Business category, Page 189
UFCW, Giant Eagle announce new contract with wage increases
A new four-year contract that Giant Eagle employees ratified last week includes wage increases, continues no-cost health care benefits and provides new protections for LGBTQ+ workers, according to a joint statement released Monday by the company and union. The agreement covers about 5,300 employees who are members of United Food...
GM issues 2nd Bolt recall; faulty batteries can cause fires
General Motors is recalling some older Chevrolet Bolts for a second time to fix persistent battery problems that can set the electric cars ablaze. Until repairs are done, GM says owners should park the cars outdoors, limit charging to 90% of battery capacity, and not deplete batteries below 70 miles...
Indexes inch higher on Wall Street, preserving weekly gainsVideo
Stocks eked out modest gains Thursday on Wall Street, extending the market’s winning streak into a third day and keeping the major indexes on pace to end the week higher. The S&P 500 shrugged off a midday slide and rose 0.2%. Banks, energy companies and industrial stocks weighed on the...
Amazon’s mission: Getting a ‘key’ to your apartment building
Amazon is tired of ringing doorbells. The online shopping giant is pushing landlords around the country — sometimes with financial incentives — to give its drivers the ability to unlock apartment-building doors themselves with a mobile device. The service, dubbed Key for Business, is pitched as a way to cut...
FirstEnergy to pay $230M in settlement in Ohio bribery case
The energy giant at the center of a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio admitted to riveting new details of its role in the conspiracy Thursday as part of a settlement agreement with federal prosecutors, including how it used secret dark money groups to fund the effort and paid a...
Biden says high inflation is temporary, but economists aren’t so sureVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said this week that “no serious economist” is suggesting price increases could spiral out of control, as he sought to reassure Americans that the current spikes are temporary. But some nonpartisan economic experts say they see cause for concern that inflation will continue to climb...
Ford, Argo AI to deploy autonomous vehicles on Lyft network
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. and a self-driving vehicle company it partly owns will join with the Lyft ride-hailing service to offer autonomous rides on the Lyft network. The service using Ford vehicles and a driving system developed by Pittsburgh-based Argo AI will begin in Miami later this year and...
Netflix confirms move into video games as its growth slowsVideo
SAN RAMON, Calif. — Netflix reported its worst slowdown in subscriber growth in eight years as people emerge from their pandemic cocoons. So it’s adding a new attraction to its marquee: Video games. On Tuesday, the video streaming giant announced it will offer video games in its existing subscription plans...
John Dorfman: Netgear, AutoNation appear seemingly cheap based on this ratio
Suppose you had the opportunity to buy a big, lumbering company with huge sales but slender profits. Would you do it? You would if you thought you could turn the company around. Perhaps you could improve the product, raise prices, cut expenses or find other ways to improve those puny...
Pennsylvania casino income continues to break records
Pennsylvania casinos continue to see year-over-year growth, with the industry posting a record $3.87 billion in revenues last fiscal year, according to state regulators. The influx of revenues for casino operators comes after covid-related restrictions had facilities shuttered for several months during the 2019-20 fiscal year, with casinos reporting $2.7...
Stocks regain much of the ground they lost a day earlierVideo
Stocks jumped Tuesday on Wall Street, making up much of the ground they lost a day earlier when worries flared about spreading cases of the more contagious variant of covid-19. The comeback was the latest rebound following a pullback as investors continue to try and assess how badly rising infections...
New cybersecurity order issued for U.S. pipeline operators
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday announced new requirements for U.S. pipeline operators to bolster cybersecurity following a May ransomware attack that disrupted gas delivery across the East Coast. In a statement, DHS said it would require operators of federally designated critical pipelines to implement “specific mitigation...
Amazon to end covid testing at warehouses this month
Amazon will stop testing workers for covid-19 at its warehouses at the end of this month, citing the availability of vaccines and free testing. The company began testing warehouse workers last year when tests were more difficult to secure. Warehouse workers, who were considered essential, packed and shipped orders throughout...
Stocks skid, yields sink as coronavirus fears shake global markets
NEW YORK — Resurgent pandemic worries knocked stocks lower from Wall Street to Tokyo on Monday, fueled by fears that faster-spreading variants of the virus may upend the economy’s strong recovery. The S&P 500 fell 68.67, or 1.6%, to 4,258.49, after setting a record just a week earlier. In another...
AT&T inks 10-year wireless partnership with Dish Network worth at least $5 billion
Dish Network has entered into a “transformative, long-term strategic network services agreement” with Dallas-based AT&T making it the primary network partner for Dish’s mobile customers, according to a regulatory filing. As part of the agreement, Dish agreed to pay AT&T at least $5 billion for access to its wireless network...
Investors dump stocks, buy bonds as virus fears flare again
Resurgent pandemic worries are knocking stocks lower from Wall Street to Sydney on Monday, fueled by fears that faster-spreading variants of the virus may upend the economy’s strong recovery. The S&P 500 was 2% lower in afternoon trading, after setting a record just a week earlier. In another sign of...
Ben & Jerry’s to stop sales in West Bank, east Jerusalem
Ben & Jerry’s said Monday it was going to stop selling its ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem, saying the sales in the territories sought by the Palestinians are “inconsistent with our values.” The announcement was one of the strongest and highest-profile rebukes by a...
Zoom buying Five9 in $14.7B all-stock transaction
Zoom, the videoconferencing company whose growth was supercharged by the pandemic over the past year, will buy the cloud call center company Five9 in an all-stock deal valued at about $14.7 billion. That is far greater than Zoom’s market valuation a little over two years ago when it went public...
With workers in high demand, Western Pa. teens are filling the void
As businesses have taken “closed indefinitely” signs out of their windows and reopened their doors, the landscape of a post-pandemic workforce is changing and depending on an unexpected demographic — teens. Teenagers have become one of the largest segments of the working population. The Associated Press reported that, in May,...
Report: Severe drop in Wyoming, U.S. coal production in 2020
CASPER, Wyo. — A new U.S. report says coal production in Wyoming, the nation’s top coal mining state, fell by 21% in 2020 from the previous year, caused in part by reduced demand during the coronavirus pandemic, low natural gas prices and a longstanding move away from fossil fuels to...
Pennsylvania jobless rate down slightly, payrolls up in June
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate and labor force shrank slightly in June as payrolls crept up, according to state figures released Friday. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9% from May’s adjusted rate, the state Department of Labor and Industry said. May’s initial rate had been...
Trump showerhead rule to increase water flow being dropped
WASHINGTON — So much for Donald Trump’s quest for “perfect” hair. President Joe Biden’s administration is reversing a Trump-era rule approved after the former president complained he wasn’t getting wet enough because of limits on water flow from showerheads. Now, with a new president in office, the Energy Department is...
Former industrial space in Etna to become ‘tech flex’ hub 51 Bridge Street
A former steel pipe manufacturing space in Etna is set to become a “tech flex” hub called 51 Bridge Street, the developer AM Group announced Thursday. “The borough of Etna is rooted with a strong history during Pittsburgh’s steel production and 51 Bridge Street will revitalize and transform it into...
Why are prices for groceries, gas, and used cars going up? Experts explain
A few years ago, Yvonne Ferguson-Hardin had no trouble finding a used car for her oldest daughter. This year, car shopping for her younger daughter has been harder. And stranger. One online seller never showed up to a meeting. Another was actually selling toy cars instead of real ones. Then...
Netflix plans to offer video games in push beyond films, TV
Netflix Inc., marking its first big move beyond TV shows and films, is planning an expansion into video games and has hired a former Electronic Arts Inc. and Facebook Inc. executive to lead the effort. Mike Verdu will join Netflix as vice president of game development, reporting to Chief Operating...
