Revised data: US grew faster in 2nd half of 2013

WASHINGTON — Fueled by healthier consumer spending, the U.S. economy grew in the second half of last year at the strongest pace in a decade and more than previously estimated, new government data show.

Revised data released Wednesday also suggest a possible factor behind the pickup: Americans saved much more in 2012 than previously thought, leaving more to spend in 2013.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent in last year's third quarter, up from a previous estimate of 4.1 percent. Growth was 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 2.6 percent. The average 4 percent annual pace was the best six-month showing since 2003.

For 2013 as a whole, the economy expanded 2.2 percent, up from the previous estimate of 1.9 percent.

The government's newly revised figures show that growth was accelerating before harsh weather in the first quarter contributed to a sharp contraction. And growth rebounded to a robust 4 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, the government said Wednesday. The figures indicate that the 2.1 percent contraction in the first quarter was an aberration. That number was revised higher from a previous reading of a 2.9 percent contraction.

The better growth readings also suggest that this year's healthy hiring trend will continue. Previously, the job gains in the first six months of this year were much stronger than the economic growth figures. Now they are more closely aligned.

Still, growth was weaker in 2011 and 2012 than the government had previously estimated, the revisions show. Overall, the growth trend since the Great Recession was little changed by the government's updates. The new figures show that growth has averaged 2.3 percent at an annual rate from the end of the recession in June 2009 through last year. That's a scant downgrade from the previous estimate of 2.4 percent.

The economy expanded just 2.3 percent in 2012, down from a previous estimate of 2.8 percent. And growth in 2011 was marked down to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent.

The changes stem from a comprehensive revision the government conducts each year to the nation's gross domestic product data. GDP, the broadest measure of the economy's output of goods and services, includes everything from restaurant meals to television production to steel manufacturing. Most of the changes were made to the previous three years' figures.

The revisions are based on updated data from agencies such as the Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service. Many monthly surveys of consumer spending, manufacturing and retail businesses are updated with more comprehensive annual reports.

Newly available tax data showed that Americans earned more than was previously thought in 2012. Personal income, after taxes and adjusted for inflation, grew 3 percent that year, much higher than the previous estimate of 2 percent.

But the bulk of that gain likely went to wealthier Americans. Most of the upward revision resulted from a sharp increase in interest and dividend payments. Business income was also revised higher. Wealthier Americans own the vast majority of stocks and other financial assets.

The higher interest and dividend payments probably included many one-time payments that were made ahead of tax increases that kicked in at the beginning of 2013.

With income much higher, so was savings. The saving rate was revised to 7.2 percent in 2012, up from the previous estimate of 5.6 percent. Americans also saved more in 2011 and 2013. Though more savings can slow growth in the short run, it can lay a foundation for faster growth in the future.

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As Fed meets, key issues likely to stay unanswered

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will likely end a policy meeting Wednesday with a lot of questions unanswered:

When will it start tightening its benchmark short-term interest rate to make sure future inflation remains under control? How will it do so? And when will the Fed start reducing its enormous investment holdings — a move that will put upward pressure on interest rates?

Chair Janet Yellen gave few hints about the answers to such issues when she testified to Congress this month. And most analysts don't think the central bank will fill in any of the blanks when it ends a two-day meeting with a brief policy statement. There will be no Yellen news conference this time.

One announcement that is expected is that the Fed will make a sixth $10 billion cut in its monthly bond purchases, which have been aimed at keeping long-term rates low.

A key reason is that the economy needs less help now. Hiring is solid, and, at 6.1 percent, the unemployment rate is on the cusp of a historically normal range. Manufacturing is strengthening. Consumers are voicing renewed confidence.

Still, the economy isn't back to full health.

Workers' pay remains flat. Turmoil overseas, from Ukraine to the Middle East, poses a potential threat. And as Yellen noted in her congressional appearance, long-term unemployment remains high and wage growth weak.

For that reason, the Fed is expected to reaffirm its plan to leave its key short-term rate at a record low near zero "for a considerable time" after it ends its bond purchases.

"There are so many uncertainties, both economic and political, that the Fed wants to leave plenty of wiggle room," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands.

The Fed will almost surely announce that it's reducing its monthly bond purchases from $35 billion to $25 billion. When the Fed started cutting the purchases in December, they stood at $85 billion a month.

The Fed intends to end its new purchases by October. By then, its investment portfolio will be nearing $4.5 trillion — five times its size before the financial crisis erupted in September 2008.

After the crisis struck, the Fed embarked on bond purchases to try to drive down long-term rates and help the economy recover from the Great Recession. Even after its new bond purchases end, the Fed has said it will maintain its existing holdings, which means it will continue to put downward pressure on rates.

The Fed has kept its target for short-term rates near zero since December 2008. Most economists think it will start raising rates by mid-2015, though some caution that the Fed could do so sooner if the economy keeps generating jobs at a robust pace. There have been five straight months of 200,000-plus job growth.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said he thinks chronically lagging pay growth, in particular, will stop the Fed from raising rates before mid-2015.

Besides discussing short-term rates, Fed officials this week are likely debating how to unwind their investment holdings. They face a delicate task in shrinking the portfolio to more normal levels without destabilizing markets. The Fed's bond purchases allowed it to inject money into the financial system, which wound up as reserves held by banks and helped keep loan rates low.

To reverse that process and raise borrowing rates, the Fed is considering a variety of tools. One would be to increase the interest it pays banks on excess reserves they keep at the Fed.

David Jones, author of a new book on the central bank's 100 year history, said any new exit details might not be revealed until the Fed releases the minutes of this week's meeting in three weeks. Those minutes, Jones said, "may be the most interesting thing to come out of the meeting."

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Britain to test driverless cars next year

LONDON — British officials says driverless cars will be tested on roads in as many as three cities in a trial program to begin in January

Officials said Wednesday the tests will last up to three years. Sensors and cameras will guide the cars.

The plan will include two types of driverless technology. One places a driver in the car who can take the controls if needed; another calls for a fully autonomous vehicle with no driver present.

Transport Minister Claire Perry said driverless cars could transform Britain's road network and improve safety and traffic flow while reducing carbon emissions.

The cities to test the system will be chosen in a competition.

Other countries including Japan and the United States are already developing driverless technology.

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Russia counts cost of new economic sanctions

MOSCOW — Russia blasted the West's new economic sanctions on Wednesday, accusing the U.S. of being "prosecutorial" in its drive to impose penalties on the country's key energy and finance sectors.

The U.S. and European Union on Tuesday announced a raft of new sanctions that would limit the trade of arms and technology that can be used in the oil industry and for military purposes. The EU also put its capital markets off limits for Russian state-owned banks.

The U.S. and EU say Russia is helping the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine who are accused of downing the Malaysian Airlines jet this month.

Russia's foreign ministry said Washington was "advancing baseless claims." In a statement, it accused the U.S. of conducting itself in a "pretentious, prosecutorial manner."

Experts say the penalties, which had until recently mainly targeted individuals, will have more bite to them this time, rippling through the economy and causing deeper damage.

The biggest immediate impact is likely to come from the financial sanctions. In a first sign of concern, Russia's central bank said Wednesday it would support banks targeted by the penalties.

"State-owned banks are the core of the Russian banking system. Together they count for half of assets, half of credits — they perform a very significant role," said Vladimir Tikhomirov, chief economist at BCS. "Given their current difficulties in raising new debts... that would mean their ability to lend to other banks, smaller banks, is going to be more restricted also."

U.S. officials said Tuesday that roughly 30 percent of Russia's banking sector assets would now be constrained by sanctions. EU officials said Russia's majority state-owned banks last year issued long-term debt worth 7.5 billion euros ($10 billion) on the EU market, as well as 15.8 billion euros in debt on the Russian market.

The measures against Russian banks are meant to inflict just enough pain without causing them to collapse. Only debts with a maturity of over 90 days will be targeted by the measures.

"The aim is not to destroy these banks," said a senior EU official, who was briefing reporters on condition of anonymity prior to the sanctions' official announcement. "We do not want them to get into a liquidity crisis."

But analysts say the sanctions will inflict economic pain, not least because the resulting uncertainty will ensure investors stay clear from the dealings with those banks for fear of running afoul of sanctions.

The EU also moved to prohibit key technology exports that could be used for oil exploration and development in Russia, which relies heavily on Western expertise. EU officials noted that the prohibition would target just one tenth of overall energy tech exports to Russia, and some analysts say that such projects would only be impacted in the next year.

"It's more of a long-term development and to some extent that's symbolic," Chris Weafer, an analyst at the investment firm Macro Advisory, told the AP by phone.

The reaction in the stock markets in Moscow was mixed, as investors had sold off shares in Russian companies for the past two weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed. Reports last week that the new, tougher sanctions were due had also caused markets to tumble for days ahead of their formal announcement Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the MICEX benchmark index was up 2 percent, mainly thanks to a rise in shares in companies that were spared sanctions. Shares in VTB Bank, Russia's second largest and one of the sanctions targets, were down 0.9 percent.

The latest sanctions could accelerate an economic downturn that was already hitting Russia. The International Monetary Fund slashed its growth forecast for this year to nearly zero, from 1.3 percent last year. Meanwhile, the U.S. says investors are expected to pull more than $100 billion out of the country this year.

"Russia's actions in Ukraine and the sanctions that we've already imposed have made a weak Russian economy even weaker," President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

Europe has a far stronger economic relationship with Russia than the U.S. does, and until this week European Union leaders had been reluctant to impose harsh penalties — in part out of fear of harming their own economies.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the sanctions sent a "strong warning" that Russia's destabilization of Ukraine could not be tolerated.

"When the violence created spirals out of control and leads to the killing of almost 300 innocent civilians in their flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia, the situation requires urgent and determined response," the two top EU officials said in a statement.

The new EU sanctions put the 28-nation bloc on par with earlier sector sanctions announced by the U.S. and in some cases may even exceed the American penalties.

Despite the West's escalation of its actions against Russia, Obama said the U.S. and Europe were not entering a Soviet-era standoff with Russia.

"It's not a new Cold War," he said.

How long the sanctions stay in place is a key factor for how much impact they will have on Russia. EU officials emphasized that while the latest measures have a duration of one year, they could be annulled at any time. That offers an incentive to cancel or scale them back.

Russia has the money to shore up its banks in the short term, meaning the sanctions would have to remain in place for more than just a few months to have a big impact on the economy.

"Banks have accumulated a cushion of hard currency reserves," said Yaroslav Lissovik, head of company research in Russia at Deustche Bank. "Russia also has very low levels of public debt and large fiscal reserves. In our view, this could be employed in the case of difficulties with refinancing.

It remains uncertain whether the tougher penalties will have any impact on Russia's actions in Ukraine — nor was it clear what further actions the U.S. and Europe were willing to take if the situation remains unchanged. In the nearly two weeks since the Malaysia Airlines plane was downed in eastern Ukraine, Russia appears to have deepened its engagement in the conflict, with the U.S. and its allies saying Russia was building up troops and weaponry along its border with Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pressed for a diplomatic effort to calm the situation in Ukraine, saying Wednesday that "sanctions alone are not a policy, so we must continue to seek opportunities to defuse the conflict politically."

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Baetz reported from Brussels. Julie Pace in Washington and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed reporting.

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Major markets little changed after economic news

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks crept higher following news that the economy surged ahead in the spring. Trading was quiet as investors waited for a statement from the Federal Reserve later Wednesday. Most world markets were mixed.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 14 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,898 as of 10:42 a.m. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,972. The Nasdaq gained 20 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,463.

THE ECONOMY: The Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 4 percent clip in the three months ending in June, helped by rising spending. A recovery in housing and larger outlays by state and local governments drove the gains.

TWEET: Stronger revenue from Twitter sent the company's stock up 21 percent in early trading. The social-networking company reported a quarterly loss late Tuesday but its revenue more than doubled over the year, thanks to new advertising tools and a surge in traffic from soccer fans following the World Cup. Twitter's stock surged $8 to $46.61.

LAYOFFS AND PROFITS: Amgen said Tuesday that it plans to lay off up to 15 percent of its worldwide workforce and close four sites, even as it reported second-quarter results that trounced Wall Street expectations. The drugmaker also raised its forecasts for its 2014 profit and sales. Amgen's stock climbed $6.59, or 5 percent, to $129.90.

BUSY WEEK: It's a busy week for economic news. Federal Reserve officials wrap up a two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon. There's a report on China's manufacturing industry out Thursday, and the U.S. Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report on Friday.

ONE VIEW: "U.S. data will be the main event," says Chris Weston, market strategist at IG in Melbourne. Sanctions against Russia remain a concern. Expectations of more penalties had dampened stocks over the past two weeks. The U.S. and Europe on Tuesday announced tougher sanctions against Russia in response to an attack on a Malaysian airliner over an area of Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

EARNINGS PARADE: Wall Street is in the middle of second-quarter earnings season, when big companies turn in their springtime results and tell investors how they think the rest of the year will shape up. This week, ExxonMobil and Procter & Gamble are among the heavyweights posting earnings.

NOT BAD: So far, the news has been much better than many expected. More than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have turned in results, and roughly seven out of 10 have reported higher profits than analysts projected, according to S&P Capital IQ.

EUROPE: Major markets in Europe barely moved. Germany's DAX inched up 0.1 percent and France's CAC 40 dipped 0.1 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent.

OTHER MARKETS: The report of stronger U.S. economic growth sent prices falling for Treasurys, driving U.S. government bond yields higher. The yield on the 10-year note jumped to 2.52 percent from 2.46 percent late Tuesday, a big move in the usually placid bond market. Benchmark U.S. crude for September delivery rose 49 cents to $101.53 a barrel.

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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama reported from Tokyo.

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US economy grew at strong 4 percent rate in spring

WASHINGTON — After a dismal winter, the U.S. economy sprang back to life in the April-June quarter, growing at a fast 4 percent annual rate on the strength of higher consumer and business spending.

The rebound reported Wednesday by the Commerce Department followed a sharp 2.1 percent annualized drop in economic activity in the January-March quarter. That figure was revised up from a previous estimate of a 2.9 percent drop. But it was still the biggest contraction since early 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession.

Last quarter's bounce-back was broad-based, with consumers, businesses, the housing industry and state and local governments all combining to fuel growth. The robust expansion will reinforce analysts' view that the economy's momentum is extending into the second half of the year, when they forecast an annual growth rate of around 3 percent.

The government on Wednesday also updated its estimates of growth leading into this year. They show the economy expanded in the second half of 2013 at the fastest pace in a decade and more than previously estimated. The revised data also show that the economy grew faster in 2013 than previously estimated, though more slowly in 2011 and 2012 than earlier thought.

The second quarter's 4 percent growth in the gross domestic product — the economy's total output of goods and services — was the best showing since a 4.5 percent increase in July-September quarter of 2013.

At the same time, a higher trade deficit slowed growth as imports outpaced a solid increase in exports.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that given the solid rebound last quarter, he's boosting his estimate for growth this year to a 2 percent annual rate, up from a previous 1.7 percent forecast. Ashworth said the rebound also supported his view that the Federal Reserve, which is ending a two-day meeting Wednesday, will be inclined to start raising interest rates early next year.

Most economists have been predicting that the Fed would wait until mid-2015 to start raising rates.

"At the margin, this GDP report supports our view that an improving economy will persuade the Fed to begin raising rates in March next year," Ashcroft wrote in a research note.

Ashcroft is among a group of economists who think growing strength in the job market and the overall economy will prod the Fed to move faster to raise rates to make sure inflation doesn't get out of hand.

Stock prices turned generally negative Wednesday in the wake of the GDP report because some investors saw a greater likelihood that the Fed would raise rates sooner than expected.

"We're at the point where we're not sure if good news is good news or bad news," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management.

The GDP report showed that one measure of inflation rose 2 percent last quarter, up from a 1.3 percent rise in the first quarter. The Fed's inflation target is 2 percent, and for two years the GDP measure of inflation has been running below that level. Low inflation has given the Fed leeway to focus on boosting growth to fight high unemployment.

The economy's sudden contraction in the first quarter of this year had resulted from several factors. A severe winter disrupted activity across many industries and kept consumers away from shopping malls and auto dealerships. Consumer spending slowed to an annual growth rate of just 1.2 percent, the weakest showing in nearly three years.

Last quarter, consumer spending, powered by pent-up demand, accelerated to a growth rate of 2.5 percent. That was double the pace of the first quarter.

Spending on durable goods such as autos surged at a 14 percent annual rate, the biggest quarterly gain since 2009. Analysts said that was an encouraging sign of consumers' growing willingness to increase purchases of big-ticket items like cars.

Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity.

In the April-June quarter, business investment in new equipment jumped at a 7 percent rate after having fallen 1 percent in the first quarter. That setback had reflected the expiration of business tax breaks at the end of 2013. Those tax breaks led companies to boost equipment spending at the end of last year.

Businesses, optimistic about future demand, increased their stockpiling last quarter. The increase in inventories contributed two-fifths of the growth in the quarter after having subtracted 1 percentage point from first-quarter activity.

Housing, which had been falling for two straight quarters, rebounded in the spring, growing at a 7.5 percent annual rate.

Government spending also recovered after two consecutive declines. The strength came from state and local governments, which offset the seventh quarterly decline in federal government spending.

The government's revised estimates of growth going back to 2011 show the economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.5 percent in last year's third quarter, up from a previous 4.1 percent estimate. The growth rate was 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, up from an earlier 2.6 percent estimate.

For 2013 as a whole, the government said the economy grew 2.2 percent, up from its earlier 1.9 percent estimate. But growth was weaker in 2011 and 2012 than previously estimated. It grew 2.3 percent in 2012, down from 2.8 percent. And growth in 2011 was downgraded to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent.

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AP Business Writer Matthew Craft in New York contributed to this report.

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Amazon to invest $2 bln to expand in India

MUMBAI, India — The world's largest online retailer is facing off in India against a new name in e-commerce that was founded by former Amazon employees.

Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday it will invest $2 billion to expand its Indian business, a day after local rival Flipkart raised $1 billion to fund its own expansion.

Launched last year, Amazon's India division has been making a big push into the country's small but fast-growing online retail market. It has been running front-page advertisements in newspapers and touting one-day delivery.

Gearing up to fight the online giant, Indian e-commerce company, Flipkart, raised $1 billion in new capital on Tuesday. Both companies claim they are the largest online retailer in India, though neither releases its sales numbers

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos touted India's potential in a statement Wednesday announcing the $2 billion investment.

"At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales," Bezos said. "We've never seen anything like it."

Online retailing accounted for $2.3 billion of India's $400 billion retail market in 2013, but Crisil Research estimated in a February report that sales are growing at more than 50 percent annually and are on track to reach $8.3 billion by 2016.

Amazon is limited by Indian law to providing products through third-party merchants. Despite that, Amazon India has expanded to 17 million products, it said.

Flipkart, founded in 2007, has at times been called the Amazon of India. It was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who worked at Amazon before returning home to India to start their online business.

Among the investors in Flipkart's recent $1 billion fundraising round are Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, along with existing investors Accel Partners, DST Blobal and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the company said. The company said the funds will be used to invest in expansion, especially in mobile technology.

The funding will help the business develop into a "technology powerhouse," Flipkart said in a statement Tuesday.

Flipkart says it has 22 million registered users and handles 5 million shipments per month.

Flipkart also recently acquired Indian online fashion retailer Myntra to strengthen market share.

India's Finance Minister recently announced plans to allow foreign investment in e-commerce, paving the way for Indian companies to gain more support from abroad.

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Survey: US companies add 218,000 jobs in July

WASHINGTON — A private survey shows that businesses hired at a healthy pace in July, though the job gains slowed from the previous month.

Private employers added 218,000 jobs, down from 281,000 in June, payroll provider ADP said Wednesday. It was the fourth straight month of job gains above 200,000, a healthy pace that usually is enough to lower the unemployment rate.

The figures suggest that the government's jobs report, to be released Friday, will also show a solid increase. But the ADP numbers cover only private businesses and often diverge from the government's more comprehensive report.

Economists forecast that the government's report will show that 225,000 jobs were added in July, while the unemployment rate stayed at 6.1 percent, according to a survey by FactSet.

"It feels to me like the job market is humming," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, which helps compile the report.

The job gains were mostly broad-based. Construction added 12,000 positions, most of which likely pay mid-level wages. Retail, shipping and utilities gained 52,000 and professional and business services, which mostly include higher-paying jobs, gained 61,000.

Manufacturing, however, added just 3,000 jobs, according to ADP.

A separate government report Wednesday showed the economy grew at a rapid 4 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter. That followed a sharp 2.1 percent contraction in the first three months of the year. But the second half of 2013 was also revised higher to show growth at a 4 percent annual pace.

The better growth figures should support continued strong hiring, Zandi said.

"This feels a lot more consistent with the jobs numbers and more supportive of the idea that the economy is gaining traction," he said.

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Warner Bros. conjures up Harry Potter global franchise development team

LONDON -- Warner Bros. Entertainment has conjured up the Harry Potter Global Franchise Development team, based in both London and Burbank, to "develop and execute a high-level strategic vision for the Harry Potter brand and its ancillary businesses," Warner Bros. said Wednesday.

The move follows last year's announcement that the studio had formed an expanded creative partnership with J.K. Rowling. It is a response to the continuing expansion of the Harry Potter franchise.

This includes, among other projects: a new film series in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"; the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London -- The Making of Harry Potter; the recent opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan; the expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Florida; a suite of Harry Potter digital services, and products including J.K. Rowling's own initiative, "Pottermore"; and a future Harry Potter stage play, which will open in London's West End next year.

The team, which will work closely with Rowling's people at The Blair Partnership, will be led by Josh Berger, president and managing director, Warner Bros. U.K., Ireland and Spain, who now adds president of HPGFD to his role. He will be supported by Polly Cochrane, based in London, and Paul Condolora, based in Burbank, who joins the company this week.

Berger commented, "With Harry Potter's consumer touch-points continuing to grow and flourish, I am confident that this talented, cross-company global team will enable us to take full advantage of the many opportunities ahead -- helping to bring Harry Potter in all its future incarnations to fans all over the world."

Cochrane, who is senior VP and group marketing director, Warner Bros. U.K. and Ireland, will add the new responsibility of senior VP and chief marketing officer, HPGFD to her existing remit. She will focus on "the optimization of the Harry Potter franchise globally through a cross-divisional marketing lens, upholding the brand's premium values."

In her six years with Warner Bros., Cochrane has overseen the development of an integrated marketing function within Warner Bros. U.K., spanning films, TV shows, video games and licensed products, delivering lifecycle marketing campaigns for the company's properties.

Condolora takes up the newly created role of senior VP, HPGFD and Harry Potter Digital in Burbank, and will lead the business development around Harry Potter, with a focus on digital opportunities "to serve and engage fans around the world."

He joins from Turner Broadcasting System, where he was most recently senior VP, strategic development and business operations in its animation, young adults and kids media division, responsible for the business growth of three networks: Adult Swim, Boomerang and Cartoon Network.

Also moving over to the team will be London-based Suzie Boavida, who takes up the role of business development director, HPGFD. Boavida will work with Condolora on business development, particularly in the areas of new markets and revenue streams, in close collaboration with the rest of the HPGFD team -- Burbank-based Xochitl Ruiz, Moira Squier, Angela Kato-Alvarez, Christine Kittelsen, Cynthia Gonzalez and Rebecca Muh, and Fiona Hickley in London.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Hyundai recalls 883K Sonatas to fix gear shifters

DETROIT — Hyundai is recalling its popular Sonata midsize sedan to fix problems with the gear shift levers.

The recall covers 883,000 cars from the 2011 through 2014 model years.

The Korean automaker says the automatic transmission shift cable can separate from the shift lever. If that happens, the lever may not show the correct gear, increasing the risk of a crash.

Also, if the driver stops the car and puts the transmission in "park," the car may still be in gear and could roll away, injuring drivers, passengers or bystanders, Hyundai said in documents posted Wednesday by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Other symptoms include an inability to start the car because it can't be shifted into park.

Hyundai has received 1,171 warranty claims about the problem, plus seven other reports with related symptoms. Hyundai says there have been no crashes or injuries caused by the problem. The Sonatas being recalled were made from Dec. 11, 2009 through May 29, 2014.

The Sonata is Hyundai's second-best-selling car in the U.S. so far this year. First is the compact Elantra.

Hyundai will notify owners by letter between now and the end of September. Dealers will inspect the shift cables and repair the connection if needed.

Owners with questions can call Hyundai customer service at (800) 633-5151.

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