Federal bankers: No account for Colo. cannabis credit union

DENVER – A Colorado-based credit union created to serve the country’s fast-growing legal marijuana industry sued banking regulators on Thursday after being denied access to the nation’s electronic banking system.

The Fourth Corner Credit Union won organizing approval from Colorado regulators in November, and organizers quickly asked theFederal Reserve in Kansas City in grant it a master account number, allowing it to make electronic funds transfers like any other bank or credit union. The Federal Reserve in Kansas City this month rejected that request because the National Credit Union Administration refused to grant deposit insurance to Fourth Corner. The NCUA is an independent federal agency that charters and supervises credit unions.

The Fourth Corner on Thursday sued both the Federal Reserve in Kansas City and the NCUA, asking a federal judge to overturn their decisions.

The conflict highlights a growing concern for state-level regulators who have seen voters repeatedly approve legal recreational and medical marijuana across the country. Fourth Corner managers say the banking system needs to reflect reality.

"The majority of (marijuana related businesses) are forced to operate in cash only, and to suffer the high cost of handling and safeguarding this cash. The public is at risk in having hundreds of millions of dollars of cash flowing about the streets of Colorado," Fourth Corner wrote in its dual lawsuits. "The ‘seed-to-sale’ state and municipal regulation of cannabis works – until the point of sale when a sale generates cash."

Stocks down for the day, but benchmarks post July gains

U.S. stocks, which went on a wild ride this month due to global crises in Greece and China, fell slightly Friday, but Wall Street closed out a volatile July with monthly gains.

Wall Street was confronted with a trio of risks this month, ranging from the near collapse of Greece's banking system and possible exit from the eurozone before sealing an 11th hour deal with creditors to what amounts to a crash in mainland China stocks from June peaks.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.3%  — a 56-point loss  — to 17,689.86 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 0.2% to 2103.84. The Nasdaq composite index fell fractionally to 5128.28.

How benchmarks fared for the month:

■ Nasdaq: Up 2.8%
■ S&P 500: 2%
■ Dow: Up 0.4%

In economic news, a reading on Chicago manufacturing, dubbed Chicago PMI, topped economists' expectations and hit its highest level since January.

The month's biggest loser was the Shanghai composite index, which tumbled 14.3% and which has lost roughly a third of its value since its June 12 high. Chinese stocks closed out July on a losing note, falling 1.1%. Elsewhere in Asia, the action was more positive with stocks in Hong Kong rising 0.6% and the Nikkei 225 index in Japan edging up 0.3%.

The earnings season has been solid. Profit growth is now on track for a 0.9% gain, after projections back on July 1 called for a contraction of 3%. Nearly three out of four (72%) of the 352 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results have topped expectations, better than the 63% long-term average.

Not unexpectedly, oil giants Exxon-Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CSX) reported profit results that fell shy of Wall Street estimates, dragging both stocks down nearly 5% in early trading. Oil, of course, is in a bear market, with the price of a barrel of U.S.-based crude down more than 50% from last summer's highs.

Earlier Friday, an official from the Middle-East cartel OPEC reiterated that it would not cut its daily supply of oil production, despite an oil glut around the globe.

West Texas Intermediate crude was down about 3% to $46.92 per barrel.

Uber valuation jumps to $51B

NEW YORK — Ride-hailing company Uber just completed a round of funding that values them at a whopping $51 billion — or more than four times the value of rental car companies Hertz and Avis combined.

The latest funding came from Microsoft and the investment arm of Indian media conglomerate Bennett Coleman & Co., according to the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources. Uber raised close to $1 billion in the latest round, bringing its total funding to more than $5 billion, the WSJ reported.

Uber has 3.5 billion shares outstanding, according to documents filed with Delaware's Secretary of State, where it is incorporated.

"We filed to authorize this new funding more than two months ago" Uber said in an e-mailed statement. "We aren’t commenting on additional speculation."

Hertz is valued at $7.8 billion. Avis Budget Group, which is also publicly traded, is valued at $4.6 billion.

Uber carries the loftiest start-up valuation in an already frothy tech economy, beating out room rental company Airbnb, which is valued at $25 billion, and Snapchat at roughly $15 billion.

Investors have been lured by the company's fast-paced growth. Uber, which was founded in San Francisco in 2009, is doing business in 58 countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The company recently said it plans to invest $1 billion to expand in India.

Uber is not without risks, however, including challenges from workers over their status as independent contractors.

The company has long kept its expenses down by claiming that it's merely a technology company matching drivers with riders, not a car service company with vehicles to maintain. The saddles drivers with bulk of expenses such as maintenance, insurance, gas and the vehicles themselves.

Some employees have sued to gain employee status, a designation that could substantially increase the company's costs.

Uber has also faced opposition in cities like Paris, because the service matches passengers with drivers who don't have the proper licenses. In New York, some local politicians have expressed concern the impact of Uber's growth on already congested and polluted streets.

Last week a proposed cap on Uber and other for-hire vehicles in New York was put on ice after the start-up agreed to "not flood the streets" until questions about the impact of its growth on traffic can be determined.

New smartphone tech: Can privacy make a comeback?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Before I end an online shopping session, I search for these three items:

-- Intake Manifold for Chevy 350 Small Block.

-- 2800mA Replacement Battery for Samsung Galaxy S5.

-- Nike Air Force 1 Mens Basketball Shoe.

I don’t want any of it. But I search for them so that the next time I open a web page in a meeting or at a coffee shop, the people around me will see follow-up ads offering those three things – and not what I really was shopping for.

I’m not trying to hide anything nefarious. It’s nothing more than a dysfunctional little stunt I devised to take back a little sliver of my ever-waning privacy. Pathetic, really.

Maybe I got a chuckle out of you. But I’ll bet my last dollar that I struck a nerve. Indeed, survey after survey says that we’re essentially freaking out about the growing mounds of data about us, and that it’s conspiring to make our privacy so darn alienable.

There’s a second-layer wrinkle here, and it’s about compartmentalizing our privacy. We all have sides that we show to some circles but conceal from others. For example, I don’t want business associates to know that on the weekends my friends and I … I’m not going to tell you!

It doesn’t even have to be on that scale. Right now, for instance, I don’t want a stray ad showing my girlfriend what I’m eyeing for her birthday. (Though I do want credit for shopping ahead.)

A couple of new Android smartphones may hold the key to regaining control over who knows what about us. Start-up Turing Robotic Industries today begins selling the Turing Phone, which the company says is both unbreakable and unhackable. Silent Circle, another young secure phone supplier, has been focusing on the compartmentalization issue. The company’s Blackphone 2, the follow-on to the start-up’s groundbreaking Blackphone, hides your personal data and apps from your work stuff, and visa versa. The Blackphone 2 will be available in September.

Silent Circle built the initial Blackphone for privacy-minded consumers, but found that enterprise buyers are far more willing to pay. So the company has been adding features to appeal to IT. This week, in fact, Silent Circle announced the Blackphone 2 will support Google’s new Android for Work program, which adds security management tools to the mobile operating system.

Apple, Yahoo shuttle drivers set to vote on union

Unions continue to make inroads into  Silicon Valley.

Shuttle drivers for Apple, eBay, Yahoo, Zynga and several other Silicon Valley firms are set to vote Saturday on a package for improved wages and benefits. The 160 drivers, most of them employed by Compass Transportation of San Jose, shuttle employees to and from those tech firms, as well as Amtrak, Evernote and Genentech.

The drivers sought representation from Teamsters Local 853 after the union in February reached an improved contract for Facebook drivers working for contractor Loop Transportation. The contract that the drivers for Apple and the other firms will vote on has terms that are similar to those in the Facebook-Loop contract and, if approved, would serve as the union's final offer to management.

Terms include hourly pay increases to $21-$25, increasing to $22.50-$28.50 in three years, shift differential pay and a six-hour minimum for drivers who do not want to work split shifts, as well as contributions to a defined pension.

The Teamsters began negotiating with Compass and parent company Transdev nearly five months ago. "In our negotiations to date with the Teamsters, we have resolved the majority of the administrative terms, but we are still negotiating economic issues," said Bryan O’Connell, senior vice president at Compass Transportation, in a statement to USA TODAY. "Compass Transportation will continue to negotiate in good faith with Teamsters Local 853 to reach an agreement that is acceptable to our clients and employees.”

NBCUniversal near deal to invest $250M in BuzzFeed

NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, is interested in investing in BuzzFeed and raising its stake in Vox Media, according a person familiar with the matter.

NBCUniversal is close to finalizing an agreement for a $250 million investment in BuzzFeed, a deal that would value the digital publisher at about $1.5 billion, the person said, speaking anonymously because the talks are pending.

NBCUniversal's negotiations to raise Comcast's 14% equity stake in Vox Media are ongoing, the person said. But the Vox deal is also "close to being consummated" and would value Vox Media at about $850 million, according to Re/code, which first reported  the financial terms being discussed among the parties.

Vox Media owns news site Vox.com, tech news sites Re/codeand TheVerge.com, and sports blog network SBNation. 

NBCUniversal's interest in broadening its digital content and online publishing expertise was reported last week by The Wall Street Journal. The report said it was in talks with Vice Media, BuzzFeed, Business Insider and Vox Media. 

BuzzFeed has been aggressively expanding its editorial operations to go beyond clickbait listicles and wacky pictures in an effort to draw readers for video, news and features. It has launched teams for such serious news as political coverage and investigative reporting, and its 400-member editorial team includes 170 news staffers, including more than 40 in the United Kingdom. Its revenue is projected to be about $250 million this year, Re/code reports, citing internal estimates. 

Protect your information after a data breach

Sooner or later, we will all have our private information exposed, says Greg McBride, financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

That's certainly the new reality for many Americans whose personal information was revealed in data breaches in the past two weeks.

Dating site Ashley Madison, drugstore CVS and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management are among the latest to report that private information was hacked.

But just because your Social Security number or  bank account is exposed doesn't doom you to be a victim of identity theft, says McBride. If you protect yourself, your information won't be worth as much in the wrong hands.

1.  Call your bank

If a company doesn't have your updated address, you may not be notified your data was leaked, says Michael Bruemmer from the data breach response team at credit monitor Experian.

If you suspect your information has been exposed, it's worth calling your local bank branch, says Ted Peters, a banking executive who testified before Congress on cybersecurity. Ask for the security department, then ask for IT or a cyber fraud expert, Peters says. Put everyone in your bank on notice, verbally and in writing.

To be on the safe side, change your account numbers, too.

2. Practice good digital hygiene 

In a perfect world, you'd never bank online — and if you did, it would be on a dedicated, secure computer just for banking (no kids allowed), that spent most of the day turned off. But if that's not possible, there are things you can do to stay safe.

Avoid public Wi-Fi, says Ken Westin, cybersecurity expert for Tripwire. If you have no choice, you can buy access to services like privateinternetaccess.com that route your online activities through an encrypted pathway.

Type the domain for your bank into your browser, rather than clicking links in emails, Westin says.  Be sure you see a green or gold lock next to the "https://." If the lock is broken or you just see "http://," you aren't on a secure connection, and you should wait to access your bank.

Finally, use a password manager like LastPass or 1Password to make sure all your passwords are different, Westin says. Change them at least every 90 days.

Big oil companies' profit hits decade low

Plunging oil prices are putting pressure on big energy companies in a way not seen in at least a decade.

Just-reported second quarter profit reported by the three giant integrated oil companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 —  Chevron (CVX), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) — fell to $4.9 billion, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ.

That's the lowest quarterly profit in at least 10 years — taking out the previous recent low of $6.4 billion in the second quarter of 2009 amid the pain of the financial crisis.

The drop in oil prices and their stubborn resistance to move higher has caused enormous pain for investors in big oil. The price of West Texas Crude has lost more than half its value over the past year — a crushing blow for the big energy companies to absorb. Most of them haven't been able to cut costs fast enough to defray the imploding price of the underlying commodity.

Investors didn't waste any time adjusting the stock prices of the big oil companies to reflect their profit free fall. Shares of Exxon Mobil — the USA's biggest oil company — fell another $3.80, or 4.6% Friday to $79.65 after the company reported a 49% drop in adjusted quarterly profit of $1.06 a share. Shares of Exxon are down 14% this year. Shares of Occidental dropped $1.20, or 1.7%, to $70.20 on Friday.

How healthy is your city's housing market?

Boston has happy home buyers, while Las Vegas lacks reliable residents, according to a new study.

WalletHub, a consumer finance website, looked at how the housing recovery affected consumers across the country. Having the right type of financing could set home buyers up for success — and the risky kind could set families up for failure down the road, said WalletHub spokeswoman Jill Gonzalez.

So WalletHub ranked 25 metropolitan areas on homeowners' "financial freedom," using data from the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey. Researchers looked for signs of a healthy housing recovery: places with high home equity, a short amount time left on mortgages, and where a buyer with an average credit score could get an affordable interest rate and down payment of less than 20%.

The researchers also doled out black marks against cities with potentially risky borrowing, like "easy" mortgages. If a high percentage of buyers were using government assistance,  had a home equity line of credit or a lump-sum home equity loan, or owed more than their house was worth, the city moved down the list.

Metro areas with high equity values, low interest rates and strict lending practices show promise for a stable housing market recovery, Gonzalez said, while cities near the bottom still face challenges.

Consider the percentage of "underwater" mortgages: where the consumer owes more on the home than the home's value. Nationally, about 15% of mortgages fall in to this category, WalletHub said. Fewer than 7% of mortgages in Boston would be considered "underwater," while in Las Vegas, that figure is close to 40%.

Similarly, fewer than 10% of mortgages in Boston were obtained with no proof of income, assets or debt. In Tampa, that number is close to 24%, well above the national average of 17%.

Long, hot summer could persist on Wall Street

More wild roller-coaster rides – and a chance for more summer stock swoons – is the financial forecast for August, as Wall Street continues to eye potential headwinds such as coming interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and a still-wobbly stock market in China.

Prepare for more wild price swings, say Wall Street money managers and investment strategists that USA TODAY contacted to get a sense of whether the long, hot, volatile summer in financial markets will wash ashore on trading desks in the dog days of August.

Wall Street was hit by waves of worry in July, with stocks gyrating sharply amid fears of a Greek financial meltdown and anxiety created by a massive price decline in shares of mainland China stocks that has erased nearly a third of the market's value and raised fears of a global economic slowdown. U.S. growth clocked in at 2.3% in the second quarter, a tad below estimates but better than the weak 0.6% growth in the winter-affected first quarter.

August hasn't been a super-bullish month for stocks, either, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group. In fact, it ranks last in monthly performance for the Dow in the past 20 years, posting an average loss of 1.1% and finishing up in August only 55% of the time, according to Bespoke.

Should investors expect more turbulence, despite an 11th-hour bailout deal for Greece in mid-July and waning fear that a China stock crash will infect the Chinese and global economy?