Business category, Page 236
How Twitter made its own rules for Trump to break
When Twitter slapped a warning label over President Donald Trump’s tweet Thursday night about riots in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, the company’s official explanation was that the president had violated a rule prohibiting “glorification of violence.” But that justification doesn’t explain why Twitter chose to leave the tweet on the site...
U.S. consumer spending sinks by record 13.6% in face of virusVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending plunged by a record-shattering 13.6% in April as the viral pandemic shuttered businesses, forced millions of layoffs and sent the economy into a deep recession. Last month’s spending decline was far worse than the revised 6.9% drop in March, which itself had set a record...
French carmaker Renault to cut 15,000 jobs worldwideVideo
PARIS — French carmaker Renault said Friday it will cut 15,000 jobs worldwide as part of a $2.2 billion cost-cutting plan, as a brutal drop in industry sales during the pandemic worsened the company’s preexisting problems. Renault, which employs 180,000 and is already negotiating a bailout with the French government,...
White House punts economic update as election draws nearVideo
WASHINGTON — The White House took the unusual step on Thursday of deciding not to release an updated economic forecast as planned this year, a fresh sign of the administration’s anxiety about how the coronavirus has ravaged the nation just months before the election. The decision, which was confirmed by...
Airlines increase job cuts as pandemic crushes air travelVideo
Major airlines on both sides of the Atlantic are cutting even more jobs as they struggle to cope with a plunge in air travel that will leave the airline industry much smaller than it was before the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse. EasyJet said Thursday that it will cut up...
Great Clips sites in Missouri close after virus-related threats
O’FALLON, Mo. — Great Clips has temporarily closed its salons in Springfield, Missouri, after threatening messages that followed news that two hairstylists potentially exposed 140 clients to the coronavirus. Great Clips Inc., which has thousands of franchises in the U.S. and Canada, said in a news release Thursday that its...
Sylvester Stallone trying to unload California vacation home for $3.35MVideo
We’ve all been there. You live in Los Angeles, and that ostentatious vacation home of yours southeast of the city is just a little too much. So you decide, “What the heck? I’ll let it go for $3.35 million. So what if that’s more than a million less than I...
Amazon uses portion of headquarters for homeless shelter in Seattle
Cyber market giant Amazon has created a permanent homeless shelter inside one of its buildings at its Seattle headquarters. The facility is home to 50 families in private rooms and is slated to double that number in the near future, per media website Deadline. Officials at the shelter say they...
In pandemic, drones used to drop medical supplies from skyVideo
With a loud whir and a whoosh, a fixed-wing drone slingshots out of a medical warehouse, zips through hazy skies at 80 mph, pops open a belly hatch and drops a box of medical supplies. Slowed by a little parachute, the box drifts downward and lands with a plop, less...
Boeing slashes 12,000 jobs as virus seizes travel industry
Boeing is cutting more than 12,000 jobs through layoffs and buyouts as the coronavirus pandemic seizes the travel industry, and more cuts are coming. One of the nation’s biggest manufacturers will lay off 6,770 U.S. employees this week, and another 5,520 workers are taking buyout offers to leave voluntarily in...
Tuesday Morning becomes 5th big retailer to file Chapter 11
NEW YORK — Discount goods retailer Tuesday Morning has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the fifth major retailer to do so since the pandemic. As part of the bankruptcy reorganization, the Dallas-based chain said Wednesday it plans to close approximately 230 of its 687 stores over the summer to focus...
Big Oil loses appeal as climate suits go to California courts
LOS ANGELES — A U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday against major oil companies in lawsuits brought by California cities and counties seeking damages for the impact of climate change. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said state courts are the proper forum for lawsuits alleging Big...
Pittsburgh ranks as 7th best city to start a career
New college grads from Pittsburgh, take heart. While this might be one of the most unfortunate times to be starting a career, those in the Steel City have a slight advantage over their counterparts in other cities. A recent data analysis by LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team finds that Pittsburgh is...
New York Stock Exchange reopens as U.S. closes in on 100,000 covid-19 deathsVideo
NEW YORK — The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange reopened Tuesday in a largely symbolic step toward economic recovery, and stocks surged, even as the official U.S. death toll from the coronavirus closed in on 100,000, a mark President Donald Trump once predicted the country would never...
Newmont stock has doubled, and it still looks good
Newmont Corp. (NEM), the largest U.S.-based gold mining stock, has doubled in the past year. Too late to buy? I don’t think so. I believe there are more gains to come. Despite the bear market brought on by the coronavirus, close to 4% of all U.S. stocks with a current...
Debt and coronavirus push Hertz into bankruptcy protection
Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, unable to withstand the coronavirus pandemic that has crippled global travel and with it, the heavily indebted 102-year-old car rental company’s business. The Estero, Florida-based company’s lenders were unwilling to grant it another extension on its auto lease debt payments past a Friday deadline,...
Pandemic job losses hit tourism-dependent states hardest
HONOLULU — The coronavirus pandemic has been particularly brutal to the tourism-dependent economies of Nevada and Hawaii, lifting the unemployment rate in both states to about one-quarter of the workforce. Nevada topped the nation with an April unemployment rate of 28.2%, the worst any state has seen since the national...
Stocks end lower on Wall Street as US-China tensions continue
Stocks closed broadly lower on Wall Street on Thursday as investors weighed more data showing the economic damage being caused by the coronavirus pandemic and another flareup in tensions between the U.S. and China. The S&P 500 fell 0.8%, shedding some of the gains it made in a solid rally...
Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works closing some stores in U.S.
About 250 Victoria’s Secret stores and around 50 Bath & Body Works stores will be closing for good in the United States and Canada, according to news from the chain’s parent company L Brands. USA Today reports a quarterly earnings report by the parent company says sales have declined 37%...
Another 2.4 million apply for unemployment benefits, 39 million in all since coronavirus hit
WASHINGTON — More than 2.4 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week in the latest wave of layoffs from the viral outbreak that triggered widespread business shutdowns two months ago and sent the economy into a deep recession. Roughly 38.6 million people have now filed for jobless aid...
Pandemic could push Macy’s to losses exceeding $1 billion
NEW YORK — Macy’s is warning that it could lose more than a $1 billion during its first quarter after the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed retail operations nationwide. Sales, the New York department store said in a preliminary report Thursday, could plummet to around $3 billion, down 45% from the $5.5...
3M billed government $7.63 for 85-cent earplugs. It now has $1 billion covid contract
WASHINGTON — The company that has been awarded the largest single covid-19 federal contract once boasted it charged the Defense Department $7.63 for earplugs that cost 85 cents a pair to produce. That company, 3M, was awarded a $1 billion contract on April 15 for “medical and surgical instruments, equipment...
Ford shuts down Dearborn Truck Plant when worker tests positive for coronavirus
DETROIT — Ford Motor Company shut down its Dearborn Truck Plant on Wednesday afternoon because of coronavirus, releasing its early shift of UAW hourly workers. “They sent everybody home,” said a UAW worker who asked not to be named for fear of disciplinary action. “We probably got 800 people there....
In wake of coronavirus, Excela’s ink runs from black to red with nearly $36 million in losses
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the current title of Excela Health CEO John Sphon. Until early March, the financial turnaround that Excela Health officials had been expecting for the past year was in full swing. Just two months later, a nearly $3 million profit has turned...
Western Pa. Gordmans stores could close after parent company files for bankruptcy
Several local Gordmans stores, including those in Allegheny Township, East Huntingdon and Rostraver, are at risk of closing for good, another victim of the coronavirus pandemic that left stores largely shuttered across the country. Houston, Texas-based Stage Stores Inc. — the parent company of Gordmans, which has been in operation...
