The daily business briefing: March 24, 2016

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1. Amazon review finds no gender pay gap
2. Oil prices fall as Fed optimism gives dollar a boost
3. Nike shares fall after disappointing sales
4. Sleep-apnea mask maker agrees to pay $34.8 million settlement
5. Obstacles to home ownership on the rise, report says

published 24 March 2016

1. Amazon review finds no gender pay gap

Amazon released figures on gender pay on Wednesday, saying that a review of its U.S. staff found that women make 99.9 percent of what men in equivalent jobs make. The online retail giant fought calls to make the figures public for months. "I assume they looked at the numbers and they were happy with the results and now they're willing to be transparent about it and accountable," said Natasha Lamb, spokesperson for Arjuna Capital in Boston, which led calls for the disclosure.

Oil prices dropped back below $40 a barrel on Thursday due to record stockpiles in the U.S. Oil and other commodity shares were also being tugged down by the strengthening of the dollar, which makes it more expensive to use other currencies to buy commodities priced in dollars. The dollar's gains came as Federal Reserve policy makers suggested that they could raise interest rates again as early as next month if the U.S. economy continues improving.

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Nike shares dropped by as much as 4 percent on Wednesday after the company — the world's biggest athletic footwear maker — reported quarterly sales that fell short of expectations. The iconic brand still has plenty of fans, however. Evercore ISI analyst Omar Saad said Nike should continue gaining in the "very healthy" athletic category "given its relentless reinvestment of profits back into product innovation and brand building." Nike's stock is up more than 113 percent over three years.

Respironics agreed Wednesday to pay $34.8 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice claims that it gave kickbacks to suppliers that sell its masks for patients with sleep apnea. The inducements came in the form of free call-center customer support for suppliers that sold only Respironics masks. Customers that sold other masks had to pay for the service. Kickbacks "in any form to induce patient referrals threatens public confidence in the health care system," said the Justice Department's Benjamin Mizer.

Home prices are rising faster than wages, making buying a house increasingly difficult for the average family in many U.S. cities, according to a RealtyTrac report released Thursday. Home-price increases have outpaced wage growth in nearly two-thirds of the U.S. housing market this year. Most home markets are still more affordable than their historic norms, but "home prices are floating out of reach for average wage earners in a growing number of U.S. housing markets," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

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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.