The daily business briefing: August 23, 2016

1. Speedo and other sponsors drop swimmer Ryan Lochte

Swimwear brand Speedo said Monday that it was ending its sponsorship agreement with swimmer Ryan Lochte over a drunken incident at a gas station during the Rio Olympics. Lochte and teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and Jimmy Feigen were caught by security guards after Lochte tore down an advertising poster outside a bathroom, but Lochte later said they had been robbed at gunpoint by men claiming to be police. Speedo announced it would donate $50,000 from Lochte's endorsement fee to a Brazilian charity for children. Clothier Ralph Lauren and two other companies also dumped Lochte, meaning he has lost all of his major endorsement deals.

Sports Illustrated USA Today

2. Economists pick Hillary Clinton — and Gary Johnson — over Donald Trump

Most business economists — 55 percent — surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics picked Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as the presidential candidate who would do the best job managing the U.S. economy. Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson was the second choice, selected by 15 percent of those polled. The Republican nominee, Donald Trump, came in third at 14 percent. Sixty-five percent said trade policy should be more open, suggesting Trump's criticism of trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement cost him in the NABE survey.

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The Wall Street Journal

3. Wells Fargo to pay $3.6 million fine over student loans

Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3.6 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to settle a charge that it imposed illegal late fees on some student loan borrowers, and failed to provide important information to consumers. The bank also has to allocate $410,000 to refund customers who were hit with the illegal fees between 2010 and 2013. Wells Fargo has about 1.3 million student loan borrowers, making it one of the nation's biggest providers of student loans.

CNN MarketWatch

4. Oil prices dip after last week's rally

Oil extended its losses early Tuesday after falling for the first time in eight days on Monday. Crude oil futures fell by as much as 1.7 percent in New York, a day ahead of the release of U.S. crude inventory data expected to show that stockpiles dropped by a million barrels last week. Oil prices surged last week — hitting 20 percent above lows early in the month — on speculation that OPEC leaders might act to stabilize prices next month, but Goldman Sachs warned that any OPEC output limits might drive up prices enough to encourage others to increase production, reinforcing oversupply problems.

Bloomberg

5. VW settles dispute with suppliers

Volkswagen on Tuesday resolved a contract dispute with two suppliers that was hurting output and threatening the German car maker's recovery from its diesel emissions scandal. VW said it hammered out agreements in marathon overnight negotiations with seat-maker CarTrim and gearbox part-maker ES Automobilguss, although the company did not provide specifics on the deals. The suppliers were seeking compensation for losses totaling in the tens of millions of euros after a canceled contract. The conflicts had hurt production numbers at more than half of VW's German plants.

Reuters