Business category, Page 2
Jury can’t reach verdict in corruption trial of 2 ex-FirstEnergy executives in $60M bribery scandal
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jurors said they can’t reach a verdict in the trial of two fired FirstEnergy Corp. executives in a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio. A jury in Akron said Friday it was at an impasse in the trial of former CEO Chuck Jones and former senior vice...
Fresh food distributors add surcharges as fuel costs rise
Jesse Filion, who raises chicken, pigs and cattle on 100 acres in Walterboro, South Carolina, made a tough decision in March. He will add a fuel surcharge of $5 for deliveries of his Keegan-Filion Farm meat to homes and the 20 restaurants he serves. Simply raising overall prices wasn’t an...
U.S. consumer confidence inches up despite soaring gas prices brought on by war in Iran
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence inched higher in March despite soaring energy prices brought on by the war in Iran. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose modestly to 91.8 in March from 91 in February. The board said that while rising costs due to tariffs...
Job openings slide to 6.9 million in February, another hint of sluggish hiring in America
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings fell slightly last month to 6.9 million, another sign of sluggishness in the American labor market. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job vacancies slipped from 7.2 million in January. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), showed that layoffs rose and the number...
Gas prices eclipse $4 a gallon in the U.S., the highest since 2022
NEW YORK — U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday as the Iran war pushed fuel prices to soar worldwide. According to motor club AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $4.02 —...
Donut Connection in New Kensington to close
Donut Connection along Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington will close its doors Tuesday, according to the owner of the franchise. Rakesh Patel said he is looking for a location in the Alle-Kiski Valley to open a new franchise. He said he’s eyeing New Kensington or Lower Burrell. Patel purchased...
Rising gasoline prices are a double blow for drivers who use their own vehicles for work
Leslie Sherman-Shafer, an Uber driver in the San Francisco Bay Area, likes to start each shift with a full tank of gas. It used to cost her around $25 to fill up her Toyota Corolla. She’s spent closer to $40 since the Iran war began and pushed up the average...
John Dorfman: What is your sell discipline? Do you have one?
You can find dozens of books and hundreds of articles on how to buy stocks. When to sell them? A deafening silence. It’s not just ordinary investors who struggle with selling. A 2021 paper looked at the performance of 783 institutional investors. These professionals outperformed the market with their buy...
Stocks swing through another shaky day as oil prices keep climbing
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks swung Monday as oil prices kept climbing because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran could end. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% and deepened its loss since the war began to pull 9.1% below its record set early this year. The Dow Jones Industrial...
Powell says Fed is monitoring energy price spikes, but that it’s limited in what it can do
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that it is important to closely monitor inflation amid a spike in energy prices from the Iran war. Powell, who spoke before nearly 400 students at Harvard University as gas prices inched toward an average of $4 per gallon in...
Democrats examine Elon Musk’s role in suspension of business disclosure law
Democratic lawmakers are seeking answers from the U.S. Treasury Department about Elon Musk’s possible role in dismantling a federal business accountability law. The group, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent a letter on Monday morning asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for all communications that could show Musk may...
Worries about global economic pain deepen as the war in Iran drags on
WASHINGTON — U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have driven up prices, darkened the outlook for the world economy, sent global stock markets reeling and forced developing countries to ration fuel and subsidize energy costs to protect their poorest. Ongoing strikes and counterstrikes on Persian Gulf refineries, pipelines, gas fields...
After the flames: Financial, personal hurdles challenge owners reopening a local eatery
The dining room is still a maze of unassembled furniture and the deck is on the back burner, but for the first time since September 2024, the ovens are hot at Ianni’s Pizzeria in Delmont. “We’re so happy to be back!” employee Sarah Barral, 46, of Delmont said as she...
Peoples Gas proposes raising average monthly bill by $16
Peoples Gas wants to raise rates for the average residential customer by just over $16 a month, according to a request filed Friday with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. The hike would amount to another $163 million in annual revenue for the gas utility, which serves more than 700,000 homes...
Multibillion-dollar Nvidia deal brings quiet Saxonburg-based manufacturer Coherent into the spotlight
Coherent executive Steve Rummel offered a peek under the hood Friday at the Saxonburg-based manufacturer’s multibillion-dollar deal with Nvidia, a stock market darling and driving force behind much of the artificial intelligence industry. The agreement was announced March 2 and continues some 20 years of collaboration between the companies. Over...
Workers’ strike at 1 of the largest U.S. meatpacking plants will continue for a 3rd week
DENVER — Thousands of striking workers at one of the nation’s largest meatpacking plants will extend their walkout to a third week as they push for higher wages and better health care. Industry experts said it’s too early to know if the strike that began March 16 at the Swift...
Another PlayStation price hike means the gaming console will cost 30% more than it did last year
The price of a PlayStation is going up by another $100, the second time in less than a year that Sony has upped the price tag on its popular gaming console. Citing “continued pressures in the global economic landscape,” the Japanese company said that as of next Thursday, the PS5...
Stocks fall and oil prices rise after Trump’s latest delay in the Iran war fails to raise much hope
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are falling Friday as Wall Street stumbles toward the finish of a fifth straight losing week, which would be its longest such streak in nearly four years. The S&P 500 sank 1% and deepened its losses a day after its worst drop since the war...
Some Pa. lawmakers call for suspending state taxes on gas and dieselVideo
With average gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, and diesel prices nearly $2 a gallon higher, some Pennsylvania lawmakers are exploring temporarily suspending the state’s taxes on both. “Everybody is talking about affordability, but what are we doing about it? I think we can do something,” state Sen. Lisa...
Federal judge temporarily blocks Pentagon from branding AI firm Anthropic a supply chain risk
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has ruled in favor of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in temporarily blocking the Pentagon from labeling the company as a supply chain risk. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin on Thursday said she was also blocking President Donald Trump’s directive ordering all federal agencies to...
GoFundMe launched to support TSA workers at Pittsburgh International Airport
The Allegheny County Airport Authority Charitable Foundation launched a GoFundMe campaign Thursday, aiming to lift up government workers hit hard by the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown caused by the ongoing federal budget deadlock. By 4:30 p.m., the GoFundMe had raised more than $4,000 for Transportation Security Administration (TSA)...
Wall Street has its worst day since the war with Iran started and crude oil prices rise
NEW YORK — Stocks fell sharply Thursday, and oil prices rose as doubt took over again from hope on Wall Street about a possible end to the war with Iran. The S&P 500 slumped 1.7% for its worst day since January and is back on track for a fifth straight...
Candle studio joins pop-up businesses fueling Downtown’s NFL Draft push
The temperature Tuesday afternoon in Downtown Pittsburgh didn’t climb much above freezing. But patrons at Kayla Branca’s new candle workshop, The Studio by PGH Candle, said they felt something warm wash over them upon entering the Wood Street store. Branca made the shop’s opening official this week with an oversized...
Sony and Honda pull plug on the $100,000 EV that was set to debut in California
As major automakers pare back their EV offerings, Sony and Honda are scrapping their plans to launch a gadget-packed electric vehicle. The move by Sony Honda Mobility comes weeks after Honda announced a $15.7 billion writedown of its EV business and said it would cancel planned production for three of...
U.S. eases Belarus sanctions as Trump says he’ll help U.S. farmers impacted by Iran war
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday announced it had eased restrictions on a group of Belarus-linked financial and potash companies in the latest sign of improving ties between the country’s autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and Washington. The war with Iran has largely stopped the export of nitrogen fertilizers manufactured...
