News in brief

Walmart quashes

bogus news release

NEW YORK -- A fake news release Monday outlining a partnership involving Walmart and digital currency Litecoin led to a brief flurry of inaccurate reporting from national news outlets and social media users.

The news release is "not real," Walmart spokesperson Molly Blakeman said. Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin and managing director of the Litecoin Foundation, confirmed the release was fake.

The false announcement was temporarily featured on a major news release wire and in outlets including Reuters, CNBC and Yahoo Finance, before being deleted and corrected. It wasn't immediately clear who created it.

Lee confirmed the release was fake in an email. A Litecoin employee mistakenly tweeted the false claim on Monday from the currency's verified account after seeing the bogus announcement on GlobeNewswire, a major distributor of news releases, Lee explained. The employee later realized his error and deleted the tweet, Lee said.

The release included fabricated claims that Walmart would allow customers to pay for purchases with the digital currency starting Oct. 1.

-- The Associated Press

LR port sees jump

in traffic over '20

Barge activity at the Port of Little Rock in August doubled from a year earlier, but it still remains well below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

The Arkansas River port worked 26 barges and handled 41,000 tons of cargo, according to the latest data from the port.

A year earlier, the port worked just 13 barges and handled 20,000 tons, which at the time was described as a level not seen in almost 10 years and triggered by the economic downturn associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

By contrast, the port worked 61 barges and handled 93,000 tons in August 2019.

For the year, the port has worked 239 barges and handled 357,000 tons, an 8% decline from last year's 257 barges and 391,000 tons of cargo.

August was the first month in 2021 to exceed 1 million tons of cargo carried on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. It brought the total cargo carried on the system this year to 7.1 million tons, which is 8% higher than in the first eight months of 2020.

-- Noel Oman

Arkansas Index rises

7.56, ends at 656.19

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Monday at 656.19, up 7.56.

"The S&P 500 edged higher on Monday, reversing a five-day losing streak as investors watch for potential corporate tax hikes along with today's Labor Departments release of the consumer price index," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

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