Business category, Page 150
Consumer confidence slides for 3rd straight month in July
U.S. consumer confidence slid again in July higher prices for food, gas and just about everything else continued to weigh on Americans. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 95.7 in July from 98.4 in June, largely due to consumer anxiety over the current economic...
U.S. economy’s mixed signals — here’s what it all means
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy is caught in an awkward, painful place. A confusing one, too. Growth appears to be sputtering, home sales are tumbling and economists warn of a potential recession ahead. But consumers are still spending, businesses keep posting profits and the economy keeps adding hundreds of thousands...
Unilever hikes prices for products but expects strong sales
LONDON — Unilever, the consumer goods giant that owns brands ranging from Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to Dove skin care, raised prices by more than 11% between April and June as inflation surged around the world. That shored up revenue in the first half of the year, with the...
McDonald’s reports lower Q2 sales, charges weigh down profit
McDonald’s sales fell short of expectations in the second quarter, a sign that inflation and menu price increases could be taking a toll on U.S. demand. The Chicago burger giant said its revenue fell 3% to $5.72 billion in the April-June period. That was short of Wall Street’s forecast of...
Fed set to impose another big rate hike to fight inflationVideo
WASHINGTON — Conflicting signs about the health of the U.S. economy have thrust the Federal Reserve into a difficult spot. With inflation raging at a four-decade high, the job market strong and consumer spending still solid, the Fed is under pressure to raise interest rates aggressively. But other signs suggest...
Ex-U.S. congressman among 9 charged in insider trading cases
NEW YORK — A former U.S. congressman from Indiana, technology company executives, a man training to be an FBI agent, and an investment banker were among nine people charged in four separate and unrelated insider trading schemes revealed on Monday with the unsealing of indictments in New York City. It...
Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks
LOCKPORT, N.Y. — For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York. That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast food joint...
Amazon to buy primary care provider One Medical for $3.9B
NEW YORK — Amazon will acquire the primary care organization One Medical in a deal valued roughly at $3.9 billion, marking another expansion for the retailer into health care services. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant said Thursday it is buying One Medical for $18 per share cash. Its one of Amazon’s...
John Dorfman: Berkshire, Applied Materials combine growth and value
In my experience, stocks that display both growth and value characteristics are often promising stocks to hold. Right now, I believe that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B), Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) and Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (LH) fit the bill. Should you buy these stocks now,...
Businesses eye economic boost as Steelers training camp returns to Saint Vincent
On an artist’s palette, black and gold don’t make green. But during the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp near Latrobe, they do make green — and a lot of it. Area businesses are anticipating an economic boost in the coming weeks as the Steelers return to Saint Vincent College in Unity...
Zimbabwe debuts gold coins as legal tender to stem inflation
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public in a bid to tame runaway inflation that has further eroded the country’s unstable currency. The unprecedented move was announced Monday by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to boost confidence in the...
Janet Yellen says signs of U.S. recession aren’t in sight for nowVideo
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed confidence in the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation and said she doesn’t see any sign that the U.S. economy is in a broad recession. “We’re likely to see some slowing of job creation,” Yellen said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “I...
Governor seeks to salvage aluminum mill deal promised to Kentucky
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear made a pitch Thursday to a steel company that took over plans to build an aluminum plant once promised to Kentucky, hoping to salvage a deal struck by his predecessor. Beshear said his economic development team has reached out to Steel Dynamics Inc., offering...
Facebook gives users new way to see all their friends’ posts
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook is rolling out an update that enables its 2 billion daily users to more easily view their friends’ posts in chronological order. The new feature is the company’s latest attempt to keep people coming back to its social network amid intensifying competition with its trendier...
Home sales fell in June as prices reach new heightsVideo
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed for the fifth consecutive month in June as higher mortgage rates and rising prices kept many home hunters on the sidelines. Existing home sales fell 5.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million, the National Association of...
Netflix loses nearly 1 million subscribers, but helped by ‘Stranger Things’
The popularity of sci-fi series “Stranger Things” helped Netflix fight back against a stream of subscriber cancellations. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based streamer said Tuesday that it lost 970,000 subscribers in the quarter, marking the second consecutive quarter of subscriber declines. Nonetheless, the drop was not nearly as bad as the...
Amazon sues admins of 10K Facebook groups over fake reviews
Amazon has filed a lawsuit against administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups it accuses of coordinating fake reviews in exchange for money or free products. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday the Facebook groups were set up to recruit people “willing to...
Twitter-Musk takeover dispute heading for an October trial
Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost his fight to delay Twitter’s lawsuit against him as a Delaware judge on Tuesday set an October trial, citing the “cloud of uncertainty” over the social media company after the billionaire backed out of a deal to buy it. “Delay threatens irreparable harm,” said Chancellor...
How weird could things get if Twitter settles with Elon Musk?
As Elon Musk’s imbroglio with Twitter moves from the boardroom to the courtroom, one might expect that, under the watchful eye of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, things will take on a more predictable trajectory than they have so far. In theory, the lawsuit that the social media platform launched Tuesday...
John Dorfman: Foot Locker and CVS look good on price-to-sales
Stock-market bargain hunters are a little like baseball scouts, trying to find talent that other teams have overlooked. A scout might find a pitcher who is wild (walks a lot of batters) but has a thunderbolt of a fastball. An investor might find a stock with a low price relative...
Retail sales up 1% in June, easing fears of a recession
NEW YORK — Consumers picked up their spending from May to June, underscoring their resilience despite painfully higher prices at the gas pump and in grocery aisles and allaying fears that the economy might be on the verge of a recession. U.S. retail sales rose 1% in June, from a...
Altmeyer’s chain files for bankruptcy after 81 years; all locations closed
Altmeyer’s, a family-owned retail home goods chain that started in the basement of a New Kensington tavern 81 years ago and grew to multiple locations in the region, has filed for bankruptcy. The company’s board of directors on Sunday, July 10, authorized its president, Robert Altmeyer, who is the grandson...
Crypto plunge is cautionary tale for public pension funds
MINNEAPOLIS — When the Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund bought $25 million in cryptocurrencies, with the fund’s chief investment officer touting their potential, retired fire Capt. Russell Harris was concerned. Harris, 62, has attended the funerals of 34 firefighters killed in the line of duty. He was already worried...
He worked from home and died suddenly. 5 days passed before his body was found
LOS ANGELES — Dominic Green signed out of work as he always did, exactly at 4:30 p.m. “Good afternoon everyone, my shift has ended,” the 28-year-old emailed from his desk in the living room of his Los Angeles apartment on a winter Wednesday afternoon. A remote contract worker, Dominic had...
Is Twitter down? Service appears to return after outage
Twitter appears to be returning for some users after experiencing an hourlong outage that affected both its app and website on Thursday. Individuals attempting to use the social media platform were met with a message saying “Tweets aren’t loading right now. Try again.” According to Downdetector, users began reporting the...
