Business category, Page 212
Amazon pledges $2 billion to affordable housing in 3 U.S. cities
Amazon will direct $2 billion in loans and grants to secure affordable housing near three American cities where the company employs thousands of workers, the tech giant announced Wednesday. In a first step in the Puget Sound region, Amazon is promising $185.5 million, mostly in loans, to the King County...
U.S. services sector grows for 7th consecutive month
SILVER SPRING, Md. — The U.S. services sector, where most Americans work, grew for the seventh consecutive month in December even as coronavirus cases surged through the holidays. The Institute for Supply Management reported Thursday that its index of services activity grew slightly to a reading of 57.2 last month,...
Wall Street rallies again on Democratic wins, stimulus hopes
Wall Street is climbing to new heights again Thursday on expectations that the Democratic sweep of Washington means more stimulus is likely on the way for the economy. The S&P 500 was 1.2% higher in the first trading after Congress confirmed Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election...
U.S. trade deficit jumps to $68.1 billion in November
The U.S. trade deficit jumped to $68.1 billion in November, the highest monthly deficit in 14 years, as a surge in imports overwhelmed a smaller increase in exports. The November gap between what America buys from abroad compared to what it sells abroad rose by 8% from the October deficit...
U.S. unemployment claims slip to still-high 787,000
The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell slightly to 787,000, evidence of a job market stumbling in the face of the viral pandemic and the damage it has inflicted on the economy for nearly 10 months. Thursday’s figure from the Labor Department, a slight decline from the previous week,...
Walgreens to sell drug wholesale business for $6.5B
Walgreens Boots Alliance will sell its pharmaceutical wholesale business to AmerisourceBergen in a $6.5 billion cash and stock deal. Pharmaceutical wholesalers essentially act as middlemen, purchasing drugs from manufacturers and then distributing them to customers like drugstore chains, hospitals and doctor’s offices. Walgreens said Wednesday that the deal will allow...
In flip-flop, NYSE will delist 3 Chinese companies after all
NEW YORK — The New York Stock Exchange is going ahead with plans to delist shares of three Chinese state-owned phone carriers under an executive order from President Donald Trump, reversing course just days after saying they wouldn’t be delisted. The exchange said trading in the three companies, China Telecom...
Small stocks rally, yields rise as market eyes Democratic DC
NEW YORK — Wall Street is piling into stocks of smaller companies, banks and other companies that would be winners if Washington can prop up the economy with another dose of financial support amid rising expectations that Democrats may take control of Washington. Most stocks across Wall Street were higher...
Where is Jack Ma, China’s e-commerce pioneer?
BEIJING — China’s best-known entrepreneur, e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma, made his fortune by taking big risks. The former English teacher founded Alibaba Group in 1999, when China had few internet users. Online payments service Alipay launched five years later, before regulators said such businesses would be allowed. Both long shots...
U.S. stocks up in early trading, recovering some losses
TOKYO — Stocks are rebounding on Wall Street early Tuesday from their biggest drop since October a day earlier. Energy and materials sectors are leading the gains, with the S&P 500 up 0.4% at 9:40 a.m. Investors are following a run-off election for two senate seats in Georgia that will...
Slack kicks off 2021 with a global outage
Slack, the messaging service used by millions of people for work and school, suffered a global outage on Monday, the first day back for most people returning from the New Year’s holiday. It’s the latest tech glitch to show how disruptive technical difficulties can be when millions of people are...
Target recalls infant rompers, toddler swimsuits over potential hazards
Target has recalled two types of clothing for infants and toddlers that could become a safety issue for the children wearing them. According to information from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the two recalls involve Cloud Island infant rompers and Cat & Jack Infant-Toddler One-Piece Rashguard Swimsuits. Both items...
U.S. construction spending increases solid 0.9% in November
WASHINGTON — Spending on U.S. construction projects increased 0.9% in November as strength in home building offset weakness in other parts of the construction industry. The November gain followed a bigger 1.6% rise in October and left construction spending up 4.4% through the first 11 months of 2020 compared to...
Stocks fall as trading starts for year of great expectations
Stocks pulled back from their recent record highs Monday, as big swings return to Wall Street at the onset of a year where the dominant expectation is for a powerful economic rebound to sweep the world. The S&P 500, which ended 2020 at an all-time high, slid 1.5% after earlier...
Google workers form new labor union, a tech industry rarity
A group of Google engineers and other workers announced Monday they have formed a union, creating a rare foothold for the labor movement in the tech industry. About 225 employees at Google and its parent company Alphabet are the first dues-paying members of the Alphabet Workers Union. They represent a...
Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot shareholders approve merger
MILAN — Shareholders of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Peugeot voted Monday to merge and create the world’s fourth-largest auto company which, its architects hope, can more readily take on an enormous technological shift in the industry. Addressing separate meetings, PSA Peugeot CEO Carlos Tavares and Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann...
Unity manufacturer’s carbide tool earns international industry honor
A carbide cutting tool produced at a plant in Unity has won an international award that has been described as an industry equivalent of the Oscars. ARCH Cutting Tools’ Latrobe branch, located in the Westmoreland Airpark, captured the 2020 Tool of the Year Award in a competition sponsored by ANCA,...
Chewy sends pet paintings to keep customers from straying
NEW YORK — Danielle Schwartz didn’t ask for an oil painting of her cat. But she loves the portrait of Stinky that hangs in her upstate New York home, a surprise gift from an unlikely place: an online pet store. It’s one of the more than 1,000 free paintings that...
Major U.S. stock indexes waver on final day of tumultuous year
U.S. stocks wavered between small gains and losses in early afternoon trading Thursday, hovering near record highs as investors close the book on a tumultuous year. The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged and remains close to the record high it set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which set...
Hedge fund Alden offers to buy Tribune, valuing it at $521M
Hedge fund Alden, Tribune’s largest shareholder, has offered to buy the rest of the newspaper publisher at a price that values it at $520.6 million. Alden sent a letter to Tribune on Dec. 14, according to a regulatory filing posted Thursday, offering $14.25 per share for the stock of Tribune...
Stocks hold on to modest gains, marking another Dow record
Stocks eked out modest gains Wednesday, keeping the major stock indexes on Wall Street at or near record highs. The S&P 500 inched up 0.1%, recovering some of its losses from a day earlier. It’s hovering within 0.1% of the record high it set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial...
Stocks fall as investors turn cautious following recordsVideo
Stocks closed modestly lower Tuesday on Wall Street as investors turned cautious a day after major indexes closed at their latest record highs. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, the benchmark index’s first decline in four days. Investors shifted money away from technology companies, which have been among of the biggest...
John Dorfman: My favorite stocks for 2021
Pfizer, Walt Disney and D.R. Horton are among my favorite stocks for the coming year. As you tune up your portfolio for the coming year — a year that hopefully won’t be dominated by a pandemic, as this year was — here are 10 of my favorite stocks to consider....
More than 190,000 ceiling fans recalled because blades fly off
NEW YORK — More than 190,000 ceiling fans sold at Home Depot are being recalled after reports that the blades fell off while spinning, hitting people and causing property damage. The Hampton Bay Mara indoor and outdoor ceiling fans were sold this year between April and October at Home Depot...
Fired Tyson boss says covid office pool was a ‘morale boost’
One of the Tyson Foods managers fired for betting on how many workers would contract covid-19 at an Iowa pork plant said the office pool was spontaneous fun and intended to boost morale. Don Merschbrock, former night manager at the plant in Waterloo, Iowa, said he was speaking in an...
