Tumbling lira fuels falling stocks

Stocks fell further on Wall Street Monday as Turkey’s central bank was unable to stop a steep plunge in that nation’s currency. That’s helping to push the dollar higher, which hurts big U.S. exporters.

Stocks were coming off their worst losses in a month as investors worried about financial and economic upheaval in Turkey and the possibility it will spread to other countries. Asian markets fell overnight, while European markets were slightly lower.

On Monday Turkey’s central bank announced measures to help that country’s banks, but the Turkish lira and Turkey’s stock market continued to slide. The lira has been tumbling as investors question whether the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can cope with problems including the weakening currency and a diplomatic spat with Washington that has resulted in higher U.S. tariffs.

Tesla tweet raises eyebrows

An abrupt tweet last week by Elon Musk about the prospect of taking Tesla private was dashed off with little forethought, and had not been cleared ahead of time with the company’s board, two people familiar with the chain of events said Monday. The account raised new questions about the cryptic Twitter post in which Musk said he had “funding secured” for a buyout of the $60 billion electric-car maker. The tweet prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to contact Tesla to inquire about the tweet’s accuracy and the reason the disclosure had not been made in a regulatory filing, according to a person briefed on the inquiry.

VF plans to spin out denim brands

Denim is out. Athleisure is in. For VF Corp., the apparel company that owns Wrangler and Lee jeans, that made for a simple decision. VF announced on Monday that it planned to spin out its denim brands into a separate publicly traded business, so it can better focus on its faster-growing activewear and lifestyle clothing lines like The North Face and Vans. Shareholders appeared skeptical of the move. Shares in VF were down more than 3 percent as of Monday afternoon to $92.82.

TSA checks may speed up

There is a glimmer of hope that the frustrating, slow airport security experience will get a little smoother over the next few years. The Transportation Security Administration is trying out new machines that use computed tomography, a technology that produces three-dimensional images so detailed they can even show the mass and densities of items in carry-on bags, including liquids inside their containers. With the new machines, the TSA says, security agents will be better able to analyze what is inside a bag and will be less likely to have to perform searches by hand.

— From wire reports