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Microsoft Corp. announced an extension of its parental leave policy Wednesday, extending it to 12 weeks with full pay for mothers and fathers. For birth mothers, this means they can take 20 weeks of leave with full pay, as they already received eight weeks of maternity disability leave. Previously, other parents received four weeks paid and eight weeks unpaid. The changes will be effective Nov. 1. The announcement comes a day after Netflix announced an unlimited paternity and maternity leave policy for the first year after the child’s birth. The company said it will also add Martin Luther King Day and President’s Day as holidays starting in 2016.

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Shares of Netflix Inc. set a intraday record of $129.29 early Wednesday adding to Tuesdays 7.6% gain. On Tuesday the company announced its official Japan launch date, Sept. 2, which will be its first step into Asia. Netflix also said it will offer employees unlimited paid maternity and paternity leave. Netflix stock is on track to set its 18th record close of the year, and shares are up 157% in the year. The S&P is up 2% in the year.

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President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that opponents of the Iran nuclear deal were the “same people” who led the effort to push the United States into the war in Iraq. Congress has until mid-September to vote on a resolution supporting or opposing the Iran deal. Until Congress votes, “tens of millions of dollars” in advertising would be spent urging Congress to reject the treaty, the president said. “If the rhetoric in these ads and the accompanying commentary sounds familiar, it should,” Obama said. “For many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal,” he said. Obama said Iran was the single greatest beneficiary in the region of the Iraq war. “We need clear thinking in our foreign policy,” Obama said. Proponents of the Iraq war included his current and former secretaries of state, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, as well as Vice President Joe Biden.

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Amplify Snack Brands Inc.’s stock got off to a rough start, as it extended losses below the initial public offering price on its debut on the NYSE. The maker of SkinnyPop popcorn’s IPO priced late Tuesday at $18 a share, above the expected range of $14 to $16, which usually indicates strong demand and an upbeat first-day performance. But the stock opened at $17, or 5.6% below the IPO price, and was last down 8.6% at $16.45. The intraday high was $17.20. Still, the company raised $270 million by selling 15 million shares at $18 each, but all of the proceeds goes to selling stockholders.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted the pay ratio rule by a 3-2 margin along politically partisan lines on Wednesday. The rule is a requirement of the Dodd-Frank law that mandates public companies to disclose the ratio of the annual total compensation of the chief executive officer to the median of the annual total compensation of the company’s employees. Companies are required to report the pay ratio information beginning with their first fiscal year beginning after January 1, 2017. Smaller reporting companies, foreign private issuers, MJDS filers, emerging growth companies, and registered investment companies are not required to make the disclosures. The ratio calculation must include all employees – U.S. and non-U.S., full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal. Companies may, however, exclude non-U.S. employees that work where data privacy laws prevent the company from complying with the rule without violating those laws. Up to 5% of its non-U.S. employees can also be excluded, including any non-U.S. employees excluded based on data privacy concern.

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SolarCity Corp. on Wednesday said it reached a deal to buy Mexico’s solar developer Ilioss for an undisclosed sum, the U.S.-based company first international acquisition. The deal is expected to close later this month, SolarCity said. Shares of the company rose 2.3% on Wednesday, and have gained 13% so far this year, about four times as much as the S&P 500 index in the same period.

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Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc.’s stock plunged 23% on heavy volume to the lowest level since October 2011, after yet another disappointing quarterly report from the wood-flooring company. The stock has now dropped 79%, as the company has failed to address investor and customer concerns raised by a “60 Minutes” report, that ran on May 1, alleging wood the company sourced from China had dangerous levels of a cancer-causing agent. In a conference call with analysts, Piper Jaffray’s Peter Keith asked why the company hasn’t pushed a safety message with its wood products since the “60 Minutes” program ran, and Chief Executive Tom Sullivan declined to answer, according to a transcript provided by FactSet, saying only: “Our job is to sell the wood, good wood at a good price. And that’s what customers want.” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Laura Champine slashed her stock price target to $15 from $26, saying the outlook continues to be cloudy until there are resolutions to all of the regulatory investigations and consumer lawsuits.

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Crude-oil futures extended gains Wednesday after Energy Department data showed a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended July 31. The Energy Information Administration said U.S. commercial inventories fell by 4.4 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by oil-information firm Platts had penciled in a drop of 1.6 million barrels. Oil futures extended a gain following the data. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery on Nymex was up 70 cents, or 1.5%, at $46.44 a barrel, after trading as high as $46.70. The EIA said total gasoline inventories fell by 800,000 barrels, while distillate fuel inventories rose by 700,000 barrels.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican, said he is introducing legislation that would encourage states to provide more information about mental illness to the federal background check system for firearms purchases. The legislation is backed by the National Rifle Association and represents a rare Republican-led efforts to tighten gun rules. Cornyn is the Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate.

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Shares of online crafts marketplace Etsy Inc. tumbled 22% on Wednesday to $15.03, pushing below their $16 IPO price after weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings. The company said its loss widened to $6.35 million, or 7 cents a share, from $3.15 million, or 8 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a loss of 6 cents a share. Adding to the gloom, Etsy said it expects currency exchange rates to negatively affect gross merchandise sales in the third quarter, and that it plans to spend more on marketing and hiring. Shares peaked at $35.74 on their very first day of trade in April, but have not regained that level since then.

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