Business category, Page 169
U.S. new home sales jump in December as prices fall
Sales of new single family homes in December rose to their highest level in 10 months as buyers took advantage of lower prices in anticipation of higher interest rates. The increase put the seasonally adjusted annual sales pace to 811,000 for the month, according to the Commerce Department, an 11.9%...
Nissan recalls 793,000 Rogues; wiring trouble raises fire risk
DETROIT — Nissan is recalling more than 793,000 small SUVs in the U.S. and Canada because water can get into wiring and in rare cases could start a fire. The recall covers Nissan Rogue SUVs from the 2014 through 2016 model years. The Rogue is Nissan’s top-selling vehicle in the...
John Dorfman: January’s slide doesn’t mean stock market doomed for 2022
“As January goes, so goes the year” in the stock market. Thus runs a common belief among traders. If you believe it, you’re probably scared right now, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Total Return Index was down 7.66% in the first three weeks of this year. Take heart. The...
Microsoft profits up 21%, giving cushion for gaming push
REDMOND, Wash. — Demand for Microsoft’s cloud-computing services and work software helped boost its quarterly profits by 21% as the pandemic continued to keep many office workers at home. The Redmond, Wash., company on Tuesday reported fiscal second-quarter profit of $18.8 billion. It posted revenue of $51.7 billion for the...
IMF urges El Salvador to drop Bitcoin as legal tender
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The International Monetary Fund wants El Salvador to drop the highly volatile cryptocurrency Bitcoin as legal tender and strictly regulate the electronic wallet the government has pushed adoption of across the country. The global lender’s board “urged the authorities to narrow the scope of the...
Stocks end lower on Wall Street after another volatile day
Another volatile bout of trading on Wall Street ended with a broad pullback for stocks Tuesday, as investors grapple with economic red flags and uncertainty over how aggressive the Federal Reserve will be in fighting rising inflation. Stock indexes fell sharply to start the day, then came well off their...
Biscuit World workers say no to 1st West Virginia fast-food union
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Workers at a West Virginia franchise of a regional fast-food restaurant on Tuesday rejected efforts to form a union that would have been the first its kind in the state. Immediately after the vote, union organizers announced that they had filed unfair labor practice charges against the...
U.S. warns that chip shortage could shut down factories
The U.S. supply of computer chips has fallen to alarmingly low levels, raising the prospect of factory shutdowns, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Companies that use semiconductors are down to less than five days of inventory — a sharp drop from 40 days in 2019, according to a department survey...
Walmart invests in indoor vertical farming startup Plenty
Walmart said Tuesday it has taken a stake in agriculture startup Plenty, becoming the first large U.S. retailer to significantly invest in indoor vertical farming as a way to deliver fresher produce to its stores. Vertical farmers tout their high-quality produce that brings higher yields while using less water and...
Michigan OKs $824M in incentives for GM’s EV, battery plants
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s economic development board on Tuesday approved $824 million in incentives and assistance for General Motors Co. to put electric vehicle and battery plants in its home state, adding as many as 4,000 jobs. The Detroit-based automaker plans to spend up to $4 billion converting and expanding...
Stocks climb back after steep slide on Fed, Ukraine jitters
NEW YORK — A volatile day on Wall Street ended Monday with stocks notching modest gains after climbing back from a steep slide that had knocked more than 1,200 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The late-afternoon comeback pulled the S&P 500 out of so-called correction territory — a...
Taxpayers face overloaded IRS as filing season opens Monday
WASHINGTON — Count 30-year-old Ethan Miller among that subset of Americans who are actually eager to file their taxes once income tax filing season opens on Monday. The financial planner who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, is looking forward to claiming the new deductions that will come from buying a...
Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies growing in popularity as ATMs sprout up across Pittsburgh region
A different kind of ATM is popping up in stores, supermarkets and malls across Southwestern Pennsylvania. These, however, are not intended to spit out dollars. They offer cryptocurrency — a decentralized, digital currency that has no government backing or regulation. Its value is volatile, fluctuating like a stock. It relies...
Weber Grills apologizes for ill-timed meat loaf recipe email
Weber picked the wrong day to suggest grilling meat loaf. The outdoor grill maker apologized on Friday for sending a recipe-of-the-week email earlier that day featuring instructions on how to prepare “BBQ Meat Loaf.” The email coincided with news of the death of Marvin Lee Aday, best known as rock...
AHN patients possible victims of data breach
The data of Allegheny Health Network Home Infusion (AHNHI) patients may have been improperly accessed after the data breach of a vendor, officials said Friday. Vantage Healthcare Network, Inc., a vendor of Pittsburgh-based AHNHI, was the victim of a ransomware cyber-attack in October. AHNHI is now in the process of...
Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO gets raise, $184K bonus
The Allegheny County Airport Authority board on Friday granted a major pay raise and bonus for CEO Christina Cassotis. The board unanimously voted to give Cassotis a 23% salary increase over what she was expected to earn in 2022, bringing her annual salary this year to $534,000. She also was...
Stocks extend losses for 3rd week; Netflix plunges
Stocks capped another day of losses on Wall Street Friday with the worst weekly drop for the S&P 500 since the start of the pandemic. Stocks have been falling amid concerns about rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s plan to raise interest rates from historic lows to try and curtail...
Mars gives M&M’s a makeover to promote inclusivity
Candy maker Mars is giving a makeover to its six M&M’s characters as a way to promote inclusivity. The company said that it will provide a modern take on the appearances of the characters — which Mars calls “lentils” — and give them more nuanced personalities. The lentils, which are...
Intel building $20B Ohio chip facility amid global shortage
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Intel will invest $20 billion in a new computer chip facility in Ohio amid a global shortage of microprocessors used in everything from phones and cars to video games. After years of heavy reliance on Asia for the production of computer chips, vulnerability to shortages of crucial...
McDonald’s expanding test of McPlant in U.S. stores
McDonald’s is expanding sales of its meatless McPlant burger to hundreds of locations. The company said the McPlant —— which it co-developed with plant-based protein company Beyond Meat —— will be sold at 600 stores in the San Francisco and Dallas areas starting Feb. 14. It’s a major expansion for...
American Airlines reports $2 billion in losses for 2021 as omicron weighs on near future
American Airlines lost $931 million in the fourth quarter to finish a 2021 year that was as much about surviving the covid-19 and its variants as it was about recovering from the devastating pandemic, the company reported Thursday morning. American’s losses totaled $2 billion for the full 2021, a vast...
Mark Cuban’s online pharmacy touting low-cost prescription drugs now open
Mark Cuban’s online pharmacy promising affordable prices on prescription medications is up and running. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company cuts out middlemen and negotiates directly with drug manufacturers and pharmacies for rebates and discounts on behalf of employers, health insurers and government health programs. It says it’s offering...
Amazon heads to the mall with prototype clothing store
NEW YORK — First, Amazon competed with malls. Now, it’s moving inside one. The online retailing giant said Thursday that it plans to open a clothing store in a Southern California mall later this year. It’s the latest foray into brick-and-mortar for Amazon, which already sells more than 10% of...
Rapid rise in mortgage rates startles homebuyers; blame inflation fears
All the big unknowns surrounding the rapid jump in inflation — including how high consumer prices will go and how quickly the Fed will raise interest rates — have put the mortgage market on high alert in early 2022. “Rates have gone up rather quickly and there’s still a little...
U.S. jobless claims rise to 286,000, highest since October
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in three months as the fast-spreading omicron variant disrupted the job market. Jobless claims rose for the third straight week — by 55,000 to 286,000, highest since mid-October, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week...
