Business category, Page 176
Stocks sink on new covid variant; Dow loses 905 points
Stocks sank Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly falling more than 1,000 points, as a new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa appeared to be spreading across the globe. Investors were uncertain whether the variant could potentially reverse months of progress at getting the covid-19 pandemic under...
Dollar Tree makes it official: Items will now cost $1.25
NEW YORK — Faced with the rising cost of goods and freight, discount retail chain Dollar Tree said Tuesday it will be raising its prices to $1.25 for the majority of its products. Dollar Tree said the reason for raising its prices to $1.25 was not due to “short-term or...
Consumer spending rebounds in October, inflation elevated
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending rebounded in October, rising by a a solid 1.3%, but inflation remains elevated, rising over the past year at the fastest pace in more than three decades. The jump in consumer spending last month was double the 0.6% gain in September, the Commerce Department reported...
U.S. GDP slowed sharply in Q3 but big rebound expected in Q4
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy slowed to a modest annual rate of 2.1% in the October-December quarter according to the government’s second read of the data, slightly better than its first estimate. But economists are predicting a solid rebound in the current quarter as long as rising inflation and a...
2 Western Pa. coal-fired power plants to close after new wastewater rule
Climate change isn’t what’s driving some U.S. coal-fired power plants to shut down. It’s the expense of stricter pollution controls on their wastewater. Dozens of plants nationwide plan to stop burning coal this decade to comply with more stringent federal wastewater guidelines, according to state regulatory filings, as the industry...
U.S. to release 50 million barrels of oil to ease energy costs
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered 50 million barrels of oil released from the nation’s strategic reserve to help bring down energy costs, in coordination with other major energy consuming nations, including China, India and the United Kingdom. The move is aimed at global energy markets, but also...
Black Friday loses luster with retailers’ earlier push to maximize holiday sales
Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. That, of course, won’t stop sisters Jenna and Jamie Fratangelo of Scottdale. They’ll have Thanksgiving dinner with their family, get their five children ready for bed, plot their game plan and then head out before sunrise to spend the day shopping for...
John Dorfman: 5 GARP stocks that look like good bets to me
Barring a reversal in the last few weeks of this year, growth stocks will beat value stocks in 2021 for the fifth time in a row. These things tend to run in spurts. Value beat growth seven years in a row from 2000 through 2006. For those who don’t know...
Hedge fund Alden in hunt for another big newspaper chain
Hedge fund Alden Global Capital, one of the country’s largest newspaper owners with a reputation for intense cost cuts and layoffs, has offered to buy the local newspaper chain Lee Enterprises for about $141 million. In a news release Monday, Alden said it sent Lee’s board a letter with the...
A late afternoon slump leaves major indexes mostly lower
A choppy day of trading on Wall Street ended with stocks mostly lower Monday, as a late-afternoon burst of selling derailed the market from another all-time high. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% after having been up as much as 1% earlier in the day and on pace to eclipse the...
No lull in hiring this holiday season as unfilled jobs persist in Alle-Kiski Valley
Job postings at the state Department of Labor’s CareerLink Alle-Kiski remain high, with continued hiring expected through the holidays. As of Thursday, the Alle- Kiski job center, which covers 28 ZIP codes in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, had 480 job openings posted and active, according to Phil Grove, an account representative...
Stocks wobble as Wall Street heads for a mixed weekly finish
Stocks wobbled in morning trading on Wall Street Friday and major indexes were on track for a mixed finish to a choppy week. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1% as of 10:16 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 247 points, or 0.7%, to 35,630 and the Nasdaq...
AAA predicts more than 53 million people will travel for Thanksgiving
AAA Travel is predicting that 53.4 million Americans will travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, an increase of 13% from 2020. According to AAA Travel’s latest data, the combination of 6.4 million more people traveling for the holiday this year and the reopening of the U.S. borders to fully vaccinated international...
Stock indexes end mixed as traders weigh retail earnings
A wobbly day on Wall Street ended with a mixed finish for stock indexes Thursday, nudging the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new highs. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq gained 0.5%, enough for the indexes to set new highs after a modest pullback a day earlier. After...
With supply short, Ford dips toe into computer chip business
Ford Motor Co. is in talks with a computer chip maker to shore up its semiconductor supplies and avoid a repeat of this year’s auto factory shutdowns caused by semiconductor shortages. Few details of the nonbinding agreement with GlobalFoundaries Inc. were released, but the deal aims to boost supplies with...
Deere workers approve 3rd contract offer, will end monthlong strike
DETROIT — Deere & Co. workers approved a new contract Wednesday that will deliver 10% raises immediately and end a monthlong strike for more than 10,000 employees. The United Auto Workers union says 61% of the members approved the deal with the tractor maker on their third vote, even though...
U.S. stocks shuffle lower, pulling indexes further from highs
NEW YORK — Stock indexes shuffled lower Wednesday on Wall Street, pulling a bit further off their record heights. The S&P 500 fell 12.23 points, or 0.3%, to 4,688.67 after earlier drifting between a tiny gain and a 0.4% decline. It’s sitting just 13.03 points below its all-time high set...
Ohio retirement fund sues Facebook over investment lossVideo
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s largest public employee pension fund has sued Facebook — now known as Meta — alleging that it broke federal securities law by purposely misleading the public about the negative effects of its social platforms and the algorithms that run them. The lawsuit by the Ohio Public...
Stocks rise on Wall Street as retail sales remain healthy
Stocks closed higher Tuesday on Wall Street as investors reviewed solid earnings reports from big retailers and a surprisingly strong report on consumer spending. The government reported that Americans largely shrugged off higher prices last month and stepped up their spending at retail stores and online. The Commerce Department said...
Americans ramped up retail spending a strong 1.7% last month
WASHINGTON — Many Americans have taken a darker view of the economy as inflation has worsened. Yet so far, they appear no less willing to spend freely at retailers — an encouraging sign for the crucial holiday shopping season. Buoyed by solid hiring, healthy pay gains and substantial savings stemming...
Pfizer asks U.S. officials to OK promising covid-19 pill
WASHINGTON — Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to authorize its experimental pill for covid-19, setting the stage for a likely launch this winter of a promising treatment that can be taken at home. The company’s filing comes as new infections are rising once again in the United States, driven mainly...
John Dorfman: Quidel, Logitech candidates for January Bounce
Punished for their sins, real or imagined, a few hundred stocks are down this year despite a rising market. Investors are busily selling these unfortunate stocks, establishing tax losses that can offset their gains elsewhere. In effect, the losers get kicked while they are down. Some have fallen to what...
Stock indexes end wobbly day mostly lower on Wall Street
Stocks closed mostly lower after wobbling most of Monday on Wall Street as the market comes off its first weekly loss in six weeks and investors move past the recent round of mostly solid corporate earnings. The S&P 500 fell less than 1 point, or less than 0.1% to 4,682.80....
Washington seeks over $38 billion from opioid distributors
SEATTLE — After rejecting a half-billion-dollar settlement, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday took the state’s case against the nation’s three biggest drug distributors to trial, saying they must be held accountable for their role in the nation’s opioid epidemic. The Democrat delivered part of the opening statement in...
Key reason for supply shortages: Americans keep spending
Take a step back from the picked-over store shelves, the stalled container ships and the empty auto showrooms, and you’ll find a root cause of the shortages of just about everything. Even as the pandemic has dragged on, U.S. households flush with cash from stimulus checks, booming stock markets and...
