Business category, Page 174
Gaming while driving: Tesla allows it, Mercedes does recall
A few days after reports surfaced that Tesla allows drivers to play video games on dashboard touch screens while vehicles are moving, Mercedes-Benz has issued a U.S. recall for a simliar issue. The German automaker said in documents posted Friday by U.S. regulators that the issue affected 227 vehicles and...
U.S. consumer inflation up 6.8% in past year, most since 1982
WASHINGTON — Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8% in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing and other items left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate in 39 years. The Labor Department also reported Friday that prices rose 0.8% from October to November...
In a first, Starbucks workers agree to union in Buffalo
BUFFALO — Starbucks workers have voted to unionize at a store in Buffalo, N.Y., over the company’s objections, pointing the way to a new labor model for the 50-year-old coffee giant. The National Labor Relations Board said Thursday that workers voted 19-8 in favor of a union at one of...
Stocks end modestly higher after a choppy day of tradingVideo
Major stock indexes weathered a bout of choppy trading Wednesday on Wall Street and closed higher for the third day in a row. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, with 62% of the stocks within the benchmark index closing higher. The muted trading followed a strong start to the week that...
Instagram CEO faces senators amid anger over potential harmVideo
WASHINGTON — The CEO of Facebook’s Instagram is facing lawmakers angry over revelations of how the popular photo-sharing platform can harm some young users and demanding that the company commit to making changes. Adam Mosseri is testifying Wednesday at a Senate hearing as Facebook, whose parent now is named Meta...
U.S. business advertise near-record 11 million open jobs
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers posted 11 million open jobs in October, nearly matching a record high reached in July and a sign that companies were confident enough in the economy to expand. A government report Wednesday also showed that the number of people quitting their jobs dropped slightly in October...
Major outage hits Amazon Web Services; many sites affected
Amazon Web Services suffered a major outage Tuesday, the company said, limiting service at many key and popular sites. The company provides cloud computing services to many governments, universities and companies, including the Associated Press. Amazon said in a post an hour after the outage began that it had identified...
Toyota to build $1.3B battery plant in North Carolina
RALEIGH — Toyota announced on Monday that it plans to build a $1.3 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Greensboro, N.C., that will employ at least 1,750 people and help meet the auto giant’s growing goals of electric vehicle sales this decade. Company leaders joint Gov. Roy Cooper and other...
Stocks rise broadly on Wall Street, travel companies reboundVideo
Stocks rose broadly Monday on Wall Street, nearly reversing the S&P 500’s losses from last week, when jitters over a new coronavirus variant roiled markets. The benchmark index rose 1.2%. More than 85% of stocks in the index gained ground, with technology companies and banks accounting for a large slice...
John Dorfman: CEOs buy their own shares at loanDepot, Uber
It pays to keep an eye open when corporate chieftains buy or sell their company’s stock. Here are four dispatches from the (legal) insider trading front. loanDepot Based in Foothill Ranch, Calif., loanDepot Inc. (LDI), is a nonbank consumer lender. Much of its business consists of home equity loans and...
U.S. jobless rate sinks to 4.2% as many more people find jobs
WASHINGTON — America’s employers slowed the pace of their hiring in November, adding 210,000 jobs, the lowest monthly gain in nearly a year. But Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the nation’s unemployment rate tumbled from 4.6% to 4.2%, evidence that many more people reported that they...
U.S. jobless claims rise by 28,000, but still low at 222,000
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week even though the U.S. job market has been rebounding from last year’s coronavirus recession. Jobless claims climbed by 28,000 to 222,000 from the previous week’s 52-year low 194,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which...
Broad rally lifts stocks after run of volatile trading
A broad rally on Wall Street pushed stocks higher Thursday, giving the S&P 500 its best day in seven weeks as the market recouped some of its losses after several days of volatile trading. The benchmark index rose 1.4%, its biggest gain since mid-October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose...
Facebook: Fake scientist used to spread anti-U.S. propaganda
A disinformation network with ties to China used hundreds of fake social media accounts — including one belonging to a fictitious Swiss biologist — to spread an unfounded claim that the U.S. pressured scientists to blame China for the coronavirus, Facebook said Wednesday. The company based in Menlo Park, Calif.,...
Markets turn cautious, reversing an early gain to end lowerVideo
Another roller-coaster ride on Wall Street whipsawed investors Wednesday as an early market rally reversed course by midafternoon, piling up more losses for stocks. The S&P 500 had been up 1.9% in the early going following some better-than-expected readings on the U.S. economy, but the gains gradually gave way to...
Fed survey finds supply-chain shortages boosting inflation
WASHINGTON — Many parts of the country were hit by supply chain disruptions and labor shortages in November, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. In a survey of business conditions around the country, the Fed’s 12 regional banks found that the economy continued to grow at a modest-to-moderate pace, and the...
Omicron unravels travel industry’s plans for a comeback
Tourism businesses that were just finding their footing after nearly two years of devastation wrought by the covid-19 pandemic are being rattled again as countries throw up new barriers to travel in an effort to contain the omicron variant. From shopping districts in Japan and tour guides in the Holy...
November delivers another hit to sinking consumer confidence
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence fell to a nine-month low in November, clipped by rising prices and concern about the coronavirus. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dropped to a reading of 109.5, down from 111.6 in October. It was the lowest reading since the index...
Stocks sink as omicron, rate worries rattle Wall Street
NEW YORK — Already unnerved by the newest coronavirus variant, Wall Street’s losses deepened on Tuesday after the head of the Federal Reserve said it will consider shutting off its support for financial markets sooner than expected. The S&P 500 fell 1.9%, erasing its gains from a day earlier. The...
Ohio court to hear NASCAR challenge of tax on broadcasts
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in a case involving the state’s attempt to tax NASCAR for broadcasting its races in Ohio. At issue before the court is whether the state tax commissioner properly subjected those broadcasts to Ohio’s commercial activities tax during an audit...
John Dorfman: So far, Joe Biden leads all presidents in market performance
So far, Joe Biden leads all U.S. presidents in stock-market performance. We’re in the early days, of course. Biden hasn’t served a full year yet. And the market slide on Nov. 26, if sustained, could change the numbers rapidly. But through Nov. 26, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has...
Wall Street steadies following omicron slide; stocks rise
NEW YORK — Wall Street steadied itself Monday after last week’s stock market slide caused by the newest coronavirus variant, with investors now waiting for more clues about just how much damage it may do to the economy. The S&P 500 rose 1.3% to recover more than half of its...
New Mexico oil regulators aim to limit seismic activity
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico oil and gas regulators are watching closely as increased seismic activity is being reported in the Permian Basin along the Texas state line. Under a plan recently rolled out by the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, pending permits for wastewater injection in certain areas will...
Cyber Monday sales should be robust but business cooling
NEW YORK — Consumers are expected to spend between $10.2 billion and $11.3 billion on Monday, making it once again the biggest online shopping day of the year, according to Adobe Digital Economy Index. Still, spending on what’s known as Cyber Monday could drop from last year’s level of $10.8...
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepping down as CEO
NEW YORK — Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of the social media platform. He has been succeeded by Twitter’s current chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal. Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has been CTO...
