European stocks rebound after Wall Street inspired sell-off

LONDON — European markets rebounded strongly Wednesday from a big sell-off when investors fretted over a looming U.S. interest rate hike.

KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, Germany's DAX was up 1.7 percent at 11,697 while the CAC-40 in France rose 1.8 percent to 4,971. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares underperformed its peers, trading only 0.1 percent higher at 6,708. Wall Street was poised for a solid opening, with both Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures up 0.2 percent.

ANALYST TAKE: "Bargain hunters appear to be out in force, as once again corrections in equity markets are being viewed as buying opportunities," said Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG. "Yesterday's triple-digit falls seen in European equity markets appear to have been quickly forgotten, with many viewing this as a buying opportunity rather than a precursor to tougher times."

FED FEARS: On Tuesday, stocks in Europe and the U.S. took a battering as investors worried about the prospect of the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in nine years. Those odds got a boost after recent data revealed a strengthening job market. Low interest rates and other monetary stimulus have supported stocks for several years but a rate hike from the Fed will foreshadow a return to more levels for credit costs.

EURO SLIDE: The euro has been one of the financial assets most affected by the prospect of higher U.S. rates. That's because the European Central Bank is embarking on a distinctly different path. On Monday, months after the Fed brought its last stimulus to an end the ECB started buying certain government bonds in the markets. The hope is the 18-month 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.12 trillion) monetary stimulus will shore up the economic recovery in the 19-country eurozone and get inflation back into the system. On Wednesday, it fell to $1.0560, its lowest level since April, 2003. "The next target sits at 1.0500 the March 2003 lows and it remains a very short hop from there to parity," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

CHINA FOCUS: Investors examined the latest batch of monthly economic data on China for clues on the state of the world's No. 2 economy. Industrial output for January and February rose 6.8 percent, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The number was less than analysts expected. Retail sales and fixed-asset investment also disappointed. China's economy is expected to slow further after growing 7.4 percent last year, the lowest growth rate in nearly a quarter-century. The government issues the figures for both months together to smooth out distortions from Lunar New Year, which can fall in either month.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.3 percent to close at 18,723.52, getting some relief from the regional down trend as the dollar strengthened against the yen. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2 percent to 1,980.83 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.8 percent to 23,717.97. The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China swung between gains and losses before edging up 0.2 to close at 3,290.90.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose, climbing 18 cents to $48.47 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose 44 cents to $57.32 in London.

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FTC takes DirecTV to court, alleges deceptive advertising

WASHINGTON — The government is taking the nation's biggest satellite TV provider to court, accusing DirecTV of misleading millions of consumers about the cost of its programming.

The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that its complaint charges DirecTV Inc. with deceptively advertising a discounted 12-month programming package. Consumers weren't clearly told that the package requires a two-year contract, the commission said.

The FTC said the advertising also did not make clear that the cost of the package would increase by up to $45 more per month in the second year and that hefty early cancellation fees — up to $480 — would apply.

Phone calls to DirecTV seeking comment were not immediately returned.

In a statement, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said DirecTV "sought to lock customers into longer and more expensive contracts and premium packages that were not adequately disclosed. It's a bedrock principle that the key terms of an offer to a consumer must be clear and conspicuous, not hidden in fine print."

California-based DirecTV, which has more than 20 million subscribers, has been in trouble with the FTC before. The company paid a $5.3 million settlement in 2005, and then a $2.3 million settlement in 2009 — both over telemarketing calls to consumers.

The commission's complaint over how DirecTV marketed its programming package to attract new customers was filed in federal court in San Francisco. The FTC is seeking a court order to permanently bar DirecTV from advertising in a misleading way. It also is seeking monetary damages that could be used to provide refunds to consumers who were affected.

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Flying cars, robot petting zoo: It's South by Southwest time

Flying cars and a robot petting zoo. Mobile wallets and net neutrality. The most outlandish ideas of the future and tech trends shaping the world today will be in focus as the freewheeling South by Southwest Interactive Festival kicks off Friday.

The annual Austin, Texas gathering has a looser reputation than bigger tech conferences like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, even as it has become more corporate in recent years. It's a place where a Grumpy Cat appearance can generate as much excitement as the latest tech gizmo. It brought Twitter prominence in 2007 and location-sharing app Foursquare in 2009, but has since moved beyond the latest "killer app." Last year, cybersecurity took center stage as NSA leaker Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange headlined the lineup of panels and speakers.

This year top speakers will tackle how to bring ideas that might seem like science fiction to the real world. Google's Astro Teller, who heads the tech giant's X division, will discuss making some of Google's most ambitious projects, like self-driving cars or balloon-powered Internet, a reality. United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt will talk about tech innovations intersecting with artificial intelligence, immorality and the future of self. The Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, will be on hand to discuss what Bitcoin needs to do to succeed as a mainstream currency. And former vice president Al Gore will make his third appearance at the annual festival to plug for new global climate legislation that is up for a vote in December.

But aside from the big-name keynotes, festival director Hugh Forrest says the heart of the conference is the smaller panels and competitions.

"We're excited about the very strong speakers we have, but the heart of the event is really the up-and -coming people we haven't heard of yet, people we'll hear of in the next few years," Forrest says. "South by Southwest is always about up-and-coming talent, be it a band or filmmaker or technology developer, and that holds true in 2015."

About 33,000-plus attendees from 82 countries are expected to flood into Austin to attend panels, network and party. Jack Krawczyk, director of product management for music streaming site Pandora, said the festival is an ideal place to connect with Pandora clients and others in the tech sphere, particularly because of its focus on both music and technology. The company has had a presence at SXSW since it launched in 2005 and hosts a "Discovery Den" with performances by 35 artists during the festival.

"It's a great place to get a lot of like-minded folks in the industry together to think about how interactive media is evolving and shifting," Krawczyk says.

Here are a few trends to watch.

WIRED CELEBRITIES

Actress Jessica Alba on Monday will discuss how she has grown The Honest Co., which makes and sells environmentally friendly household and baby products online, into a $1 billion company. Actor Russell Brand, whose documentary "Brand: A Second Coming" opens the film section of SXSW, will talk Tuesday about his new daily YouTube show Trews and the power of online media. Also Tuesday, retired news anchor Dan Rather address breaking news in the era of Snapchat.

TECH MEETS THE REAL WORLD

The nonprofit Field Innovation Team is hosting a "Robot Petting Zoo" Sunday through Tuesday to showcase new robots that have helped or are being developed to aid in disaster and humanitarian crisis spots, such as a drone that can 3D print in midair. Attendees will be able to interact with the robots and learn about what they do. Meanwhile, government agency USAID is debuting a prototype of a new Ebola-fighting suit for healthcare workers that is faster and more efficient than the current suit.

The Internet of things will be a hot topic as well. The Connected Car Council is hosting a pavilion on Saturday where automakers including Ford, Chrysler and Hyundai will showcase new technology. And Slovakian company Aeromobil, will detail its mission to create a flying car.

ON SCREEN

The film festival at SXSW has several tech-related movies debuting, including Alex Gibney's documentary "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine" which examines the Apple co-founder's legacy, and the documentary "Deep Web," which chronicles the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the founder of online black market Silk Road.

CARPOOL WARS

With limited public transportation and spread out hotels and venues, pedicabs have often been the easiest way to get around in prior years. Ride-hailing companies hope to change that. The festival's official ride-hailing company is Lyft, which will have designated pickup and dropoff zones around Austin's convention center. Lyft will also be offering Lyft Line, its carpooling service, in Austin. But it will have competition. Uber will be offering its uberPool car-sharing service in the city as well, plus a promotion where some drivers may have VIP tickets to some SXSW events.

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Scammers target over-50 set

Impostor scams topped the list of consumer complaints in Massachusetts last year, and people 50 or older were among the most common victims, according to a new report.

Con artists posing as other people led the list, accounting for 5,250, or 14 percent, of the 37,422 complaints filed by consumers in the state. Scam complaints followed consumer gripes about telephone service; banks and lenders; vehicles; prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries; shop-at-home and catalog sales; Internet services; television and electronic media; and credit cards, according to the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book.

"Impostor scams — such as callers posing as IRS auditors, claiming you owe money — are the most prevalent," said Mike Festa, state director of AARP Massachusetts. "These are people who have no conscience and prey on vulnerable people, often with modest incomes, who may be isolated and like that conversation, and it leads to harsh results."

People in their 50s filed the most complaints — about one in five — followed by people in their 40s and 60s, and people 70 or older.

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Suit: Scratch sales to minors

A public health advocacy group has sued Star Market, claiming the supermarket chain makes it easy for minors to buy scratch tickets, after a Cambridge youth was able to buy two tickets.

"Encouraging or facilitating youth gambling is oppressive and unconscionable, and in contrast to the legislature's and society's desire to debar them from gambling while they are of minor age," the complaint says. "Star Markets lacks effective controls to prevent the sale of lottery tickets from Lottery Ticket Vending Machines to minors."

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Craig Kelley of Cambridge and his son, Cooper, the Public Health Advocacy Institute claims the lottery machines are placed close to kid-friendly food and drink, including candy and soda. The suit claims Cooper Kelley was able to buy a Mega Millions ticket and a "$500 Frenzy" scratch ticket in two Star Market locations without supermarket workers intervening. The ultimate aim of the lawsuit is to change lottery machine practices beyond Star Market.

"The goal is ideally to get these vending ticket machines out of supermarkets, because they can't really be monitored there," said Andrew Rainer, a lawyer for the Public Health Advocacy Institute. "There is a surprising number of kids gambling, and gambling is not as bad as drug usage, but it is a problem, it is a societal problem."

The Public Health Advocacy Institute is seeking an order to require Star Market to verify the age of everyone purchasing a lottery ticket through the machine, as well as damages, citing Massachusetts' Consumer Protection Act.

The Lottery said its compliance unit does regular testing to ensure tickets are not sold to minors, and that automated machines can only be installed in locations within eyesight of a manager. A spokesman for Star Market declined to comment.

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AP sues State Department, seeking access to Clinton records

WASHINGTON — The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.

The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled. They include one request AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, comes a day after Clinton broke her silence about her use of a private email account while secretary of state. The FOIA requests and lawsuit seek materials related to her public and private calendars, correspondence involving longtime aides likely to play key roles in her expected campaign for president, and Clinton-related emails about the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices.

"After careful deliberation and exhausting our other options, The Associated Press is taking the necessary legal steps to gain access to these important documents, which will shed light on actions by the State Department and former Secretary Clinton, a presumptive 2016 presidential candidate, during some of the most significant issues of our time," said Karen Kaiser, AP's general counsel.

"The press is a proxy for the people, and AP will continue its pursuit of vital information that's in the public interest through this action and future open records requests," she said.

State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach declined to comment. He had previously cited the department's heavy annual load of FOIA requests — 19,000 last year — in saying that the department "does its best to meet its FOIA responsibilities." He said the department takes requests "first in, first out," but noted that timing depends on "the complexity of the request."

Michael Oreskes, a senior managing editor at AP, said the news agency was planning to file additional requests under FOIA following the disclosure last week that Clinton used a private email account run on a server on her property outside New York while working at the State Department.

Clinton on Tuesday said she sent and received about 60,000 emails from her personal email address in her four years as President Barack Obama's secretary of state. She said roughly half were work-related, which she turned over to the State Department, while deleting tens of thousands more that were personal in nature.

The department says it will take several months to review the material Clinton turned over last year. Once the review is complete, the department said, the emails will be posted online.

The AP had sought Clinton-related correspondence before her use of a personal email account was publicly known, although Wednesday's court filing alleges that the State Department is responsible for including emails from that account in any public records request.

"State's failure to ensure that Secretary Clinton's governmental emails were retained and preserved by the agency, and its failure timely to seek out and search those emails in response to AP's requests, indicate at the very least that State has not engaged in the diligent, good-faith search that FOIA requires," says AP's legal filing.

Specifically, AP is seeking copies of Clinton's full schedules and calendars from her four years as secretary of state; documents related to her department's decision to grant a special position to longtime aide Huma Abedin; related correspondence from longtime advisers Philippe Reines and Cheryl Mills, who, like Abedin, are likely to play central roles in a Clinton presidential campaign; documents related to Clinton's and the agency's roles in the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices; and documents related to her role overseeing a major Defense Department contractor.

The AP made most of its requests in the summer of 2013, although one was filed in March 2010. AP is also seeking attorney's fees related to the lawsuit.

Other organizations have also sued the State Department recently after lengthy delays responding to public record requests.

In December, the conservative political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips. Last week, the National Security Archive, an organization that gathers declassified government records, filed a lawsuit after waiting more than seven years for the State Department to release of details of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger's telephone conversations.

Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, predicted the State Department would speed up its review facing legal action, particularly given that Clinton has said that her email correspondence doesn't include classified material.

"When the government is under a court deadline, or really wants to review, they can whip through thousands of pages in a matter of weeks, which they should do here," Blanton said.

The State Department generally takes about 450 days to turn over records it considers to be part of complex requests under the Freedom of Information Act. That is seven times longer than the Justice Department and CIA, and 30 times longer than the Treasury Department.

An inspector general's report in 2012 criticized the State Department's practices as "inefficient and ineffective," citing a heavy workload, small staff and interagency problems.

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Follow Steve Peoples on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples

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Selfie stick bans go into effect at French, UK attractions

PARIS — "Selfie sticks" have now been banned at a French palace and a British museum, joining a growing list of global tourist attractions to take such measures.

The devices are used to improve snapshots, but critics say they are obnoxious and potentially dangerous. Officials at Palace of Versailles outside Paris, and Britain's National Gallery in London, announced the bans Wednesday, saying they need to protect artworks and other visitors.

Other places that have put limits on the selfie-stick craze:

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FRANCE

Unlike Versailles, the Louvre and Centre Georges Pompidou art museums have not banned selfie sticks — yet. The Pompidou — the contemporary art museum whose exterior of colorful tubes and scaffolding looks like a building turned inside out — is studying what, if anything, needs to be done about the phenomenon, Le Monde reported.

Musee d'Orsay, which houses an Impressionist art collection, bans not just selfie sticks, but any photography whatsoever.

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ITALY

Rome's Colosseum banned selfie sticks last month as a security measure, both for the objects on exhibit inside and for the 16,000 daily visitors to the 2,000-year-old monument.

"The twirling around of hundreds of sticks can become unwittingly dangerous," Colosseum spokesman Christiano Brughitta said.

Two American tourists were arrested last week after carving their names into the Colosseum's wall — and then taking a photo with a selfie stick.

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UNITED STATES

The Smithsonian museums in Washington banned selfie sticks last week. Cameras and pictures are still allowed, but selfie sticks, tripods and monopods are not. Smithsonian officials say this is a preventative measure to protect visitors and museum objects.

Other U.S. museums that ban selfie sticks include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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AUSTRIA

Vienna's Albertina, one of the city's top art museums, prohibits selfie sticks. Museum spokeswoman Sarah Wulbrandt says visitors must check-in the sticks before entering.

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BRITAIN

Besides the National Gallery, some English soccer teams have banned the selfie stick from their stadiums.

The National Portrait Gallery, adjacent to the National Gallery, says the sticks are allowed, but "anything that may prove disruptive is reviewed on an ongoing basis." The British Museum is "currently reviewing" its selfie-stick policy.

Some art-lovers praised the idea of a ban.

"If you go into an exhibition, surely the purpose is to see what is on show and not to take umpteen photographs of yourself?" said Bill Doig, a retired doctor visiting the National Portrait Gallery.

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BRAZIL

Soccer stadiums in the South American country have also banned selfie sticks because of their potential use as weapons in fights between rival fans, police say. Selfie sticks were also banned from Brazil's recent Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro.

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Jill Lawless in London, Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro, George Jahn in Vienna, Beth Harpaz in New York, and Trisha Thomas in Rome contributed to this report.

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Follow Greg Keller on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greg_Keller

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Apple iTunes, App stores unavailable

NEW YORK — Apple's iTunes and app stores are suffering outages for all users on Wednesday.

A system status notification page showed the iTunes store, iBooks Store Mac App store and App store services were offline as of 11 a.m. E.T. The problems appear to have begun early Wednesday morning.

The cause of the problems is unclear. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

They come after Apple announced Monday new details about its Apple Watch and MacBook products.

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Catalog retailer L.L. Bean to triple stores by 2020

FREEPORT, Maine — L.L. Bean, known for selling its trademark boots via catalog for more than a century, plans to make a bigger push into brick-and-mortar retail by more than tripling the number of locations over the next five years, officials said Wednesday.

The Maine-based company, which is coming off five years of increasing revenue, will open four stores this year before accelerating growth with a goal of "at least 100" by 2020, President and CEO Chris McCormick told workers in a memo Wednesday.

It's an ambitious push for a company that currently has 26 full-price retail stores — along with a handful of outlets — that stretch from the Northeast to Minnesota and Colorado.

The strategy makes sense in an era where shoppers have come to expect the convenience of making purchases in stores, on phones and on computers, said retail analyst Walter Loeb. Some shoppers make purchases online and have them shipped to stores, while others go to stores to see products before ordering online, he said.

"By having more stores they become more of a brick-and-mortar force," Loeb said from New York. "Brick-and-mortar stores will enable more customers to shop comfortably. It's a good idea."

The board of the family-owned company, which met Wednesday in Freeport, announced a bonus of 5 percent for its 5,300 year-round employees. That amounts to about $1,500 to $2,000 for the typical full-time hourly worker, the company said.

Sales grew 3 percent to $1.6 billion in the last fiscal year.

The company created when Leon Leonwood Bean sold his original "Maine hunting shoe" in 1912 has been on a tear, and sales of the rubber-bottomed, leather-topped boot have been leading the way.

Demand for the boot has surged, with production of 450,000 pairs over the past year. This spring, the company is installing a second injection-molding machine to boost capacity and is hiring dozens more workers to bring the shoe-making workforce to 500.

The company is midway through a $150 million capital plan to upgrade its systems, and an additional $100 million will be spent this year on growth initiatives, McCormick said.

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Follow David Sharp on Twitter at https://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP

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3 workers killed in West Texas oil field rig explosion

RANKIN, Texas — An oil field rig has exploded in West Texas, killing three workers.

Investigator Dusty Kilgore of the Upton County Sheriff's Office said the accident happened Tuesday morning near Rankin, about 40 miles south of Midland.

Kilgore says a pulling unit crew was at the site when the explosion happened. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration website describes a pulling unit as a well-servicing outfit.

Kilgore says one other worker at the site was not hurt in the explosion. He didn't release the names of those killed.

The well is owned by Parsley Energy of Midland. Company spokeswoman Lisa Elliott says the workers who died were employed by Mason Well Service Ltd. of Odessa, an independent contractor.

A message left with Mason wasn't immediately returned Wednesday.

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