Business category, Page 230
Hempfield restaurant closed after mistaken covid-19 case, looks to reopen Friday
Rodney Yemc is at his wits’ end. His 25-year-old Hempfield business, Rodney’s Restaurant, has been closed for a week as he awaits coronavirus test results from as many as 25 employees who erroneously believed they were exposed to covid-19 by another worker. “This really puts you in a situation,” Yemc...
Pandemic grips commerce and hits railroader Union Pacific
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific’s second-quarter profit fell 28% from a year ago as carload revenue tumbled in the coronavirus pandemic. The railroad expects improvement in the second half with full-year carload volumes to be down around 10% compared with 2019, assuming there isn’t a second wave of virus-related economic...
Tesla makes $104M profit in 2Q despite factory shutdown
Tesla overcame a seven-week pandemic-related shutdown at its California assembly plant to post a surprising $104 million net profit for the second quarter. It was the electric car and solar panel maker’s fourth-straight profitable quarter, qualifying it to be included in the S&P 500 index of corporate titans. That decision...
1.4 million seek jobless aid, first increase since MarchVideo
WASHINGTON — The number of laid-off Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time since the pandemic struck in March, evidence of the deepening economic pain the outbreak is causing to the economy. The rise in weekly jobless claims to 1.4 million underscores the outsize role the...
World in isolation, a surge of new users for Twitter
LONDON — The global pandemic is forcing a pullback by advertisers on Twitter, but it’s also led to an unprecedented surge of users. Average daily user growth spiked 34% in the second quarter, the company said Thursday, the largest jump in users ever recorded by the company. Shares of Twitter...
Chestnut Ridge golf resort near Blairsville going up for auction
A former U.S. Steel executive is selling a 345-acre golf course and resort just across the Westmoreland County line near Blairsville. The online auction for Chestnut Ridge Golf Resort & Conference Center, planned for noon Saturday, has attracted local and national attention. “We are seeing quite a bit of interest...
Yelp: More than half of US business ‘temporary’ closures now permanent
More than half of the business closures that were temporary when the covid-19 outbreak began are now considered permanent, according to Yelp. Of the 132,580 closures listed on its website as of July 10, 55% are permanent, up 14 percentage points from the end of June, according to the Yelp’s...
Pa. Consumer Advocate: FirstEnergy can’t recover $60 million alleged bribe from customers
FirstEnergy Corp. would not be able to raise electric rates on its 720,000 West Penn Power Co. customers in an attempt to recoup what federal prosecutors say was $60 million in bribes allegedly paid to Ohio power brokers. Prosecutors allege the bribes were paid in an effort to secure a...
U.S. sales of existing homes jump 20% after a 3-month slump
BALTIMORE — Americans stepped up their home purchases in June by a robust 20.7% after the pandemic had caused sales to crater in the prior three months. But the housing market could struggle to rebound further in the face of the resurgent viral outbreak and a shrinking supply of homes...
Warrendale-based rue21 plans to open 3 new stores amid pandemic
Warrendale-based rue21 found a way to make it through a trying time for retailers during the coronavirus pandemic. While some specialty stores filed for bankruptcy or closed, rue21 will open brick-and-mortar stores in South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas this month, according to a press release. The company sells casual apparel...
Walmart to close its stores on Thanksgiving Day
NEW YORK — Walmart said that it will be closing its namesake stores and Sam’s Clubs on Thanksgiving Day this year, saying that it wants to have its employees spend time with their families during the coronavirus pandemic. The move, announced Tuesday, marks the first major indication of how covid...
John Dorfman: LGI Homes and Progressive show rapid revenue growth
One sign of a good stock is rapid revenue growth. Sure, profits are what ultimately count. But you can’t grow profits for long unless revenue is growing too. Right now, some investors are chasing companies with fast revenue growth but scant earnings or none — the likes of Uber Technologies...
Head of the line: Big companies got coronavirus loans first
NEW YORK — Ever since the U.S. government launched its emergency lending program for small businesses on April 3, there have been complaints that bigger companies had their loans approved and disbursed more quickly. There is now evidence to back up those complaints. An Associated Press analysis of Small Business...
Stirring in oil patch, Chevron buys Noble for $5 billion
NEW YORK — Chevron will take over Noble Energy for $5 billion in the first big deal announced since the coronavirus pandemic shook the energy sector. Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has been shopping for assets since last year and with crude prices down more than 30% this year,...
LL Bean inks first wholesaler partnerships in US
FREEPORT, Maine — L.L. Bean is expanding from its original model of direct-to-customer catalog sales and in-stores sales with an agreement to sell products in Nordstrom, Staples and sporting goods chain SCHEELS. The company’s first wholesale agreements in the U.S. represent a push to get L.L. Bean products in front...
3M files lawsuits for price gouging of N95 masksVideo
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — The leading manufacturer of N95 masks in the United States says it has investigated 4,000 reports of fraud, counterfeiting and price gouging in connection with the product and has filed 18 lawsuits. 3M, based in Maplewood, is among the largest global producers of the N95 mask, which...
EU court cancels U.S. data-sharing pact over snooping concerns
The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people’s data. The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely...
Experts say Twitter breach troubling, undermines trust
HONG KONG — A breach in Twitter’s security that allowed hackers to break into the accounts of leaders and technology moguls is one of the worst attacks in recent years and may shake trust in a platform politicians and CEOs use to communicate with the public, experts said Thursday. The...
Target, Kohl’s, CVS latest to require masks in all stores
Target, Kohl’s and CVS have now added themselves to the list of stores requiring customers to wear a mask while shopping there. Target and CVS joined in on Thursday, while Kohl’s announced their news Wednesday. USA Today reports Target’s mask requirement will go into effect Aug. 1. The policy does...
Stocks open lower on Wall Street; Twitter sinks after hack
NEW YORK — Stocks opened broadly lower on Wall Street on Thursday, extending weakness in overseas markets. The S&P 500 index gave up 0.6% in the early going, led by losses in technology companies. Twitter sank after a breach in its security allowed hackers to break into the accounts of...
U.S. retail sales jump 7.5% in June, but economy still ails
BALTIMORE — U.S. retail sales climbed a solid 7.5% in June, a sign that the economy was healing right before infections from the coronavirus spiked again and dragged down hopes for a steady recovery. The Census Bureau reported Thursday that retail sales are 1.1% higher than their levels from a...
Obama, Biden, Gates Twitter accounts hacked in bitcoin scam
Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam. The ruse included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft...
Mail could be delayed as new postal head pushes cost-cutting
WASHINGTON — Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a “different mindset” to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus...
JC Penney cuts 1,000 jobs as it closes stores
JC Penney says it will cut 1,000 jobs as it tries to fight its way out from under bankruptcy protection. The company last month said it had identified just over 150 stores for closure in the first phase of a restructuring in which it will become a smaller operator. The...
Walmart to require customers to wear masks at all its stores
Walmart will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its stores, including Sam’s Club locations, beginning Monday. The move makes it the largest retailer to introduce such a policy that has otherwise proven difficult to enforce without state and federal requirements. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company said that about...
