Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, acknowledging concerns about his company’s stock performance, said Tuesday that Facebook has survived troubles before.

He spoke to a standing-room-only audience at a tech conference in San Francisco in his first interview since the company’s rocky initial public offering in May. Facebook Inc.’s stock has lost half its value since the IPO.

Zuckerberg said the drop “has obviously been disappointing,” but he said it’s a great time to “double down” on the company’s future.

Retail group fights card fee settlement

The National Retail Federation is opposing a proposed $7.25 billion settlement that Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and major banks have agreed to pay retailers for alleged fee fixing.

The retail trade association said Tuesday that its board has given approval for it to go to court to try to block the settlement. The NRF, which is not a party to the lawsuit that led to the settlement, says it is unsure whether outside groups will be allowed to intervene, or if the case qualifies as a class action.

The NRF says it believes the proposed settlement will not stop swipe fees from continuing to rise, which will hurt both retailers and shoppers, and that it will prevent any future legal challenges.

Small businesses upbeat on election

Small-business owners are getting a little more optimistic about how their companies will do after the November election, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The National Federation of Independent Business says owners it surveyed last month expect their companies’ sales and overall business conditions to pick up after the election and the end of the year.

That brighter outlook helped lift the NFIB’s small business optimism index by 1.7 points in August to 92.9.

Employers posted fewer jobs in July

U.S. employers posted fewer jobs in July than in June, further evidence that hiring may stay weak in coming months.

Job openings fell to a seasonally adjusted 3.67 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s down from June’s 3.72 million job openings, which was revised lower.

The data follow Friday’s disappointing employment report, which said the economy added 96,000 jobs in August.

That’s below July’s total of 141,000 and the average 226,000 a month added in the first three months of the year.

US trade deficit grows to $42 billion

The U.S. trade deficit grew to $42 billion in July, widened by fewer exports to Europe, India and Brazil that offset a steep decline in oil imports.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the trade deficit increased 0.2 percent from June’s deficit of $41.9 billion.

U.S. exports fell 1 percent to $183.3 billion. Sales of autos, telecommunications equipment and heavy machinery all declined.

Imports dropped 0.8 percent to $225.3 billion, the Commerce Department said.