US stocks are mostly lower as investors wait for jobs report

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks were slightly lower in afternoon trading Tuesday in another quiet day as the slow summer season comes to an end.

Investors continue to wait to see where the Federal Reserve will move interest rates later this year, with the next key piece of data coming later this week with the August jobs report.

Mondelez, which makes Oreo cookies and other snack foods, initially proposed to buy the company earlier this summer, but Hershey is a notoriously difficult company to propose mergers with since the majority of the shares are controlled by a non-profit organization.

Both Apple and Ireland said they would appeal the decision, which is the EU's latest and most aggressive move in its campaign to have multinationals pay a fair tax rate.

United Continental rose $3.97, or 8.5 percent, to $50.92 after the company announced it was hiring a former American Airlines executive, Scott Kirby, to become United's new president and take over the day-to-day operations of the company.