One of the largest U.S. hotel owners is experimenting this year with a new business strategy: Charge guests for most services and amenities, just like in the airline industry.

At roughly a dozen of his company’s independent hotels, Tyler Morse said, any guest can get an early check-in, but it costs about $20. A similar fee applies to a late checkout. Use of the pool might be free on a Tuesday morning, but cost guests $25 on a scorching Saturday afternoon. Gym use and breakfast also come with an additional charge.

In exchange, these properties are lowering their nightly room rates by varying degrees, Mr. Morse said. His hotels trying out the pricing model include the TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport and the High Line Hotel in Manhattan, he added.

Mr. Morse, chief executive of MCR Hotels, said a rocky transition period could occur before most hotel guests adjust to the idea of paying only for the services and perks they want. But he...

Covid-19 worries weighed on spending in July. August could be worse.

The Commerce Department on Tuesday reported that retail sales—spending at stores, restaurants and online—fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.1% last month from June.

The drop wasn’t entirely due to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases brought on by the Delta variant of coronavirus: Spending at online and other nonstore retailers fell 3.1%, for example, but that probably was in part due to Amazon.com ’s decision to hold Prime Day sale in June instead of July. Sales at car dealers fell 4.3%, which likely reflected vehicle shortages brought on by the global chip shortage.

But with most categories registering declines, and all the categories that managed to eke out gains—such as restaurant and bar sales—growing at lower rates than they did in June, the rise in Covid-19 cases over the course of the month probably put the biggest damper on sales. In the last seven days of July, an average of 84,288...

TAIPEI—China issued new draft guidelines that would prevent its internet companies from engaging in anticompetitive practices such as unfairly blocking rival platforms, extending Beijing’s efforts to rein in the powerful technology sector.

The guidelines, released by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation on Tuesday, include a detailed list of prohibited behaviors that regulators said could harm internet users and limit market competition, including controlling user traffic, blocking competitors’ products and discriminatory pricing.

It’s the latest in a wave of regulatory actions over the past year, as government officials pressure Chinese tech giants and other companies to overhaul their operations, embrace competition and emphasize social good.

Shares of Chinese tech companies declined Tuesday, extending a monthslong slump driven by heightened regulatory oversight. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. fell 4.8% and Tencent Holdings Ltd. more than...

GoPro has managed to upsell its way out of the pandemic. Now the action camera maker has to make extra sure it can hit its marks, which has never been a sure thing.

Missteps on past camera launches and the company’s first-and-only attempt at a drone hobbled the stock in the years following its 2014 listing. From the beginning of 2018 to last fall, GoPro averaged a market value about 30% below its projected annual revenue, according to FactSet. A global pandemic that curtailed the very sort of adventurous outings people buy GoPro cameras to document didn’t help either. The company’s camera unit sales in the first half of 2020 were less than half their level during the same period the year before.

Launch of the latest camera called Hero9 Black last September helped revive both sales and investor sentiment. Camera unit sales nearly doubled year over year in the launch quarter and have stayed strong. That also sparked growth of the company’s service that bundles...

This column is part of the Heard on the Street stock-picking contest. You’re invited to play along with us here.

Like fidget spinners, ice-bucket challenges and “Pokémon Go,” GameStop shares are a fad that will likely fade.

The videogame retailer has had an astounding 2021. App-wielding investors crowdsourced a wave of stock purchases that pushed the price up to a high of around 17 times where it started the year. After a couple of loop-the-loops, the shares are still up more than 700%.

As long as trading remains free, the army of retail investors that propelled GameStop and a clutch of other unlikely stocks beyond all expectations earlier this year will remain a force in the market. Over 10 million individual-investor brokerage accounts were opened in the first half of the year, according to JMP Securities.

But that doesn’t mean such investors will always want the same thing. On the contrary, the appeal of GameStop trading has progressively...

While Chinese technology stocks are losing speed, the country’s sportswear companies are running ahead, giving investors an alternative China consumer play.

Shares of Li Ning named after the gymnast who founded the company, have gained 983% since the end of 2018. Shares in Anta , which owns the Fila brand in China, have more than quadrupled over the same period.

The sector is riding some near-term tailwinds. As part of a five-year mass fitness program announced this month, the government said it would build more fitness facilities and encourage people to exercise. Beijing aims to grow the sports industry to 5 trillion yuan, the equivalent of $772 billion, in 2025, which would be a 70% rise from 2019 levels. And at a time when regulatory concerns are clouding the outlook for many other sectors, in particular the internet industry, sportswear stocks look like a haven.

The backlash against foreign brands over their stance on the use of forced labor in...

GoPro has managed to upsell its way out of the pandemic. Now the action camera maker has to make extra sure it can hit its marks, which has never been a sure thing.

Missteps on past camera launches and the company’s first-and-only attempt at a drone hobbled the stock in the years following its 2014 listing. From the beginning of 2018 to last fall, GoPro averaged a market value about 30% below its projected annual revenue, according to FactSet. A global pandemic that curtailed the very sort of adventurous outings people buy GoPro cameras to document didn’t help either. The company’s camera unit sales in the first half of 2020 were less than half their level during the same period the year before.

Launch of the latest camera called Hero9 Black last September helped revive both sales and investor sentiment. Camera unit sales nearly doubled year over year in the launch quarter and have stayed strong. That also sparked growth of the company’s service that bundles...

Chinese real-estate billionaire Hui Ka Yan has stepped down as chairman of China Evergrande Group ’s flagship property business, months after the unit dropped plans for a multibillion-dollar listing on the mainland.

The chairman of Hengda Real Estate, the main onshore subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Evergrande, is now Zhao Changlong, commerce registration information on Chinese database provider qcc.com showed Tuesday. It is unclear exactly when the change happened.

Mr. Zhao, a former director of Hengda who previously served as its chairman until August 2017, has also taken over as the company’s general manager and legal representative, replacing Ke Peng.

An Evergrande spokesman confirmed the moves, describing them as “normal changes” after Evergrande terminated its plan to list Hengda in late 2020. He said they would have no impact on the companies’ management and shareholding structure.

Mr. Hui, a rags-to-riches tycoon who is now one of China’s...

Lackluster insurance sales and some poorly performing investments have put a damper on Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. ’s share price.

The Chinese retail financial-services giant, with a market capitalization of about $157 billion, is the world’s second-most valuable insurer after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The Shenzhen-based group also operates a bank and has units that provide asset management, consumer loans, healthcare and technology services.

Ping An’s Hong Kong-listed shares, which are part of the MSCI China index, have been on a downward slide lately, losing 29% in the year-to-date period and significantly underperforming broad market benchmarks.

The American depositary receipts of Ping An’s U.S.-listed online-lending associate, Lufax Holding Ltd. , and fintech service platform OneConnect Financial Technology Co. , have performed worse—falling 44% and 78% respectively so far this year amid a big selloff in Chinese internet and...

U.S. stock futures fell Tuesday, suggesting indexes will ease back from all-time highs, as investors awaited fresh data on the retail and manufacturing sectors.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 0.6%. Both indexes closed Monday at fresh records, notching a five-day winning streak. For the blue-chip Dow index, it was the first such run in almost four years. Contracts tied to the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 retreated 0.4% Tuesday.

Markets have ground higher in muted midsummer trading as coronavirus vaccinations allowed the resumption of business and social activity in many developed economies. But concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 have sparked jitters in recent sessions as it threatens to crimp the economic rebound. Expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon move to ease its stimulus measures are also hanging over investors.

“The Delta variant has hit the confidence of...

U.S. stock futures slipped, suggesting indexes will edge down from all-time highs, as investors awaited fresh data on the retail and manufacturing sectors. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Tuesday’s market action.

U.S. stocks finished mostly higher Monday and oil prices fell after data showed a slowdown in China’s economy.

The S&P 500 reached its 49th record close of the year by gaining 11.71 points, or 0.3%, to 4479.71 after being in the negative territory most of the day, the largest comeback since late March, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 110.02 points, or 0.3%, to 35625.4, to end the trading day at its 35th record close of 2021. The blue-chip index also finished last week at a high. Today’s close marks five consecutive trading sessions of new highs for both benchmarks.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 29.14 points, or 0.2%, to 14793.76.

Stocks have ground higher in thin summer trading, buoyed by a bumper set of quarterly earnings reports from American companies. However, investors remain wary of the damping effect of the Delta variant of Covid-19 on business activity, and potential pitfalls including...

Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said his outlook for the U.S. economy has improved this year despite the recent Covid-19 outbreaks associated with the Delta variant, and he expects strong hiring to allow the central bank to soon begin reversing the extremely accommodative monetary policy adopted at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Fed could be in a position to start reducing its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases this fall and, if strong economic growth continues, the Fed might be able to end those purchases toward the middle of 2022, Mr. Rosengren said in an interview on Thursday, August 12.

Here is a partial transcript of the interview, lightly edited for clarity and length.

NICK TIMIRAOS, The Wall Street Journal: Can you walk me through how your outlook for the economy and for policy changed since March of this year?

ERIC ROSENGREN, Boston Fed: So it’s changed in a couple of ways. One, we’ve...

U.S. stocks pulled higher Monday afternoon and oil prices fell after data showed a slowdown in China’s economy.

The S&P 500 traded up 0.3% to hit its 49th all-time closing high of 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 110 points, also 0.3%, to a new record.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.2%.

Stocks have ground higher in thin summer trading, buoyed by a bumper set of quarterly earnings reports from American companies. However, investors remain wary of the damping effect of the Delta variant of Covid-19 on business activity, and potential pitfalls including geopolitical uncertainty and a possible end to the Federal Reserve’s asset-purchase program by mid-2022.

“Although we had a generally great earnings season this past quarter, we may be past the peak of recovery,” said Sean Sun, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, who is buying stocks tied to digital transformation themes. “The market kind of sees the...

SYDNEY—The world’s biggest mining company is plotting a new future. It wants to focus solely on mining.

BHP Group Ltd. said it is considering selling its oil-and-gas business in what would rank as one of the energy industry’s biggest deals this year: Analysts estimate the unit could be worth at least $15 billion. It is talking with Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. about a possible deal in which BHP shareholders would receive Woodside stock.

BHP has long justified its oil-and-gas investment—which sets it apart from mining rivals—as a way to hedge against swings in prices of other commodities, such as iron ore.

That stance hasn’t always chimed with shareholders. Four years ago, activist investor Elliott Management Corp. bought a stake and urged sweeping changes, including unloading oil and gas assets.

BHP’s review of the business ahead of a possible sale is further evidence that resources companies are responding to growing pressure from...

Walmart Inc. is seeking to hire a cryptocurrency expert, joining a growing number of companies looking to develop strategies for digital currencies such as bitcoin.

The retailer posted a job for a digital-currency and cryptocurrency product lead based at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. The hire would be expected to “commit to a product roadmap and drive the project execution” and serve as an expert on the job’s subject matter, according to the posting.

The job posting says the person it hires will “identify customer needs and translate them into product requirements” and that he or she will work with product and design teams.

Amazon Inc. in July similarly posted an opening for an expert in digital currency.

Walmart didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

BEIJING—China’s economy slowed more than expected in July as extreme weather and the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus swept across the country, adding more strains to a recovery that was already plateauing more than a year after the pandemic first exploded.

Monthly indicators of industrial, consumption and investment activity all showed growth retreating more quickly than expected—and decelerating from June’s yearly growth rates—according to data released Monday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The fresh numbers come after many economists and research firms had already begun lowering their expectations of China’s economic growth, as signs of slowing momentum collide with renewed concerns around the impact of pandemic restrictions.

The data included two key contributors to the headline gross domestic product figure: industrial production, which rose 6.4% from a year earlier, and fixed-asset investment, up 10.3% during the first...

Hyatt Hotels Corp. plans to buy resort company Apple Leisure Group from its private-equity owners for $2.7 billion.

The deal for the company, which is owned by KKR & Co. and travel-and-leisure specialist KSL Capital Partners LLC, was announced Sunday after The Wall Street Journal reported it was imminent.

The transaction is the latest sign of optimism about a return to vacation travel even as the U.S. economy continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. Like many travel-related companies, Apple Leisure’s business got clobbered by virus-related lockdowns and travel bans last year, but it has rebounded as restrictions have loosened.

For Chicago-based Hyatt, one of the world’s biggest hospitality companies, the deal would bolster its already considerable resort-management portfolio and give it one of the biggest U.S. providers of charter flights and vacation packages for travel to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Federal Reserve officials are nearing agreement to begin scaling back their easy money policies in about three months if the economic recovery continues, with some pushing to end their asset-purchase program by the middle of next year.

In recent interviews and public statements, several have advocated for this timetable, which would enable them to raise interest rates sooner than currently anticipated if the economy makes rapid progress toward their goals.

The central bank last December said it would continue the current pace of bond purchases until officials concluded they had achieved “substantial further progress” toward their goals of 2% average inflation and robust employment.

Officials at their July 27-28 meeting deliberated on two important questions: when to start paring their monthly purchases of $80 billion in Treasury securities and $40 billion in mortgage securities, and how quickly to reduce, or taper, them. The Fed is set to release on...

When Erin Adams decided to leave the Portland, Ore., area and consider cheaper locations, she prepared to sell her secondhand 2005 Toyota Scion xB for something a bit more capable of hauling her belongings.

Ms. Adams, 41 years old, who works as a technical writer for an automotive safety agency, had seen reports of the red-hot car market. Earlier this month, she posted an ad to Craigslist—“Manual transmission, 81k miles, Shiny!”—and received eight offers in her inbox within 24 hours.

After the eventual buyer found out the car needed a new clutch, Ms. Adams ended up reducing her asking price from $4,000 to $2,800. “If it hadn’t been for the clutch, I would have sold it for what I bought it for 3½ years ago,” says Ms. Adams.

Ms. Adams joins a rush of consumers vying to make a profit by selling their vehicles as prices for used cars and trucks have skyrocketed. Over the past 12 months, the index for used cars and trucks rose 41.7%, according to the...

A frightening family experience led money manager Thorne Perkin to a business opportunity that is now paying off thanks in part to the pandemic.

Years ago, Mr. Perkin’s young son had a series of staph infections. When one sent his son to the hospital, Mr. Perkin noticed how frequently doctors sanitized their hands.

His family was sent home with a powerful skin cleanser that was effective—but unpleasant. “The idea just hit me: Why is there no premium product hand sanitizer in the marketplace for consumers?” he said.

Inspired by this experience, Mr. Perkin helped launch a hand-sanitizer business in 2015 that became known as Olika. It began selling sanitizer in 2017; and, this week, publicly traded biotechnology company Amyris Inc. closed on an agreement to buy the company. Mr. Perkin said he and his family invested more than half a million dollars and received a return of more than 10 times their investment in the Amyris purchase.

On the...

Monday’s news that U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating Tesla ’s  advanced driver-assistance system Autopilot after a series of crashes involving emergency vehicles didn’t seriously rattle its shareholders.

The auto maker’s shares fell by about 5% in morning trading on a weak day for equities but have nearly doubled over the past year. There are bigger, more mundane risks to Tesla’s stock price, though.

In some ways, investors’ nonchalant attitude makes sense given the company’s history. Chief Executive Elon Musk has clashed with various regulators over the past half decade. Even serious incidents, such as Mr. Musk’s 2018 settlement of securities fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, have only briefly affected Tesla’s fortunes on Wall Street. As for Autopilot, regulators have looked into various incidents with the system since 2016 and haven’t taken action against Tesla that would cost investors.

Being able to...

A clash over tax rules for digital currencies like bitcoin turned into a political coming-of-age moment for the cryptocurrency industry, galvanizing a usually fractious coalition of investors, exchanges, financiers and social-media influencers.

In public, Ashton Kutcher, Elon Musk and Square Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey brought the Twitter heat over a provision in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill seeking to expand and strengthen tax enforcement of crypto transactions. That helped prompt tens of thousands of followers to call members of Congress.

Behind the scenes, lobbyists, trade-group officials and executives at crypto companies hopped on Google Meet every few hours to coordinate Congressional outreach and tracked legislative contacts in a shared spreadsheet.

The group enlisted the help of Sens. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.), who pushed for a more industry-friendly approach. It even convinced the...