Today in business: 5 things you need to know

Proctor & Gamble cleans house, Abercrombie & Fitch shares sink, and more

Abercrombie & Fitch
(Image credit: Facebook.com/<a href="https://www.facebook.com/abercrombie" target="_blank">Abercrombie</a>)

1. DURABLE GOODS ORDERS RISE

The Commerce Department reported Friday that durable goods orders increased more than expected in April. The report reinforced predictions that U.S. manufacturers would bounce back in the second half of 2013. Orders of factory equipment jumped by 3.3 percent. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected just a 1.5 percent increase, coming off of a 5.9 percent drop in March. [Bloomberg]

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2. STOCKS FALL AS INVESTORS WORRY FED STIMULUS WILL END

U.S. stocks fell Friday as investors worried that the Federal Reserve was gearing up to end its efforts to pump money into the economy by buying up federal bonds. The losses came after two straight days of declines pushed major indexes toward their first negative week since mid-April. Fed meeting minutes released Wednesday suggested the stimulus program could end sooner than expected, which one stock expert said "reintroduced a sense of caution that has long been absent" in booming markets. [Reuters]

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3. LAFLEY RETURNS AS P&G CEO

Procter & Gamble shares jumped by 4 percent Friday after the household goods maker announced that it was bringing back former CEO A.G. Lafley, who ran the company from 2000 to 2009. Outgoing chief Bob McDonald was dumped after four years as CEO and 33 years with the company after a period of weak performance. McDonald will "retire" at the end of June with no severance. Lafley will get $2 million a year plus bonuses worth up to 250 percent of his salary. [Financial Times]

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4. SEARS, ABERCROMBIE SHARES SINK

Sears shares plunged by 16 percent Friday after the struggling retailer reported a larger than expected quarterly loss late Thursday. The company's rocky turnaround effort was thrown into doubt in recent months after Louis D'Ambrosio stepped down as CEO and was replaced by chairman and controlling shareholder Eddie Lampert, who lacks retail experience. Abercrombie & Fitch's shares also dropped sharply, after the controversial apparel maker reported a 15 percent drop in same-store sales. [Reuters, FOXBusiness]

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5. VINTAGE APPLE-1 COMPUTER UP FOR SALE

A piece of tech history — one of the first Apple computers — is going on the auction block in Germany this weekend. The minimum price for the working Apple-1 is $111,000, but it could go for way more. Last November, the same German auction house sold another Apple-1 for $640,000. Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs made 175 to 200 Apple-1s, which had just four kilobytes of memory, in the Jobs family garage, then bought most of the crude machines back when they introduced the Apple II the next year. [New York Times]

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Harold Maass

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 launch of the U.S. print edition. Harold has worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, Fox News, and ABC News. For several years, he wrote a daily round-up of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two sons.