BC-Business News Preview

Among the stories Tuesday from The Associated Press:

TOP STORIES:

ALIBABA-RISKY CHINESE STOCKS

WASHINGTON — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is about to launch what may prove the biggest initial public stock offering ever. Yet anyone who expects to get rich from buying into China's high-growth story will be betting against history. China's explosive economic rise has delivered virtually nothing to most stock investors. In the three years after Chinese companies list stocks on American markets, their shares lose an average 1 percent a year, compared with an average 7 percent annual gain for other U.S. IPOs. Chinese stocks that trade mostly in China have burned many investors, too, over the past two decades. By Paul Wiseman and Marcy Gordon. SENT: 1,330 word, photo.

TOBACCO COUNTRY

DANVILLE, Va. — Starting next month, America's remaining tobacco growers will be totally exposed to the laws of supply and demand. The very last buyout checks, totaling about $916.5 million, go out in October to about 425,000 tobacco farmers and landowners. They're the last holdovers from a price-support and quota system that had guaranteed minimum prices for most of the 20th century. When the last checks are cashed, surviving growers will be on their own, forced to find profits in a tremendously competitive global market. By Tamara Lush and Michael Felberbaum. SENT: 1,030 words, photos, video.

MARKETS & ECONOMY:

PRODUCER PRICES

WASHINGTON — A measure of prices that producers receive for their goods and services is unchanged in August, the latest sign that inflation is in check. By Christopher S. Rugaber. SENT: 420 words, photo.

FINANCIAL MARKETS

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks inch higher in the first half hour of trading after losses in technology and small-company stocks a day earlier. SENT: 130 words. UPCOMING: 700 words by 5 p.m.

INDUSTRY:

TRUMP PLAZA CLOSING

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino closes its doors, the fourth Atlantic City casino to go belly-up so far this year. When it opened on May 14, 1984, Donald Trump called it the finest building in Atlantic City, and possibly the nation. But since then, The Donald has left town and cut ties to its casinos. And the Plaza, like many Atlantic City casinos, has seen better days. By Wayne Parry. SENT: 630 words, photos.

CAPTAIN CITRUS

TAMPA, Fla. — It might take a superhero to save Florida's citrus industry from greening, the disease that is killing many of the state's orange trees. So Tuesday the world will meet Captain Citrus, a fit and muscular Marvel Comics hero being sponsored by the Florida Department of Citrus. By Tamara Lush. SENT: 580 words. UPCOMING: photos.

— PIPELINE EXPLOSION — Emails showing California regulators and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. appearing to negotiate which judge would be assigned to hear one of the utility's rate cases led the state's top regulator to remove himself from two PG&E cases and four senior officials on both sides to resign. SENT: 810 words.

— ALLERGAN-VALEANT — Allergan and Pershing Square agree on at least one step toward settling a fight over the makeup of the Botox-maker's board. SENT: 220 words, photo.

— HERTZ-ICAHN — Dodging a proxy fight with billionaire Carl Icahn, Hertz adds three of his chosen candidates to the board. SENT: 180 words. SENT: 180 words, photo.

— UPS-HOLIDAY HIRING — UPS plans to hire up to 95,000 seasonal workers to help with package deliveries during the busy holiday season. SENT: 190 words.

— WASHINGTON PRIME GROUP-GLIMCHER — Washington Prime Group Inc., which spun off from mall operator Simon Property Group earlier this year, is buying rival mall operator Glimcher Realty Trust for about $2.06 billion. SENT: 140 words.

— INDONESIA-JAPAN-CAR PLANT — Mitsubishi Motors Corp. says it will build a new car factory in Indonesia as part of a plan to raise its production capacity in the country from 160,000 to 240,000 vehicles per year. SENT: 210 words.

— CHINA-GAS FIND — The Chinese exploration rig at the center of a tense maritime standoff with Vietnam earlier this year makes its first deep sea gas discovery in the politically volatile South China Sea. SENT: 360 words, photos.

TECHNOLOGY & MEDIA:

SELF-DRIVING CARS

LOS ANGELES — Computer-driven cars have been testing their skills on California roads for more than four years — but until now, the Department of Motor Vehicles wasn't sure just how many were rolling around. The agency issued permits for three companies to send 29 vehicles total onto highways and into neighborhoods (with a human "safety driver" behind the wheel, just in case the onboard computer makes a bad decision). With 25 vehicles, Google's souped-up Lexus SUVs are the biggest fleet. Mercedes and VW have two vehicles each. By Justin Pritchard. SENT: 130 words. UPCOMING: About 450 words, photos.

— SPAIN-ORANGE-JAZZTEL — France's Orange offers 3.4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) to buy the operations of Spanish telecommunications company Jazztel. Jazztel PLC says in a statement to Spanish securities regulators that Orange SA offered 13 euros ($16.80) in cash for each Jazztel share. SENT: 130 words.

— RUSSIA-SOCIAL MEDIA — A media company owned by Kremlin-friendly oligarch Alisher Usmanov pays $1.5 billion to gain full control of one of Russia's most popular social media websites, VKontakte. SENT: 330 words.

— GERMANY-UBER — A court in Germany lifts an emergency injunction that banned the ridesharing service Uber from operating anywhere in the country. SENT: 140 words.

INTERNATIONAL:

FRANCE-ECONOMY

PARIS — France's prime minister faces a confidence vote in a parliament increasingly frustrated with unpopular President Francois Hollande's handling of the economy — including dissidents within his Socialist Party. The Socialists have a solid majority in parliament. But they are split between leftists who think restraining government spending will hurt the economy and Hollande's allies, who believe that a country where government spending makes up 57 percent of annual gross domestic product needs reform. SENT: 130 words, UPCOMING: 400 words.

— RUSSIA-ECONOMY — Russia's currency drops to an all-time low against the dollar as investors fret about long-term economic damage from Western sanctions. SENT: 400 words, photo.

— PALESTINIANS-ECONOMY — The Palestinian economy is expected to contract for the first time in seven years in 2014, the result of the recent Gaza war, continued Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on Palestinian trade and a drop in foreign aid, the World Bank says. The bank issued the report ahead of a meeting next week of donor nations to the Palestinians on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. SENT: 720 words, photo.

— GERMANY-ECONOMY — A key measure of German investor optimism fell in September for the ninth month in a row, dragged down by worries over the crisis in Ukraine, economic stagnation in Europe and the upcoming independence referendum in Scotland. The reading sends a negative signal about Europe's biggest economy as it tries to rebound from a quarter of shrinking output. By David Mchugh. SENT: 330 words

— NETHERLANDS-BUDGET — The Dutch government is presenting a budget for 2015 that for the first time in years will be focused less on 'austerity' and more on security in light of international conflicts. SENT: 330 words, photos.

— BRITAIN-ECONOMY — Official figures show that inflation in the U.K. eased further below the Bank of England's target in August following falls in food and fuel prices. SENT: 130 words