The daily business briefing: September 28, 2018

1. SEC sues Tesla CEO Musk over controversial tweet

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk on allegations that he lied to investors when he tweeted that he had secured funding to take the electric-car maker private. The SEC is calling for banning Musk from leading any public company. Musk, who also runs SpaceX and is one of the nation's most high-profile tech entrepreneurs, said he prided himself on his integrity and had never compromised it. "This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed," he said. Tesla's stock dropped by more than 11 percent in after-hours trading after the news was released.

The Washington Post

2. Boeing wins $9.2 billion contract to make new Air Force training jet

The U.S. Air Force has picked Boeing to build its next training jet, the Air Force said on Thursday. The contract over its life will be worth as much as $9.2 billion. Boeing and Sweden's Saab AB collaborated on a plane design for the competition. The Air Force will be buying 351 of the aircraft, and it could buy up to 600 of the jets. The Air Force is looking to replace its fleet of nearly 50-year-old T-38 planes. Boeing and Saab beat out rivals Lockheed Martin Corp. and Leonardo DRS in their bid. Lockheed proposed a modified version of its T-50 training jet developed jointly with Korea Aerospace Industries. Italy's Leonardo DRS was offering the T-100, a modified version of its M-346.

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Reuters

3. Premiums for popular ACA silver plans edge down

Premiums for popular "benchmark" silver health plans under the Affordable Care Act are projected to drop by 2 percent next year in the 39 states served by the federal HealthCare.gov website, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Thursday. Also, the number of marketplace insurers will rise for the first time since 2015, he said. An earlier independent analysis showed that premiums and markets were stabilizing nationwide. Azar credited Trump. "The president who was supposedly trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act has proven better at managing it than the president who wrote the law," he said. Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation challenged Azar's claim, saying premiums probably would have fallen more if the Trump administration hadn't taken actions that disrupted the markets.

The Associated Press

4. Port Authority approves highest U.S. minimum wage

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday approved putting as many as 40,000 airport workers on track to earn at least $19 an hour, the highest minimum wage set by any U.S. public agency. "This is going to be the highest targeted minimum wage anywhere in the country," said Hector J. Figueroa, president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents many of the affected workers. "That's a significant breakthrough." The raises will come over the next five years. The Port Authority board's vote followed months of debate and years of pressure from unionized airport workers. Airlines whose contractors employ many of the workers warned they could be forced to pass on the cost of the raise to passengers.

The New York Times

5. World stocks mixed after Italy unveils spending increase

Global stocks were mixed on Friday as some investors worried that the Italian government's budget plans would set up a clash with the European Union. On Friday, Italy's new populist government announced a sharp spending increase expected to push its budget deficit to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product next year, up from the target 2018 target of 1.6 percent set by the former center-left government. The deficit is still below the 3-percent ceiling set by the E.U., but the trading bloc has been pressuring Italy to cut its debt, the second highest in Europe after Greece. "There are concerns over how the EU will respond to the Italian budget that showed less fiscal rectitude than expected," Chang Wei Liang of Mizuho Bank said.

The Associated Press