Business category, Page 182
New York Times buys viral word game Wordle
NEW YORK — The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession. It listed the purchase price as being in the “low-seven figures,” but did not disclose specifics. The Times,...
EPA restores rule to limit power-plant mercury emissions
WASHINGTON — In a reversal of a Trump-era action, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will resume enforcement of a rule that limits power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants. The EPA action restores a rule imposed under President Barack Obama and continues a practice in which...
Trib Total Media CEO to testify before Senate subcommittee on newspaper industry challenges
Trib Total Media President and CEO Jennifer Bertetto will testify Wednesday before a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee on challenges facing the newspaper industry. Bertetto will address the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, headed by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. The hearing is related to proposed legislation aiming...
Stocks end higher, still log worst month since March 2020
NEW YORK — Stocks notched broad gains Monday, but still posted their worst monthly loss since the early days of the pandemic, as Wall Street closes a tumultuous January wracked by worries that imminent interest-rate hikes will make everything in markets more challenging. The S&P 500 came back from an...
Spotify to add advisories to podcasts discussing covid-19
NEW YORK — As a result of protests of Spotify kicked off by Neil Young over the spread of covid-19 vaccine misinformation, the music streaming service said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing the virus. In a post Sunday, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek laid out more...
Prince Harry, Meghan express ‘concerns’ over covid-19 misinformation on Spotify
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have “concerns” about how Spotify has allowed and promoted the spread of covid-19 misinformation on its platform. Prince Harry and Meghan, who inked an exclusive multiyear partnership with the service in December 2020, said Sunday that they are pressing Spotify to take more care...
Economy grew 5.7% in 2021 in rebound from 2020 recessionVideo
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020’s brief but devastating coronavirus recession. The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year...
Hot streak: Nevada casinos win record $13.4 billion in 2021
LAS VEGAS — Nevada casinos continued a hot streak in December, tallying a 10th straight month of $1 billion or more in house winnings and propelling end-of-year figures to a record $13.4 billion. A Nevada Gaming Control Board report released Thursday provided more evidence that gambling recovered last year after...
Pa. to spend $225M to retain, recruit hospital nurses, provide loan debt relief
Local hospital and nursing school officials hope $225 million in federal money being allocated to retain and recruit nursing staff in Pennsylvania, as well as provide debt relief to nursing students, is a step toward reducing a critical shortage in the profession. “Over the past year, we have been providing...
Southwest posts $68 million 4Q profit, expects higher costs
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines posted a narrow $68 million profit for the fourth quarter, aided by full flights during the holidays, but the airline warned Thursday that it expects to lose money in the first three months of 2022. The rise of the omicron variant of covid-19, along with a...
Stocks fall, yields rise after Fed signals rate hike ‘soon’
An early rally on Wall Street gave way to a broad slide for stocks and a surge in bond yields Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled it plans to begin raising interest rates “soon” to fight a spike in inflation that the central bank says is probably getting worse. The...
Traded cryptocurrency in 2021? Here’s how to approach taxes
Professionals have a major piece of advice for those who traded cryptocurrency for the first time last year: Take your tax prep seriously. The IRS has been zooming in on cryptocurrency reporting with increasing interest in recent years. And the last thing you want is to lose money and time...
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...
