Business news in brief

Bottles of Tylenol sold in the United States will soon bear red warnings alerting users to the potentially fatal risks of taking too much of the popular pain reliever. Johnson & Johnson said the warning would appear on the cap of new bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol sold in the United States starting in October and on most other Tylenol bottles in coming months. The warning will explicitly state that the over-the-counter drug contains acetaminophen, a pain-relieving ingredient that is the nation's leading cause of sudden liver failure. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, of Fort Washington, is the Johnson & Johnson unit that makes Tylenol. Overdoses from acetaminophen send 55,000 to 80,000 people to the emergency room in this country each year and kill at least 500, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. - AP

The Sunoco Logistics Mariner East project to transport Marcellus Shale natural gas products across Pennsylvania took a step forward Thursday. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission unanimously approved a plan to stop using an existing pipeline that carries motor fuel from the Philadelphia area to Pittsburgh. Sunoco Logistics wants to repurpose the pipeline to carry ethane and propane eastward to Marcus Hook, where it will be loaded on ships for export. Ethane and propane are used as raw materials in the manufacture of chemicals and plastics. Sunoco Logistics says that other pipelines are available to move motor fuel to Western Pennsylvania markets. - Andrew Maykuth

Urban Outfitters Inc., the retailer headquartered at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, said its board authorized the repurchase of 10 million common shares. The move follows completion of a 10 million-share repurchase authorized in August 2011. It said the new buyback will be conducted "from time to time, subject to market conditions." The company operates 222 stores under the Urban Outfitters and also operates stores and websites under the Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN, and Terrain brands. Shares rose 54 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close at $42.49. - Reid Kanaley

Pennsylvania American Water acquired three small water and wastewater systems that serve about 2,100 people, including the mandated takeover of a troubled Pike County sewage company. The company paid $6.9 million for the acquisitions. Pennsylvania American acquired the Clean Treatment Sewage Co. in Delaware Township, Pike County, which has been subject to an eight-year moratorium on new connections because of operational problems. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in 2012 ordered Pennsylvania American to take over the system and upgrade its operations. The utility, which is based in Hershey, already supplies drinking-water service to the customers. Pennsylvania American, a subsidiary of American Water in Voorhees, also acquired a private water system serving the Pocono Mountain Lake Forest Estates development in Pike County and the Franklin Township Municipal Sewer Authority in Adams County. - Andrew Maykuth

Radian Group Inc.'s mortgage insurer reached an agreement with Freddie Mac that caps expenses at $840 million related to loans held by the U.S. government-controlled housing-finance company. The accord covers more than 25,000 first-lien mortgage loans that Radian insured and were delinquent as of Dec. 31, 2011, the Philadelphia-based company said in a statement. The insurer expects to incur a loss of about $20 million in the third quarter related to the deal. That will be fully mitigated by lower losses in future periods, the company said. - Bloomberg News

A federal judge signaled that he is leaning toward approving American Airlines' emergence from bankruptcy protection but wanted more time to reflect. Judge Sean H. Lane could sign off on American's restructuring plan at a hearing Sept. 12 or in a written decision. Such a decision would leave one obstacle to American's proposed merger with US Airways: an antitrust lawsuit filed earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Justice, six states (including Pennsylvania), and the District of Columbia. - AP

U.S. banks earned more from April through June than during any quarter on record, aided by a steep drop in losses from bad loans. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said the banking industry earned $42.2 billion in the second quarter, up 23 percent from the second quarter of 2012. About 54 percent of U.S. banks reported improved earnings from a year earlier. Banks' losses on loans tumbled 30.7 percent from a year earlier to $14.2 billion, the lowest in six years. And bank lending increased 1 percent from the first quarter. - AP

A court document detailing terms of a $160 million discrimination settlement with Merrill Lynch says the brokerage giant has agreed to sweeping policy changes to address the concerns of black financial advisers. The unopposed motion filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago came a day after attorneys for about 1,200 plaintiffs announced the payout. The document says Merrill Lynch will, among other measures, create a "leadership council" to recommend ways to improve opportunities for African American employees. - AP

A three-hour trading outage on the Nasdaq last week was partly the result of issues within the company's control, the Nasdaq OMX Group said. The company detailed some of its early findings from an internal review. Nasdaq blamed "a confluence of unprecedented events" that overwhelmed the exchange's system for handling price information. It said the catalyst was a torrent of messages from a trading platform run by the New York Stock Exchange, Arca. - AP

Average U.S. rates for fixed mortgages declined this week but stayed close to their highest levels in two years. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.51 percent. That's down from 4.58 percent last week, the highest since July 2011. The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage dipped to 3.54 percent from 3.60 percent, also the highest since July 2011. - AP