Business category, Page 149
Rail strike averted: Biden signs bill enforcing agreement
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday to avert a freight rail strike that he said could have plunged the U.S. into a catastrophic recession. At the White House, Biden signed a measure passed Thursday by the Senate and Wednesday by the House. It binds rail companies and...
Stocks set to drop after jobs data fans inflation worries
Wall Street is set to fall when trading opens Friday on renewed worries about inflation after a report showed wages for U.S. workers are accelerating faster than expected. Futures for U.S. stock indexes fell sharply immediately after the government released the stronger-than-expected data on both wages and hiring. The report...
U.S. hiring stayed strong in November as employers add 263,000 jobs
WASHINGTON — The nation’s employers kept hiring briskly in November despite high inflation and a slow-growing economy — a sign of resilience in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes. The economy added 263,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate stayed 3.7%, still near a 53-year low, the...
Senate moves to avert rail strike amid dire warnings
WASHINGTON — The Senate moved quickly Thursday to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders warned would have had devastating consequences for the nation’s economy. The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail...
An inflation gauge tracked by the Fed slows to still-high 6%
WASHINGTON — A measure of inflation that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve eased but remained at an elevated level in October, likely reinforcing the Fed’s intent to keep raising interest rates to cool the economy and slow the acceleration of prices. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department showed...
Applications for jobless benefits decline last week
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits came back down last week, hovering near levels suggesting the U.S. labor market has been largely unaffected by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes. Applications for jobless aid fell to 225,000 for the week ending Nov. 26, a decline...
Is now the right time for your business to buy real estate?
For small businesses hoping to establish or expand their brick-and-mortar presence, it may seem like a bad time to sink cash into a commercial property purchase. Amid predictions of an upcoming recession, the Federal Reserve increased the federal funds rate for the sixth time in 2022, citing inflation risks and...
Mark Cuban’s prescription drug company in talks with hospitals to fill drug shortages
Mark Cuban’s prescription drug company, known for “cutting out the middle man,” is in conversations with hospitals around the nation to identify the most common drug shortages. The goal is to fill the gap by targeting production at its new manufacturing facility in Dallas toward cranking out the most needed...
GivingTuesday raises $3.1B for charities in tough economy
NEW YORK — GivingTuesday raised a record $3.1 billion in 24 hours for charitable causes in the U.S. earlier this week, as the event that started as a hashtag in 2012 celebrated its 10th anniversary and its status as a staple of fundraising for nonprofits, the group’s leader said Wednesday....
Media layoffs mount as CNN announces it will make cuts this week
CNN employees are in for a rough week as the news network’s chief, Chris Licht, told staff to prepare for a round of layoffs. The cuts have been anticipated as CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery is looking for cost reductions across the company as it tries to bring down debt....
Stocks rally after Fed chair signals slowdown in rate hikesVideo
Wall Street closed out a solid November with a broad market rally Wednesday after the head of the Federal Reserve said the central bank could soon begin easing up on its aggressive interest rate increases aimed at taming inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking at the Brookings Institution, reaffirmed that...
Lordstown Motors shipping out first batch of electric trucks
LORDSTOWN, Ohio — Commercial electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors has received approval to ship the first batch of its first model, the Endurance pickup. The company announced Tuesday that the first units of the initial batch of 500 trucks were leaving the plant after they passed safety tests and hit...
Mall at Robinson sold to New York firm in $46M deal
The Mall at Robinson has been sold to New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group for $46 million. Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate company that brokered the deal, announced the sale Tuesday. The two-level, 874,533-square-foot mall sees more than 4.8 million visitors per year, placing it among the top...
House votes to avert rail strike, impose deal on unionsVideo
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House moved urgently to head off the looming nationwide rail strike on Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved. The measure passed by a vote...
Highmark Health reports $268M in losses fueled by declining stock market
More than $670 million in investment losses contributed to an overall net loss for local health care giant Highmark Health during the first nine months of the year, according to the organization’s third-quarter financial report for 2022. Highmark Health reported $19.5 billion in revenue from January through September, about a...
DoorDash cuts 1,250 jobs after pandemic hiring surge
DoorDash is eliminating about 1,250 corporate jobs, or about 6% of its workforce, saying it hired too many people when delivery demand surged during the covid-19 pandemic. CEO Tony Xu said in a message to employees Wednesday that DoorDash was undersized before the pandemic and sped up hiring to catch...
Amazon says it had its biggest Thanksgiving shopping weekend
NEW YORK — Amazon said Wednesday it had its biggest ever Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend, aided by a record number of consumers looking for deals online amid high inflation. The e-commerce company does not typically share how much it earns during its sales events and did not disclose its overall...
U.S. job openings fell in October to still-high level
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings dropped in October but remained high, a sign that businesses became slightly less needy for workers as the Federal Reserve ramps up interest rates in an effort to cool the economy. Employers posted 10.3 million job vacancies in October, down from 10.7 million in September,...
How Uber and Lyft are transforming U.S. cities
Over the last decade, the meteoric rise of ridesourcing services like Uber and Lyft have transformed the urban landscape, affecting travel patterns, car ownership, and congestion, and more broadly, the economy, the environment, and equity. The ways in which Uber and Lyft are redefining mobility is the focus of a...
Congress prepares to take up bill preventing rail strike
WASHINGTON — Congress is moving swiftly to prevent a looming U.S. rail workers strike, reluctantly intervening in a labor dispute to stop what would surely be a devastating blow to the nation’s economy if the transportation of fuel, food and other critical goods were disrupted. The House was expected to...
Gas driller pleads no contest to polluting Pennsylvania town’s water
MONTROSE — Pennsylvania’s most active gas driller pleaded no contest Tuesday to criminal charges, capping a landmark environmental case against a company prosecutors say polluted a rural community’s drinking water 14 years ago and then tried to evade responsibility. Residents of the tiny crossroads of Dimock in northeastern Pennsylvania said...
West Virginia cash-for-worker program adds 4th destination
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A program offering cash and free outdoor adventures to remote workers to move to West Virginia with the hope of offsetting population losses has welcomed 143 new residents in the year since it launched, officials announced Tuesday. The public-private program Ascend West Virginia said it has added...
Competitors chip away at Tesla’s U.S. electric vehicle share
DETROIT — New electric vehicle models from multiple automakers are starting to chip away at Tesla’s dominance of the U.S. EV market, according to national vehicle registration data. But numbers collected by S&P Global Mobility show that Tesla still controlled about 65% of the growing electric vehicle market during the...
Heating oil prices could go up as much as 45% in Pa.
Pennsylvania homeowners who use heating oil could see their bills increase 45% this winter due to higher prices and colder temperatures. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this month that low inventory of fuels used for diesel and home heating oil will lead to high prices through the start of...
4 reasons for thrift store gifts this year
Thrifting is hot, and Goodwill finds are cool again. But while we’re thrilled to find the perfect throwback tee for our own closet, gifting used goods still carries a stigma for some. It shouldn’t. Secondhand gifts are better for your wallet, your community and the environment. “The planet is drowning...
