PHARMACEUTICALS
Sarepta CEO to step down
Sarepta Therapeutics chief executive Edward Kaye plans to step down from his job running the Cambridge drug development company later this year. Sarepta filed a brief statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying Kaye has informed the board of his intent to resign at the end of “his current employment term” on Sept. 20, or “some other future date.” Kaye will remain on the company’s board. Kaye was Sarepta’s chief medical officer before being promoted to interim CEO in March 2015; he dropped the “interim” from his title last September. — JON CHESTO
MORTGAGES
Rates rise for first time in five weeks
Long-term US mortgage rates rose this week for the first time in five weeks. The benchmark 30-year rate pushed back above the key threshold of 4 percent. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate home loans increased to 4.03 percent from 3.97 percent last week. The rate stood at 3.66 percent a year ago and averaged 3.65 percent in 2016, the lowest level in records dating to 1971. The rate on 15-year mortgages rose to 3.27 percent from 3.23 percent last week. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOME BUYING
Fewer people sign contracts to buy homes last month
Fewer consumers signed contracts to buy US homes last month as the spring buying season revs up with stiff competition for homes amid lagging inventory. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that its pending home sales index slipped 0.8 percent to 111.4 in March, from 112.3 in February. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that even with the dearth of inventory, activity was still strong enough to be the third best in the past year. He said the low supply of homes could mean higher prices in the months ahead. Regionally, only the South saw an increase in signed contracts last month, up 2.9 percent. Signed contracts in the Northeast and West both declined 2.9 percent. The Midwest saw a 1.2 percent decline. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNEMPLOYMENT
More claims for jobless benefits filed last week
More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but applications remained at a low level that suggests most workers enjoy job security. The Labor Department says weekly jobless claims rose by 14,000 to 257,000, the highest level in almost a month. The less volatile four-week average slipped by 500 to 242,250, lowest since late February. Overall, 1.99 million Americans are collecting unemployment benefits, down more than 7 percent from a year ago. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
ONLINE COMMERCE
Amazon’s double-digit revenue growth continues
Amazon.com Inc.’s unbroken 20-year streak of double-digit revenue growth shows no sign of slowing this year, helped by an influx of online shoppers who are abandoning stores and new business for its cloud-computing division. The company projected sales that may beat estimates in the current quarter, reinforcing its message to investors that big spending on warehouses that hold inventory, movies that engage customers and devices that dazzle are all part of a winning formula. First-quarter sales increased 23 percent to $35.7 billion. Net income was $724 million, or $1.48 a share, the company said in a statement. Analysts estimated profit of $1.08 a share on revenue of $35.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares gained as much as 5 percent in extended trading after closing at a record $918.76 in New York. The stock has jumped 23 percent this year.
— BLOOMBERG NEWS
COFFEE
Customer traffic stalls at Starbucks
Starbucks says its customer traffic has been stalled as it works on fixing the congestion created by its mobile order-and-pay option at some stores. The coffee chain said US sales rose 3 percent at established locations for the three months ended April 2, but that the increase was the result of higher average spending. Customer transactions were down. Starbucks attributed the decline in transactions to a change in its loyalty program that led to people no longer splitting their orders to tally additional rewards points. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
GOVERNMENT
Senate committee approves Gottlieb to lead FDA
The Senate health committee voted 14-9 Thursday to approve physician Scott Gottlieb to be the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, sending the nomination to the full Senate. All 12 Republicans on the committee voted in favor of Gottlieb, a former venture capitalist who served as an FDA deputy commissioner during the George W. Bush administration. Two Democrats, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, also voted yes. But Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said she voted no because Gottlieb’s ‘‘entanglements with the industries he will be charged with overseeing are unprecedented.’’ Murray said his responses to senators’ questions about his past pharmaceutical connections were sometimes vague and ‘‘did little to address my concerns about whether Dr. Gottlieb is truly committed to putting families’ health first.’’ Gottlieb, who was a partner in the large venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, said in federal ethics filings earlier this year that he would recuse himself from agency decisions for a year involving more than 20 companies he has worked for, invested in or had some other kind of financial relationship with. — WASHINGTON POST
MEDIA
Comcast profits boosted by hit movies
Comcast Corp.’s foray into Hollywood is paying off, with box-office hits “Get Out” and “Fifty Shades Darker” boosting first-quarter profits and sending shares to a record. The two films — a sequel to “Fifty Shades of Grey” and a critically acclaimed horror film — drove a 43 percent increase in sales for Comcast’s Universal unit. In all, sales at the NBCUniversal group, which includes the NBC broadcast network, cable channels such as USA and MSNBC, the Universal film studio and theme parks, grew 15 percent to $7.87 billion. Comcast is also reversing a trend of cord-cutting. The largest cable operator added pay-TV customers for the fifth time in the past six quarters. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
RIDE-HAILING
Lyft’s bookings and ridership up
Lyft Inc.’s bookings and ridership surged in the first quarter, suggesting the company benefited from user defections and management turmoil at larger rival Uber Technologies Inc. Lyft also told investors in fund-raising documents obtained by Bloomberg that it was beating internal growth targets, an encouraging sign for the No. 2 US ride-hailing company. Even so, the startup has a long way to go to meet its goal of profitability by 2018, with first-quarter losses easily topping $100 million. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES
Purdue acquires Kaplan University
Purdue University said Thursday it has acquired for-profit Kaplan University to extend its reach into online and adult education, an unusual move for a public institution. Instead of folding the for-profit school into its operations, Purdue plans to form a new university comprised of all 15 campuses and learning centers of Kaplan University, as well as 32,000 students and 3,000 employees. All existing Kaplan students and faculty will transition to the new school that has yet to be named. The newly formed school will rely on tuition and fundraising to cover operating expenses, not state appropriations. It will primarily operate online, with no plans to expand the physical footprint beyond the existing 15 locations. Indiana residents will receive discounted tuition. Two years ago, Kaplan sold 38 campuses to the Education Corporation of America, but held onto the 15 locations that will now be transferred to Purdue. — WASHINGTON POST