Business category, Page 247
Dow tumbles into bear market as coronavirus fears intensify
NEW YORK — Stocks careened lower Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrials sinking more than 1,400 points, as investors became more fearful that the Trump administration and other global governments won’t be able to prevent the coronavirus outbreak from doing significant damage to the worldwide economy. The Dow’s loss dragged...
U.S. consumer prices grew 0.1% in February as food costs rose
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices increased slightly last month, driven higher by more expensive food. The Labor Department said Wednesday that the consumer price index ticked up 0.1% last month, matching its January increase. Prices rose 2.3% compared with a year earlier. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, prices...
Dow surges 4.9% in another wild day on hopes for coronavirus aidVideo
NEW YORK — Stocks on Tuesday recouped most of their historic losses from the prior day as hopes rose, faded and then bloomed again on Wall Street that the U.S. government will try to cushion the economic pain from the coronavirus. The S&P 500 surged as much as 3.7% in...
Airlines slash flights, freeze hiring as virus cuts travel
Airlines are slashing flights and freezing hiring as they experience a sharp drop in bookings and a rise in cancellations in the face of the spreading coronavirus. Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that travel demand has fallen so badly in the past week that it expects one-third of seats to...
Saudi Arabia increase oil output to record highVideo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday it would increase its crude oil production to 12.3 million barrels a day in April, a record amount. The move seems to make good on the country’s promise over the weekend to increase output after Russia...
Twitter in deal with Silver Lake, Elliott; Jack Dorsey still CEO
Twitter says it’s reached an investment deal with Silver Lake and Elliott Management that will keep Jack Dorsey as the social media company’s CEO. Twitter Inc. said Monday that Silver Lake will make a $1 billion investment in the company. That money, along with cash on hand, is expected to...
2 CEOs make million-dollar buys
Two CEOs have made million-dollar buys of their company’s stock in February and March. At Continental Resources Inc. (CLR), CEO William Berry spent $1.6 million to increase his holding by 90,000 shares. He now owns 931,301 shares, worth about $13.8 million at Friday’s prices. Berry has been Continental’s CEO only...
Boston braces for large crowds as 1st pot shop opens
BOSTON — The first recreational marijuana shop in Boston opened Monday, where owners are bracing for large crowds. Pure Oasis owners Kobie Evans and Kevin Hart say they’re preparing for up to 1,000 customers a day to visit the store, which is also the first pot shop owned and operated...
Dow drops 7.8% as free-fall in oil, virus fears slam marketsVideo
NEW YORK — The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 7.8% Monday, its steepest drop since the financial crisis of 2008, as mounting fears over the coronavirus combined with a crash in oil prices to send a shudder through world markets. The drop on Wall Street was so sharp that it...
Comcast publishes unlisted phone numbers of 200,000 customers
Comcast mistakenly posted online the contact information of nearly 200,000 customers who paid the company a monthly fee to keep their phone numbers private. In November, Comcast’s Xfinity unit found that the names, phone numbers, and addresses of customers who didn’t want to be publicly listed were posted on Ecolisting.com,...
Oil plunges 25% as another virus-fueled trading week begins
NEW YORK — Oil prices are plunging amid concern a dispute among producers could lead a global economy weakened by covid-19 to be awash in an oversupply of crude. Brent crude, the international standard, lost $11.44, or 25.3%, to $33.83 per barrel in electronic trading in London. Benchmark U.S. crude...
Congressional panel says Boeing has ‘culture of concealment’
A congressional committee investigating Boeing said Friday that a “culture of concealment” at the company and poor oversight by federal regulators contributed to two deadly crashes involving the grounded 737 Max. The committee’s Democrats said multiple factors led to the crashes, but it homed in on a new flight-control system...
Bond yields sink, stocks fall as investors demand safety
NEW YORK — A dizzying, brutal week of trading dropped one last round of harrowing swings on investors Friday. After skidding sharply through the day as fear pounded markets, steep drops for stocks and bond yields suddenly eased up in the last hour of trading amid hints from Federal Reserve...
U.S. job market looked robust before coronavirus outbreak escalated
WASHINGTON — Hiring in the United States jumped in February as employers added 273,000 positions, evidence that the job market was in strong shape before the coronavirus began to sweep through the nation. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% last month, matching a 50-year...
AGs for crackdown on chemical used to sterilize medical devices
Half of all medical devices used in the United States — from bandages to implantable computers — are sterilized with a toxic gas that has come under critical scrutiny over concerns about air pollution that could cause cancer. Now Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined a coalition of 11...
Looking for next-level amenities with your rental? How about a rooftop farm?
MINNEAPOLIS — Apartment developers in the Twin Cities are accustomed to ginning up out-of-the-box amenities aimed at wooing renters and setting themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market. That includes decked-out dog spas, catering kitchens and refrigerated drop boxes for package delivery. Twin Cities-based Newport Midwest hopes to offer something...
Virus fears grip markets again; stocks and bond yields plungeVideo
NEW YORK — Fear dominated financial markets again on Thursday, and stocks fell sharply on worries about the fast-spreading virus outbreak. It’s the latest shudder in Wall Street’s wildest week in more than eight years. Major U.S. indexes lost roughly 3.5%, and Treasury yields touched more record lows in their...
Stocks soar on plans for more stimulus measures, Biden wins
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared more than 1,100 points, or 4.5%, Wednesday on hopes that governments and central banks around the world will take more forceful measures to fight the virus outbreak. The gains more than recouped the market’s big losses from a day ealier as Wall Street’s wild,...
Twitter tests disappearing tweets, starts in Brazil
SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter is starting to test tweets that disappear after 24 hours, although initially only in Brazil. The company says the ephemeral tweets, which it calls “fleets” because of their fleeting nature, are designed to allay the concerns of new users who might be turned off by the...
Virus hammers business travel as wary companies nix trips
Amazon and other big companies are trying to keep their employees healthy by banning business trips, but they’ve dealt a gut punch to a travel industry already reeling from the virus outbreak. The Seattle-based online retail giant has told its nearly 800,000 workers to postpone any non-essential travel within the...
Dow sinks 2.9% after rate cut fails to stem market’s dreadVideo
NEW YORK — Fear and uncertainty continue to control Wall Street, and stocks fell sharply Tuesday after an emergency interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve failed to reassure markets wracked by worries that a fast-spreading virus will cause a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial average sank 785 points, or 2.9%....
W.Va. House passes bill making it easier to use solar energy
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It could soon be easier for power companies to use solar energy under a bill passed Tuesday in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Lawmakers voted 75-23 to approve the measure after around an hour of debate that revolved around whether it’s better to focus on coal...
Coronavirus spread prompts Fed to slash rates in surprise move
WASHINGTON — In a surprise move, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a sizable half-percentage point Tuesday in an effort to support the economy in the face of the spreading coronavirus. Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference that the virus “will surely weigh on economic...
Federal Reserve cuts benchmark rate by half-pointVideo
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by a half-percentage point in its first emergency rate cut since the Great Recession in response to the spreading coronavirus. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the coronavirus “poses evolving risks to economic activity.” The Fed’s statement Tuesday also said...
Report: U.S. natural gas consumption set record in 2019
Consumption of natural gas, mostly for electric power uses, set a new record in the United States in 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Use of natural gas for the creation of electric power grew by 7% — 2 billion cubic feet per day — but consumption remained relatively...
