BANKING

Trump’s pick to lead the FDIC withdraws

James Clinger, picked by President Trump in June to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, announced Wednesday that he was withdrawing from consideration.

“It is . . . with a sense of regret that I have asked the White House to withdraw my nomination,” Clinger said in a statement. “I did so after concluding that the family-related obligations that prompted me to leave government service earlier this year — which have grown more challenging in the interim — are incompatible with the demands of leading an important federal agency like the FDIC.”

Clinger spent two decades as a Republican staff member of the House Financial Services Committee. His withdrawal is a setback for the administration, as Trump has vowed to ease rules on the banking sector.

FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg plans to serve until his term expires in November.

— Reuters

TECHNOLOGY

Apple plans China data center tied to Beijing

Apple is opening a data center in China with ties to the government, raising concerns about the security of iCloud accounts that store personal data transferred from Apple devices.

The data center announced Wednesday will be run by a firm owned by the Chinese government. Apple is teaming up with the firm to comply with a new Chinese law requiring data-storage providers to keep the information of mainland China customers on computers located within the country. It doesn’t apply to users elsewhere.

Apple said it will still hold the keys protecting the images and documents in iCloud accounts stored in China, but experts say the center will make it easier for the government to get the data.

— Associated Press

TOY INDUSTRY

Hasbro: Americans not interested in Rey token

Where is the Rey game piece in the “Star Wars” version of Monopoly? In a land far, far away, apparently.

Eighteen months after gamemaker Hasbro promised to add the female character to the game by last fall, the Illinois girl who wrote to them to say “girls matter” is still waiting.

Hasbro told the Associated Press that it made the piece but didn’t release the new version in the United States because of “insufficient interest.” People who bought the all-male game can request a Rey from customer service, Hasbro said.

Hasbro said the updated game was available in France, Britain and three other markets.

— Associated Press

Also in Business

A high-ranking union leader in Chicago faces federal charges for allegedly threatening to harm a local business if it didn’t pay him $25,000 every quarter. The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago said Wednesday that the attempted extortion by John T. Coli Sr. started in 2016 when Coli served as president of Teamsters Joint Council 25. It represents more than 100,000 workers in Chicago and northwest Indiana. The grand jury indicted Coli, 57, on one count of attempted extortion and five counts of demanding and accepting a prohibited payment.

Google does not have to pay a $1.27 billion tax adjustment imposed on it by France’s tax authorities, a French court ruled Wednesday. The French tax administration argued that Google had to pay taxes in France for the 2005-2010 period because the U.S. firm and its Irish subsidiary have been selling a service for inserting online ads to clients in France for years through its search engine. But the Paris administrative court noted that Google Ireland doesn’t have a “permanent establishment” in France via Google France, also a Google subsidiary .

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high while stocks kept their momentum Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen signaled at a congressional hearing that the Fed will keep to its plans to gradually raise interest rates and unwind its massive balance sheet. The Dow rose 0.6 percent to close at 21,532.14, a record high. The S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent, to 2443.25, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1 percent, to 6261.17.

— From news reports

Coming today

8:30 a.m.: Labor Department releases the producer price index for June.

8:30 a.m.: Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

10 a.m.: Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates.

2 p.m.: Treasury releases federal budget for May.