Business briefs

NEW YORK

Gupta trial closing argumentsA former Goldman Sachs board member fed secrets about the banking giant to a close friend and fellow Wall Street heavyweight who used the information to make a killing on the stock market, a prosecutor said Wednesday in closing arguments at the board member's insider trading trial. Rajat Gupta "abused his position as a corporate insider," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Tarlowe said in federal court in Manhattan. "Gupta violated his duty to keep that information confidential by giving that information to Raj Rajaratnam," the disgraced founder of the $7-billion Galleon hedge fund. Defense attorney Gary P. Naftalis said there was "zero" evidence that Gupta profited from his own illegal trades or from kickbacks off trades by others.-- AP

NATION

Consumer spending barely up

Cheaper gas has yet to cause consumers to spend enough on other goods to boost the slumping economy. Americans barely increased their spending at retail businesses this spring, leading economists to predict slower economic growth in the April-June quarter. But the news from a spate of government data Wednesday wasn't all bad. Consumers spent more in May on cars, appliances and furniture -- big purchases that help drive growth. Businesses continued to restock this spring at a healthy pace. And wholesale prices outside of gasoline costs remain stable, which means consumers can expect inflation to stay mild.-- AP

Dad's house help? Mom rules

Fathers of America, you may consider yourselves indispensable, but a new survey says you're only worth about one-third as much as mom around the house. In fact, you are not even keeping up with inflation. According to insurance news and data website In sure.com's annual Father's Day Index, the value in wage terms of the work a father typically does around the house was $20,248, about $1,000 less than the inflation-adjusted value of 10 years ago. The website matched government wage data to 13 fatherly household tasks. Among them: barbecuing (matched to the U.S. Department of Labor's "cooks, all other"), killing spiders ("pest control workers") and mowing the lawn ("grounds maintenance workers"). By comparison, the index valued a typical mother's household work at $60,182.-- Reuters

Geithner asks Europe for details

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is urging European leaders to provide more details as soon as possible on their plans to resolve the continent's debt crisis. Geithner says major economies such as Germany need to provide more clarity about their proposals to tighten Europe's financial integration, strengthen rescue funds for the most troubled nations and boost growth. Uncertainty about Europe's crisis has been weighing on global financial markets. Investors are nervous about whether Greece will be forced to leave the alliance of 17 nations that use the euro and whether other troubled nations might follow. Geithner spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington Wednesday.-- AP

$2B belt-tightening set at Dell

Computer maker Dell Inc. is planning to trim expenses by more than $2 billion over three years as it tries to move into more lucrative areas of technology. Dell outlined its cost-cutting plans Wednesday, a day after the company committed to paying the first quarterly dividend in its 28-year history. The dividend of 8 cents per share will cost Dell more than $560 million a year. The bulk of the projected savings will come from Dell's sales group, where the company plans to wring out about $800 million in expenses. As part of the belt-tightening, Dell expects to make fewer products, but it didn't identify which products might be jettisoned. It also did not say whether it will lay off any of its 109,000 workers.-- AP