Business category, Page 3
Business in bloom: Fox and the Fleur celebrates 10 years of floral design
There might not be much blooming outside in Pittsburgh right now, but it’s a different story inside Anne Dickson’s cozy Sewickley flower shop along Beaver Street. Step inside and you’ll be greeted with smiles, sweet scents and beautiful blooms to brighten even the dreariest midwinter day. Dickson fell in love...
Clairton Coke Works to resume work at battery that saw fatal explosions in August
Almost exactly six months after two workers were killed and 11 injured in a series of explosions at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, the nation’s largest coke manufacturing facility will resume operation at one of its batteries Thursday. The first of three explosions occurred at the facility around 10:45 a.m....
Washington Post cuts a 3rd of its staff in a blow to legendary news brandVideo
The Washington Post laid off one-third of its staff Wednesday, eliminating its sports section, several foreign bureaus and its books coverage in a widespread purge that represented a brutal blow to journalism and one of its most legendary brands. The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, called the move painful but...
The wealthy ramp up spending while other Americans tread water, study finds
WASHINGTON — Higher-income Americans and those with college degrees have ramped up their spending more quickly in the past three years than other consumers, according to data released Tuesday, evidence of worsening inequality that may explain some of the growing pessimism about the economy. The data, released by the Federal...
John Dorfman: Fox, ASA display value and momentum
What school of investing do you belong to? The three most popular schools are value (buying cheap stocks), growth (buying stocks whose earnings are growing fast) and momentum (buying stocks that are going up). I’d say that more than 90% of investors fall into one of these three camps (or...
PepsiCo plans price cuts as demand for its drinks and snacks slip
PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo is cutting prices on Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos chips this year to win back customers exasperated by years of price hikes. PepsiCo has leaned on price increases as the cost of packaging, ingredients and transportation rose, but it’s cost the Purchase, N.Y., company in volume....
India’s Modi praised for U.S. trade deal as opposition questions impact on agricultureVideo
NEW DELHI — Indian lawmakers from the ruling coalition praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday for striking a deal with the U.S. that seeks to reduce tariffs on Indian goods, while the opposition raised questions on the impact on sensitive sectors such as agriculture. President Donald Trump on Monday...
Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of investigation into child abuse images and deepfakes
PARIS — French prosecutors raided the offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations including spreading child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. They have also summoned billionaire owner Elon Musk for questioning. X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI also face intensifying...
Robotaxi pioneer Waymo gets $16 billion injection to accelerate expansion plans
Robotaxi pioneer Waymo has raised another $16 billion to help fuel its ambition for its fleet of self-driving cars to provide rides throughout the world while other deep-pocketed rival services backed by Tesla and Amazon try to catch up. The fundraising announced Monday values Waymo at $126 billion. The appraisal...
Musk joins his rocket and AI businesses into single company before expected IPO this year
NEW YORK — Elon Musk is joining his space exploration and artificial intelligence ventures into a single company before a massive planned initial public offering for the business later this year. His rocket venture, SpaceX, announced on Monday that it had bought xAI in an effort to help the world’s...
Some companies tie AI to layoffs, but the reality is more complicated
The one thing N. Lee Plumb knows for sure about being laid off from Amazon last week is that it wasn’t a failure to get on board with the company’s artificial intelligence plans. Plumb, his team’s head of “AI enablement,” says he was so prolific in his use of Amazon’s...
Abu Dhabi royal bought stake in Trump’s Crypto venture, WSJ reports
An Abu Dhabi royal signed a secret deal with the Trump family to buy a stake in their cryptocurrency venture, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing company documents and people familiar with the matter. Emissaries of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan inked a deal with Eric Trump to purchase...
Trump threatens Canada with 50% tariff on aircraft sold in U.S., expanding trade war
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Canada with a 50% tariff on any aircraft sold in the U.S., the latest salvo in his trade war with America’s northern neighbor as his feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney expands. Trump’s threat posted on social media came after he threatened...
Venezuela’s acting president signs oil industry overhaul, easing state control to lure investors
CARACAS — Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday signed a law that will open the nation’s oil sector to privatization, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades. Lawmakers in the country’s National Assembly approved the overhaul of the...
Back to business: Local shops, restaurants come back to life after snowstorm
Small business owners say they’ve weathered a storm that left 10 or more inches of snow on downtown streets this week. It took a mix of snow shovel handiwork, municipal plow trucks and private contractors with backhoes and tri-axle dump trucks to bring business districts back to life. “This storm...
U.S. stocks drift as gold’s price keeps ripping higher
NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market is drifting around its record heights Thursday following mixed profit reports from Microsoft and some other of Wall Street’s most influential companies. The action was strongest again in the gold market, where the metal’s price keeps ripping higher in its astounding run. The...
Former Wholey’s cold storage site in Strip District could become parking lotVideo
Demolishing the former Wholey’s cold storage warehouse in the Strip District was supposed to make way for a state-of-the-art office complex. But four years after the building came down, developer Acram Group has yet to break ground on the roughly 20-floor project. A sluggish commercial real estate market means the...
Breeze adds seasonal Pittsburgh-Louisville nonstop service
Breeze Airways is launching nonstop seasonal service between Pittsburgh International Airport and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, the airline announced Wednesday. Flights will operate on Thursdays and Sundays from May 7 to Sept. 13. Round-trip tickets are available at an introductory rate of $39. Breeze will use 137-seat, single-aisle Airbus...
Holidays and a viral bear cup drive strong quarterly sales at Starbucks
Starbucks reported strong fiscal first quarter as holiday drinks and a viral bear cup helped drive sales. Same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — rose 4% for the October-December period. That was higher than the 2.3% that Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts...
Federal Reserve keeps interest rates unchanged even as Trump continues to insist they be lowered
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve pushed the pause button on its interest rate cuts Wednesday, leaving its key rate unchanged at about 3.6% after lowering it three times last year. Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference that the economy’s outlook “has clearly improved since the last meeting” in...
Amazon cuts about 16,000 corporate jobs in the latest round of layoffs
Amazon is slashing about 16,000 corporate jobs in the second round of mass layoffs for the ecommerce company in three months. The tech giant has said it plans to use generative artificial intelligence to replace corporate workers. It has also been reducing a workforce that swelled during the pandemic. Beth...
Gold buyers and local jewelers adapt to market’s historic price increase
Gold prices hit a record high, but John Henne, owner of Henne Jewelers in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood, said he does not feel worried about the jump impacting his family’s business. “The customer is very resilient,” Henne said to TribLive on Tuesday. He joined other local jewelers and gold buyers who...
UPS to cut another 30,000 jobs in sweeping cost-savings push
United Parcel Service Inc. expects to cut as many as 30,000 positions this year, part of an ongoing effort by the package-delivery giant to rein in costs and boost profitability. The reductions to its operational workforce — a group that includes drivers and package handlers — will be achieved largely...
UPS retires fleet of MD-11 aircraft involved in deadly Kentucky crash
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — UPS announced Tuesday that it has retired its fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes just months after one crashed during takeoff, causing 15 deaths in Louisville. CEO Carol Tome said during a fourth-quarter earnings call that UPS decided to “accelerate our plans and retire all MD-11...
TikTok settles as social media giants face landmark trial over youth addiction claims
LOS ANGELES — TikTok agreed to settle a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off, the plaintiff’s attorneys confirmed. The social video platform was one of three companies — along with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube — facing claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm...
