L.A. firm acquires

Hilton airport hotel

Laurus Corp., a real estate investment firm, has acquired the Hilton Salt Lake City hotel. The 288-room hotel is located two miles from Salt Lake City International Airport and is adjacent to the Salt Lake International Center. Laurus plans to renovate the property and rebrand it as a Doubletree by Hilton franchise.

Bank of America

posts Q2 profit

Shaking off some of the drag caused by faulty mortgages, Bank of America Corp. reported a second-quarter profit as losses in real estate narrowed and the company set aside less for bad loans. Net income was $2.46 billion, or 19 cents a share, compared with the record loss of $8.83 billion, or 90 cents a share, a year ago.

AmEx profit

tops forecast

American Express Co., the biggest credit-card issuer by purchases, reported a second-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as customers spent more and the lender posted the industry's lowest default rates. Net income from continuing operations rose 3.4 percent to $1.34 billion, or $1.15 a share, from $1.3 billion, or $1.10 a share, a year earlier.

eBay doubles

Q2 earnings

EBay said its second-quarter net income more than doubled, thanks to higher revenue from its PayPal online payments business and its e-commerce websites. It earned $692 million, or 53 cents per share, in the April-June period, up from $283 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

IBM profit up,

revenues down

IBM, one of the technology industry's bellwethers, said its second-quarter earnings rose 6 percent despite a downturn in revenue amid Europe's economic jitters. It earned $3.9 billion, or $3.34 per share, for the three months ending in June. That compares with net income of $3.7 billion, or $3 per share, a year ago. Revenue totaled $25.8 billion for the latest quarter, down from $26.7 billion last year.

Housing starts

rose in June

U.S. builders broke ground on the most new homes and apartments in nearly four years last month, the latest evidence that the housing market is recovering. The Commerce Department said housing starts rose 6.9 percent in June from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000. That's the highest since October 2008.

P&G board

sticks by CEO

Procter & Gamble Co. said its board supports CEO Robert MacDonald. That statement came nearly a week after activist investor William Ackerman took a stake in P&G, sparking media speculation that he might agitate for change, such as a split-up of the company or new leadership. Ackerman has done that with other companies, including Target and J.C. Penney. But he has made no formal statement about P&G yet.