William Lynch

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble Inc. said Monday that William Lynch has stepped down as CEO, effective immediately, as the book retailer continues to struggle with weak sales, big losses and the declining popularity of its Nook e-readers.

Lynch's resignation comes after just three years in the role. No successor was named, but the New York company said that it is reviewing its strategic plan and will provide an update “when appropriate.” Shares fell 4 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

In the wake of his departure, Chief Financial Officer Michael Huseby will become president of the company and CEO of its Nook Media unit. Controller Allen Lindstrom will succeed Huseby as CFO.

NEW YORK — Alcoa Inc.'s second-quarter loss widened due to weak aluminum prices, although the results were slightly better than expected after excluding restructuring and legal costs.The company continues to see strong sales of aluminum products for automobiles and airplanes.Alcoa said Monday that its loss in the April-through-June quarter was $119 million, or 11 cents per share. That compared with a loss of $2 million, or break-even on a per-share basis, a year earlier.

WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday that the federal budget deficit for the current fiscal year will shrink to $759 billion. That’s more than $200 billion less than the administration predicted just three months ago.The new figures reflect additional revenues generated by the improving economy and take into account automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that the White House had hoped to avert.The White House projected that economic growth would be slightly slower in the coming years than it forecast in April. The report said the automatic spending cuts that kicked in during March will slow down economic growth this year from the 2.6 percent increase it forecast for the fourth quarter of this year to a 2.4 percent increase.