable future.” His remarks triggered modest gains in the markets.

Airlines: Dreamliner fire at Heathrow

Boeing is back in the hot seat, said Andrew Parker in the Financial Times. Aviation regulators are looking into a fire that broke out aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner last week, this time at London’s Heathrow Airport. Concerns first centered on the plane’s lithium-ion batteries, which caused two fires earlier this year, leading to a global grounding. But investigators are reportedly looking at an emergency locator transmitter as a potential cause. Its U.S. manufacturer, Honeywell, said it was participating in the investigation but that it would be “premature to speculate” on the fire’s cause.

Retail: Mattel profits down as Barbie sales fade

Barbie’s popularity is waning, said Mae Anderson in the Associated Press. Toy-maker Mattel announced last week that its second-quarter profits fell 24 percent, “hurt by a continued slide in Barbie sales and a $14 million write-down” on the company’s Polly Pocket line. That continued a downward sales trend for the iconic Barbie doll, as customers opted for the firm’s Monster High, American Girl, and Disney Princess lines instead. Mattel CEO Bryan Stockton said the new franchises “have fueled significant category growth for the industry.”