Business Highlights

PALO ALTO — Nike Inc. Chairman Phil Knight pledged $105 million to Stanford University in what philanthropy experts said was the largest gift to a business school.

Most of the money will help build the $275 million graduate business school campus to be named after the athletic company co-founder, university officials said Tuesday. The remaining $5 million will be used for faculty endowments.

"Stanford Business School was an important part of my life,” Knight said in a statement. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to give back to the school and help it continue to push the boundaries of excellence in management education.”

The school plans to break ground in 2008.

Knight, who earned a master’s in business administration in 1962 and launched the company that would become Nike two years later, has been a substantial contributor to the university, funding the dean’s professorship, construction of the Knight Building, and donations to the athletics department. His estimated wealth is $7.3 billion, according Forbes’ annual list of billionaires.

"It really is a defining moment for Stanford and the business school,” said Robert Joss, the school’s dean. "It’s critically important.”

Prior to the billionaire’s donation, the largest gift by an individual to a business school was $100 million real estate developer Stephen Ross pledged to the University of Michigan in 2004, experts said.

Knight also has given substantially to his other alma mater, the University of Oregon, where he ran track for then-coach and eventual Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman. Knight wrote the largest single check to the university in 1996 when he donated $25 million to its law school, and news reports have put his total contributions to UO at more than $50 million.

Consumer spending sluggish in June while inflation pressures rise

WASHINGTON — Consumer spending was sluggish in June as Americans had to divert more cash to filling up their gas tanks and a key inflation gauge rose at the fastest clip in more than a decade.

That raised concerns in financial markets that the Federal Reserve will push interest rates up for an 18th consecutive time because of worries about inflation.

The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending, after adjusting for inflation, posted a weak 0.2 percent rise in June, marking the fourth straight month of 0.2 percent or less.

At the same time, an inflation gauge tied to spending also posted a 0.2 percent increase in June and a rise of 2.4 percent for the 12 months ending in June. That matched the rise in the 12 months ending in September 2002 and was the fastest increase since a 2.5 percent rise in the 12 months ending in April 1995.

In other economic news, a report on construction spending showed unexpected strength in July, rising by 0.3 percent to a record level, helped by big increases in spending on government, office and hotel projects.

And the Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of manufacturing activity in July posted a stronger-than-expected increase to 54.7, above the June reading of 53.8. However, part of that acceleration reflected a rise in prices of raw materials as the costs of everything from fuel to paper increased.<