Business category, Page 106
UPMC appoints physician to senior vice president role
UPMC has named Dr. Oscar Marroquin as senior vice president, UPMC, and president of UPMC Physician Services Division, including president of University of Pittsburgh Physicians. He will oversee UPP and Community Medicine, which includes more than 5,000 employed physicians and staff. Marroquin is currently UPMC’s chief health care data and...
Medical marijuana company to close Pennsylvania operations, laying off 76
A medical marijuana company, Goodblend Pennsylvania LLC, is closing its operations in the state, affecting 76 jobs. The company has a facility on Beaver Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Chateau neighborhood, which is expected to shutter by Sept. 15. It also has dispensaries along Baum Boulevard in Friendship and one in Erie,...
Your paycheck could clear faster now that the FedNow instant payment service for banks has launched
NEW YORK — The Federal Reserve launched a new instant payment service Thursday. FedNow allows banks and credit unions to sign up to send real-time payments so they can offer customers a quicker way to send money between banks. FedNow, which was first announced in 2019, published a list of...
U.S. jobless claims fall again as labor market continues to flash strength
Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week with the labor market continuing to cruise along despite higher interest rates intended to cool hiring. U.S. applications for jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 228,000 for the week ending July 15, from 237,000 previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The...
Tesla recalling nearly 16,000 of its 2021-2023 Model S and Model X vehicles due to seat belt issue
Tesla is recalling nearly 16,000 of its 2021-2023 Model S and Model X vehicles because some front-row seat belts may not have been reconnected properly after being repaired. Tesla said in its safety recall report that in the vehicles, a first-row seat belt was disconnected from its pretensioner anchor as...
Netflix’s subscriber growth surges in a sign that crackdown on password sharing is paying off
SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix enjoyed its biggest springtime spurt in subscribers since the early days of the pandemic three years ago, providing the latest sign that a recent crackdown on password sharing and the rollout of a cheaper subscription option are paying off. The video streaming service added 5.9 million...
Pittsburgh International to get additional flights to California, Florida
The expansion of flights at Pittsburgh International Airport continues as the airport announced two sets of expanded service this week. United Airlines is adding another daily round-trip flight from Pittsburgh to San Francisco International Airport starting Aug. 1, according to a release. The flight will provide daytime flight service between...
Acting labor secretary explains Pittsburgh’s ‘workforce hub’ designation
Pittsburgh was designated a “workforce hub” by the White House in May because of its success in innovation, growth in advanced manufacturing like robotics and increase in the clean energy sector. The designation was recently touted by First Lady Jill Biden, who visited the Pittsburgh International Airport on Tuesday. Five...
Report: Rising gambling revenue for June closes out record haul for fiscal year
June proved to be another lucrative month for Pennsylvania’s gambling joints. Last month, the combined total revenue generated from all forms of gaming clocked in at nearly $440.5 million, a 13% increase compared to June 2022, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Still, it was a drop compared to...
Taylor Swift’s shows in Pittsburgh generated $46M, agency says
Taylor Swift’s two Pittsburgh concerts generated $46 million in direct spending, according to tourism agency Visit Pittsburgh. The megastar singer brought record-setting crowds to Acrisure Stadium for her Eras Tour in June. About 83% of ticketholders came from outside of Allegheny County and packed the region’s hotels. According to Visit...
How to pay for an expensive summer move
Packing your things and moving to a new home is a financial hurdle even in the best of times, but higher demand for moving-related services in the summer can send prices skyrocketing. If you’re wondering how to pay for an upcoming move, there are financing options, including credit cards and...
Up in the air: The cost of auto repair, insurance climbing
Following suit with rising costs and inflation, the costs of automobile ownership, insurance and necessary repairs have soared in recent years and are expected to continue. Frank Ferra, president of Ferra’s Automotive Services in Sharpsburg, says expenses including wages, rent, taxes, equipment and insurance, along with the costs for parts,...
John Dorfman: CVS, Phillips 66 and Lear look good on this gauge
A good tool for spotting turnaround candidates is the price-to-sales ratio. Start with a company’s stock price. Divide it by the company’s sales (revenue) per share. If the number you get is less than 1.0, the stock is cheap; typically the company is straining for growth and profits. When you...
In-N-Out bans employees from wearing masks
California fast-food institution In-N-Out Burger announced that it will soon ban employees from wearing masks in five of the seven states in which it operates restaurants, according to an internal memo leaked Friday The exceptions? Workers in California and Oregon will still be able to mask, if they choose, to...
Americans bump up spending in June as inflation eases in a strong jobs market
NEW YORK — Americans increased their spending last month as inflation eased in many areas, and the job market remained remarkably strong. Retail sales rose 0.2% from May to June, following a revised 0.5% increase the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The figure matched the pace of consumer...
Fitch downgrades Heritage Valley’s rating
Fitch Ratings has downgraded its rating that assesses Heritage Valley Health System’s vulnerability of default to A+ from AA-. The downgrade of the hospital system’s reflects “several years of sizeable operating losses” and ongoing challenges that emerged before the covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. The report cited pressures due to...
Base F-150 Lightning electric pickup will cost less than $50,000 as Ford slashes prices across line
The sticker prices for Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks are being lowered by thousands of dollars across the board, the company said Monday, due to increased plant capacity, falling costs for battery raw materials and internal efforts to scale production by the Detroit automaker. The price cuts across the...
Allegheny College’s new president says campus can overcome tough higher education market
Allegheny College didn’t have to look far to find its 23rd president. Ron Cole, 58, already had been named interim leader and then president with a short-term contract after Hilary Link announced her departure in September. Prior to that, he had been Allegheny’s provost since 2015 and a geology professor...
Ford slashes prices for F-150 Lightning electric vehicles due to cheaper raw materials, efficiencies
The sticker price on Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup is being lowered by thousands of dollars due to increased plant capacity, falling costs for battery raw materials and internal efforts to scale production by the Detroit automaker. Ford Motor Co. said Monday that final upgrades at its Rouge Electric Vehicle...
Microsoft agrees to keep Call of Duty on Sony Playstation after it buys Activision Blizzard
NEW YORK — Microsoft has signed an agreement with Sony to keep the Call of Duty video game series on the PlayStation console after the tech giant acquires video game maker Activision Blizzard. The announcement was made Sunday in a Twitter post by Phil Spencer, who heads up Microsoft’s Xbox...
Teamsters president says he’s asked the White House not to intervene if UPS workers go on strike
NEW YORK — The head of the Teamsters said Sunday that he has asked the White House not to intervene if unionized UPS workers end up going on strike. Negotiations between the delivery company and the union representing 340,000 of its workers have been at a standstill for more than...
Editorial cartoonists’ firings point to steady decline of opinion pages in newspapers
NEW YORK — Even during a year of sobering economic news for media companies, the layoffs of three Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists on a single day hit like a gut punch. The firings of the cartoonists employed by the McClatchy newspaper chain last week were a stark reminder of how...
Musk says Twitter is losing cash because advertising is down and the company is carrying heavy debt
Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half. In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.” “Need to reach positive cash flow...
The unemployment rate is low. So why is the Fed worried about the economy?
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in June. While it was a smaller increase than expected, it still lowered the unemployment rate to a solid 3.6%. For the Pittsburgh region, whose figures lag behind the national data, the unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to a 47-year-record low...
New Jersey gambling revenue up nearly 14%, but most casinos still trail pre-pandemic levels
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey’s casinos, horse tracks that take sports bets, and the online partners of both those types of gambling won more than $457 million in June, an increase of nearly 14% from a year earlier. But the key metric for Atlantic City’s nine casinos — the...
