Business

The S&P 500 ended lower on Wednesday as gains in technology stocks were offset by a drop in healthcare shares, and investors parsed mixed messages over prospects for a deal to end a trade war between the United States and China.

The United States hopes to re-launch trade talks with China after President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping meet in Japan on Saturday, but Washington will not accept any conditions around the U.S. use of tariffs in the dispute, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

A U.S. jury on Wednesday cleared California semiconductor designer CNEX Labs Inc of stealing trade secrets from Chinese electronics giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd while awarding CNEX no damages on its own trade theft counter claims.

Chemicals giant Bayer, under pressure from activist shareholders, said on Wednesday it has hired an external lawyer to advise its supervisory board and has set up a committee to help resolve a multi-billion dollar glyphosate litigation issue.

Hackers working for China's Ministry of State Security broke into networks of eight of the world's biggest technology service providers in an effort to steal commercial secrets from their clients, according to sources familiar with the attacks.

EU antitrust regulators want U.S. chipmaker Broadcom to scrap its exclusivity clauses with TV and modem makers to avoid irreparable harm to the market while they investigate whether this tactic and others are designed to block rivals.