Business category, Page 289
Walmart raises minimum age to buy tobacco to 21
NEW YORK — Walmart said Wednesday that it will raise the minimum age to buy tobaccoproducts and e-cigarettes at its U.S. stores to 21 amid growing pressure from regulators to cut tobacco sales and use among minors. The world’s largest retailer also said it will also stop selling fruit and...
Oops! Small businesses are vulnerable to marketing mistakes
NEW YORK — When Tom Scarda heard about a franchise opportunity called Super Supper, he fell in love with it. He was so confident that he and his business partner decided against researching the concept — a marketing mistake that led to the failure of the business. “It was great...
Burn victims sue Conagra after cans of Pam cooking spray explode
DETROIT — Eight burn victims sued the maker of Pam cooking spray Tuesday, saying they were severely injured when cans of the spray exploded in their kitchens. The plaintiffs’ attorney, J. Craig Smith, says larger cans of Pam and similar cooking sprays made by Conagra Brands have a faulty, U-shaped...
Worsening U.S.-China trade tensions rattle financial marketsVideo
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 470 points Tuesday amid a broad sell-off on Wall Street as the United States and China moved closer to an escalation of their already costly trade war. The United States was set to impose higher tariffs on China on Friday, a day...
Steel industry leaders see brighter future, tout tariffs at Pittsburgh conference
The American steel industry is basking in the glow of a revival sparked by technological advances and a more level playing field created by tariffs President Trump imposed last year on imported products dumped in the domestic market, industry leaders said Tuesday at a conference in Pittsburgh. The current “golden...
Nestle to cut 4,000 jobs in delivery changes
Nestle SA’s U.S. unit will lay off about 4,000 workers as it stops delivering frozen pizza and ice cream directly to stores and instead transitions to a warehouse model that’s becoming an industry standard for Big Food companies looking to trim costs. The company said Tuesday that it’s shutting down...
Google offers cheaper Pixel phones to spur sales
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google is releasing cheaper versions of its smartphone in an effort to appeal to budget-minded consumers who aren’t willing to spend $800 on the Pixel 3. The more affordable phones are a response to a worldwide slowdown in smartphone sales, which has been partially driven by...
Kennametal posts 10th consecutive year-over-year quarterly growth
Kennametal Inc. this week announced its net income rose to $70.1 million for the quarter ending March 31, up $17 million from the same quarter a year ago, even through sales fell by $10.7 million to $597.2 million. The Pittsburgh-based industrial toolmaker, which has a corporate campus in Unity, earned...
Google expected to show off new hardware, AI at annual event
SAN FRANCISCO — Google CEO Sundar Pichai is expected to showcase much-anticipated updates to the company’s hardware lines and artificial intelligence. Google will also likely address privacy updates as concerns about data sharing continue to plague the tech industry. Facebook dedicated much of its own conference last week to addressing...
John Dorfman: 4 stocks with tiny debt or none at all
Low debt is a characteristic I love when picking stocks. The low-debt stock list you are about to read is the 17th in a series, published pretty much every year in May. My picks in the first 16 low-debt lists have averaged a total return (including dividends) of 28.5% in...
Warren Buffett says trade war with China would be bad for world
OMAHA, Neb. — Investor Warren Buffett says if the U.S. has a full-blown trade war with China, it will be bad for the entire world. Buffett appeared on CNBC Monday with Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who serves on Berkshire’s board. Over the weekend,...
Boeing held off for months on disclosing faulty alert on 737 Max
Boeing knew months before a deadly 737 Max crash that a cockpit alert wasn’t working the way the company had told buyers of the single-aisle jetliner. But the planemaker didn’t share its findings with airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration until after a Lion Air plane went down off the...
Microsoft offers software tools to secure elections
Microsoft announced an ambitious effort it says will make voting secure, verifiable and more transparent with open-source software. Two of the three top U.S elections vendors have expressed interest in potentially incorporating the software into their voting systems. The software kit is being developed with Galois, an Oregon-based company separately...
Alexa has been eavesdropping on you this whole time
Would you let a stranger eavesdrop in your home and keep the recordings? For most people, the answer is, “Are you crazy?” Yet, that’s essentially what Amazon has been doing to millions of us with its assistant Alexa in microphone-equipped Echo speakers. And it’s hardly alone: Bugging our homes is...
Markets swoon after Trump threatens to hike China tariffs
BANGKOK — World markets swooned Monday after President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs on imports from China at a time when investors were expecting trade tensions to subside. The CAC 40 in France lost 2.2% in early trading to 5,428.65 while Germany’s DAX skidded 2.1% to 12,150.16. London’s markets...
Kraft Heinz restates earnings over period of 2+ years
PITTSBURGH — Kraft Heinz is restating its financial results for the years 2016, 2017, and for the first nine months of 2018. The company said in February that it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its procurement operations. Kraft Heinz Co. said in a regulatory filing...
Trump threatens to raise Chinese tariffs to 25% this week
WASHINGTON — President Trump turned up the pressure on China on Sunday, threatening to hike tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Trump’s comments, delivered on Twitter, came as a Chinese delegation was scheduled to resume talks in Washington on Wednesday aimed at resolving a trade war that has...
No green thumb? Robot planter can walk to sunlight, throws tantrum for water
Be honest: How many plants have you killed? Maybe you forgot to water it. Maybe you failed to move it into the sun. But what if your planter could tell you when to water it? What if it didn’t need you to get it some sunlight? Enter the HEXA Plant...
U.S. adds robust 263K jobs; unemployment at 49-year low: 3.6%
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and anticipate strong customer demand. The unemployment rate fell to a five-decade low of 3.6% from 3.8%, though that drop partly reflected an increase...
Facebook bans ‘dangerous individuals’ cited for hate speech
SAN FRANCISCO — After years of pressure to crack down on hate and bigotry, Facebook has banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and other extremists, saying they violated its ban on “dangerous individuals.” The company also removed right-wing personalities Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer, along with...
Environmental groups file notice to sue U.S. Steel
U.S. Steel could be facing another federal lawsuit, air quality advocates announced Thursday. Environmental Integrity Project, the Breathe Project and the Clean Air Council filed a notice to U.S. Steel as well as federal, state and local agencies for air pollution stating that they intend to sue U.S. Steel over...
Maine becomes 1st state to ban single-use foam containers
AUGUSTA — Maine has banned single-use food and drink containers made from polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, becoming the first state to do so. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed the bill, which takes effect in 2021, into law Tuesday. Environmental groups have sought such bans amid rising public awareness...
London marathon runners quench thirst with sports drink in edible seaweed pods
No, the runners did not have to eat them, but they could. The golf ball-sized pouches made from seaweed and filled with a sports drink were handed out to thousands of runners for the London marathon on April 28. The marathon offered “race organizers and company officials a mass experiment...
Fed signals neither a rate hike nor a cut is likely soon
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday and signaled that it’s unlikely to either raise or cut rates in coming months amid signs of renewed economic health but unusually low inflation. The Fed left its benchmark rate — which influences many consumer and business loans...
Apple’s fiscal 2Q revenue, profit sag amid iPhone slump
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple’s sales are still shrinking amid weakening iPhone demand, despite the company’s effort to emphasize services designed to bring in a steady flow of money from the 1.4 billion of its devices still in use. Revenue for the January-March quarter fell 5% from the same time in...
