Business briefing: Dow is down again, but other indexes rise slightly

Major U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher Thursday, as gains in technology and industrial companies offset declines elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 notched a small gain for the second straight day, while a modest pickup nudged the Nasdaq composite to an all-time high. The Dow Jones industrial average closed lower for the third day in a row. Bond prices rose, sending yields lower. The S&P 500 index inched up 3.79 points, or 0.1%, to 3,325.54. The index had been down as much as 0.6% earlier in the day. The Dow fell 26.18 points, or 0.1%, to 29,160.09. The Nasdaq gained 18.71 points, or 0.2%, to 9,402.48. The index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, previously hit a record high last Friday. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks rose 0.55 points, or less than 0.1%, to 1,685.01. Benchmark crude oil fell $1.15 to settle at $55.59 a barrel.

The founder of an Arizona pharmaceutical company was ordered to spend 5 ½ years in prison Thursday for orchestrating a bribery and kickback scheme prosecutors said helped fuel the opioid crisis. John Kapoor, 76, the former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was sentenced in Boston's federal court after a jury found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy last May. The 10-week trial revealed sensational details about the company's marketing tactics, including testimony that a sales executive once gave a lap dance to a doctor the company was wooing. Kapoor was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. Kapoor and others were accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to doctors across the United States to prescribe the company's highly addictive oral fentanyl spray, known as Subsys. The bribes were paid in the form of fees for sham speaking engagements that were billed as educational opportunities for other doctors.

Xerox will nominate 11 people to replace HP's board, a company that it is targeting for a takeover. In November, the computer and printer maker rejected a roughly $33.5 billion buyout offer from Xerox, saying that the deal would undervalue the company. HP said at the time that it remained open to exploring other options to combine with Xerox Holdings Corp. Xerox indicated earlier this month that it's still interested in an HP deal, saying it had lined up $24 billion in binding financing commitments. Xerox said Thursday that its 11 board nominees include former senior executives from companies including Aetna, United Airlines and Verizon. In a statement, HP called the nominations "a self-serving tactic by Xerox to advance its proposal, that significantly undervalues HP and creates meaningful risk to the detriment of HP shareholders." The companies have struggled as the demand for printed documents and ink have waned, and both are cutting costs.

One of the world's most prestigious literary publishers has chosen just its fourth editorial leader in its 105-year history: Reagan Arthur has been named executive vice president and publisher of Alfred A. Knopf, where authors have ranged from Robert A. Caro to the late Toni Morrison. Arthur, 55, currently heads another venerable publisher, Little, Brown and Co., and will begin her new job on Feb. 11. She succeeds longtime Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta, who died in December at age 77.