Business category, Page 172
German watchdog puts Google under closer antitrust scrutiny
LONDON — Germany’s antitrust watchdog paved the way Wednesday for extra scrutiny of Google by designating it a company of “paramount significance,” the first to get that label since regulators got more power to curb abusive practices by big digital companies. The Bundeskartellamt said its decision comes after rules were...
Toyota tops GM in U.S. sales for 1st time ever — but there’s a catch
In a historic turn, Toyota Motor North America has taken the U.S. sales crown from General Motors for 2021 after the shortage of semiconductor chips severely hampered GM’s ability to build enough new vehicles to meet demand. On Tuesday, GM and Toyota both reported fourth-quarter and full-year new car sales...
Slumping tech stocks weigh on S&P 500 even as Dow gains
A slide in technology stocks left the S&P 500 slightly lower Tuesday on Wall Street, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked another all-time high. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 1.3% after a day of choppy trading. The Dow rose 0.6%, thanks partly...
Your BlackBerry dies today: End of an era for iconic handset
BlackBerry devices running the original operating system and services will no longer be supported after Jan. 4, marking the end of an era for the storied device that catapulted work into the mobile era. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry Ltd., the company formerly known as Research In Motion whose signature handset in...
A record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November
WASHINGTON — A record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November, a sign of confidence and more evidence that the U.S. job market is bouncing back strongly from last year’s coronavirus recession. The Labor Department also reported Tuesday that employers posted 10.6 million job openings in November, down...
New auto sales up in 2021, but nowhere near before pandemic
DETROIT — U.S. new vehicle sales rebounded slightly last year from 2020’s dismal numbers, but forecasters expect them to be more than 2 million below the years before the coronavirus pandemic. The reason? Although there are plenty of customers who want to buy new vehicles at hefty prices, there still...
John Dorfman: Robot portfolio: value in extreme
Investors are keenly aware that growth stocks have beaten value stocks five years in a row. So what am I going to recommend today? Some extreme value stocks. Beginning in 1998, I’ve started the year with the Robot Portfolio, comprising the ten cheapest stocks in the market. My measure of...
$29,000 for an average used car? Would-be buyers are aghast
DETROIT — A couple of months ago, a woman paid a visit to Jeff Schrier’s used car lot in Omaha, Nebraska. She was on a tight budget, she said, and was desperate for a vehicle to commute to work. She was shown three cars priced at her limit, roughly $7,500....
New York jury holds drugmaker Teva liable in opioid crisis
Drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals is responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis, a suburban New York jury ruled Thursday in one of few verdicts so far among thousands of lawsuits nationwide over the painkillers. A separate trial will follow to determine what Teva will have to pay in the case, part...
A late slide pulls major US indexes just below record highs
A late slide pulled major indexes into the red on Wall Street Thursday, leaving the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly below the record highs they set a day earlier. The benchmark S&P 500 gave up 0.3%. The Dow and the Nasdaq each fell 0.2%. Trading was...
Tesla Model 3 recall over rear camera connection
Tesla is recalling certain Model 3s because a coaxial cable for its backup camera can become worn and fail to transmit images to the dashboard console. All Model 3s from model years 2017 to 2020 are included in the recall, with as many as 356,309 cars affected, according to the...
U.S. unemployment claims drop to 198,000
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 200,000, more evidence that the job market remains strong in the aftermath of last year’s coronavirus recession. Jobless claims dropped by 8,000 to 198,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell...
$4 per gallon gas possible in spring before relief arrives, outlook says
Gasoline could reach a national average of $4 per gallon early next year, price tracking service GasBuddy says in its 2022 fuel price outlook released Wednesday. For all of 2022, GasBuddy expects the national average price to increase by nearly 40 cents per gallon, from $3.02 in 2021 to $3.41....
Bitcoin worth $15 quintillion is just another day in crypto
Cryptocurrencies made a giant leap in 2021, expanding well beyond their niche among geeks and Redditors. Wall Street strengthened its embrace, with Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman declaring it no fad. New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams said he’ll initially get paid in Bitcoin. And tokenmania invaded pop culture,...
U.S. home prices surge 18.4% in October
WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices surged again in October as the housing market continues to boom in the wake of last year’s coronavirus recession. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, out Tuesday, climbed 18.4% in October from a year earlier. The gain marked a slight deceleration from a...
John Dorfman: Why I own only 2 of the Sacred Seven stocks
There are seven stocks that investors seem to worship. In the parlance of the 1970s, they are one-decision stocks: You are supposed to buy them and never sell them. Call them the Sacred Seven. The blessed septet are Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL, formerly Google), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Apple Inc. (AAPL), Meta...
Wall Street ends higher, marking another record for S&P 500
Technology companies led U.S. stocks broadly higher Monday, extending the market’s recent rally and nudging the S&P 500 to another all-time high. Wall Street kicked off the final week in a banner year for the stock market with mostly muted trading as investors returned from the Christmas holiday and several...
U.S. steps up probe into Hyundai-Kia engine failures and fires
DETROIT — U.S. auto safety regulators have stepped up a series of investigations into engine fires that have plagued Hyundai and Kia vehicles for more than six years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a new engineering analysis investigation covers more than 3 million vehicles from the 2011 through...
A guide to making holiday gift returns
Someone gives you a gift. It’s the wrong size. It’s a duplicate. Maybe you don’t like it. You want to return it. After months of shopping leading up to Christmas, some people will be heading back to the stores Dec. 26. That’s a day known for holiday gift exchanges. In...
Russian court fines Google nearly $100M over content; Meta fined as well
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Friday slapped Google with a nearly $100 million fine and also fined Facebook’s parent company Meta $27 million over their failure to delete content banned by local law, as Russia seeks to step up pressure on technology giants. The Tagansky District Court ruled that...
United cancels over 100 flights on Christmas eve due to omicron-linked shortages
United Airlines Holdings Inc. is canceling over 100 flights on Friday, the day before Christmas, while Delta Air Lines Inc. has cut about 90. United said in an email Thursday that a jump in omicron covid-19 cases is affecting the availability of flight crews and ground personnel. Delta said its...
Markets 2021: Stocks soar, IPOs explode, crypto goes wild
Wall Street delivered another strong year for investors in 2021, as a resurgence in consumer demand fueled by the reopening of the global economy pumped up corporate profits. As of Dec. 22, the S&P 500 had risen 25%, its third-straight annual increase. Along the way, the benchmark index set 67...
Amazon settles with NLRB to give workers power to organize
NEW YORK — Amazon, under pressure to improve worker rights, has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board to allow its workers to freely organize — and without retaliation. According to the agreement, the online behemoth said it would reach out to its warehouse workers — former and...
Consumer prices up 5.7% over past year, fastest in 39 years
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices rose 5.7% over the past year, the fastest pace in 39 years, as a surge in inflation confronts Americans with the holiday shopping season under way. The November increase, reported Thursday by the Commerce Department, followed a 5.1% rise for the 12 months ending in...
U.S. jobless claims unchanged at 205,000
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, remaining at a historically low level that reflects the job market’s strong recovery from the coronavirus recession last year. Jobless claims remained at 205,000. The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, rose to just over...
