Business category, Page 61
Ports seek order to force dockworkers to bargaining table as strike looms at East and Gulf ports
DETROIT — With a strike deadline looming, the group representing East and Gulf Coast ports is asking a federal agency to make the Longshoremen’s union come to the bargaining table to negotiate a new contract. The U.S. Maritime Alliance says it filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National...
Voting technology firm Smartmatic, Newsmax reach settlement in 2020 election defamation case
WILMINGTON, Del. — A settlement has been reached in a defamation lawsuit pitting an electronic voting machine manufacturer targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that aired accusations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election. Newsmax on Thursday confirmed a deal had been reached...
How much will Southwest Airlines change to boost profits? Some details are emerging
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it plans to end the open-boarding system it has used for more than 50 years and start flights with passengers sitting in assigned seats during the first half of 2026 as the company tries to remodel the airline to change with consumer tastes...
Number of Americans filing for jobless aid falls to lowest level in 4 months
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level in four months. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 218,000 for the week of Sept. 21. It was the fewest since mid-May and less than the 224,000...
U.S. economy grew at a solid 3% rate last quarter, government says in final estimate
WASHINGTON — The American economy expanded at a healthy 3% annual pace from April through June, boosted by strong consumer spending and business investment, the government said Thursday, leaving its previous estimate unchanged. The Commerce Department reported that the nation’s gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods...
CrowdStrike executive apologizes to Congress for July global tech outage
WASHINGTON — An executive at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike apologized in testimony to Congress for sparking a global technology outage over the summer. “We let our customers down,” said Adam Meyers, who leads CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence division, in a hearing before a U.S. House cybersecurity subcommittee Tuesday. Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike has...
Department of Justice sues Visa, alleges the card issuer monopolizes debit card markets
NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars. The complaint filed Tuesday says San Francisco-based Visa penalizes merchants...
Wall Street drifts to more records after Chinese stocks soarVideo
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks drifted to more records Tuesday after Chinese stocks soared following a slew of moves by the Chinese central bank to prop up the world’s second-largest economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to set an all-time high for the 41st time this year. The movements were...
John Dorfman: What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Really?
You probably hear about the Dow Jones Industrial Average every day, but how much do you really know about it? Q: What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average anyway? A: It’s a venerable U.S. stock-market index that Charles Dow invented in 1896. It comprises 30 stocks, which the selection committee...
Longshoremen from Maine to Texas appear likely to go on strike, seaport CEO says
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The chief executive over Georgia’s two booming seaports said Tuesday that a strike next week by dockworkers across the U.S. East and Gulf coasts appears likely, though he’s hopeful the resulting shutdown would last only a few days. “We should probably expect there to be a work...
Wall Street hangs near its records after Chinese stocks soar
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records Tuesday after Chinese stocks soared following a slew of moves by the Chinese central bank to prop up the world’s second-largest economy. The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading, a day after setting an all-time high for the...
Kmart’s blue light fades to black with the shuttering of its last full-scale U.S. store
NEW YORK — Attention, Kmart shoppers, the end is near! The erstwhile retail giant renowned for its Blue Light Specials — featuring a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole enticing shoppers to a flash sale — is shuttering its last full-scale store in mainland United States. The store, located...
Stock market today: Wall Street adds slightly to record highs
NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes reached new heights Monday after drifting higher in a quiet day of trading. The S&P 500 rose 16.02 points, or 0.3%, to 5,718.57 and edged past its record set Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 61.29 points, or 0.1%, to its own all-time...
Biden administration seeks to ban Chinese, Russian tech in U.S. autonomous vehicles
NEW YORK — The Commerce Department said Monday it’s seeking a ban on the sale of connected and autonomous vehicles in the U.S. that are equipped with Chinese and Russian software and hardware with the stated goal of protecting national security and U.S. drivers. While there is minimal Chinese and...
‘Short corn’ could replace the towering cornfields steamrolled by a changing climate
WYOMING, Iowa — Taking a late-summer country drive in the Midwest means venturing into the corn zone, snaking between 12-foot-tall green, leafy walls that seem to block out nearly everything other than the sun and an occasional water tower. The skyscraper-like corn is a part of rural America as much...
The benefits of a 4-day workweek, according to a champion of the trend
Companies exploring the option of letting employees work four days a week hope to reduce job burnout and retain talent seeking a better work-life balance, according to the chief executive of an organization that promotes the idea. The trend is gaining traction in Australia and Europe, says Dale Whelehan, CEO...
Before you sign up for a store credit card, know what you’re getting into
NEW YORK — When Mykail James was 19 and working a holiday job at Victoria’s Secret, she took out a store credit card with a $2,000 credit line. When her school break was over, she realized she could no longer afford the payments. After missing a few, she paid off...
Inflation explained: As material, labor costs rise, so do insurance premiums
Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in an occasional series on the causes and impact of inflation. There is a dominant driver when it comes to setting car and home insurance rates: the cost of the items insurance companies cover when they pay out claims. And the cost of...
For home shoppers, the Fed’s big rate cut is likely just a small step towards affording a home
The Federal Reserve gave home shoppers what they hoped for this week: a big rate cut and a signal of more cuts to come. Even so, aspiring homebuyers and homeowners eager to refinance should temper their expectations of a big drop in mortgage rates from here. While the Fed doesn’t...
Labor board rules against Post-Gazette in nearly 2-year employee strike
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette refused to bargain in good faith with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and unilaterally changed workers’ employment conditions, the National Labor Relations Board said in a decision announced Friday. A petition for an injunction was filed in August to force the Post-Gazette to take back workers who...
Battle to save Charleroi glass plant entangled in political campaign for Senate
The battle to save a Charleroi glassmaking plant whose owner wants to close it by year’s end and move operations to Ohio became entangled Friday in the politics of the U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania. Republican Senatorial candidate David McCormick blamed the pending closure of the LCN Corelle Brands plant...
AI may breathe new life into Three Mile Island to supply power to Microsoft’s data centers
HARRISBURG — The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy. The announcement by Constellation Energy comes...
Brazil drought punishes coffee farms and threatens to push prices even higher
CACONDE, Brazil — Silvio Almeida’s coffee plantation sits at an ideal altitude on a Brazilian hillside, whose clay-rich soil does well at retaining moisture from rainfall and a nearby reservoir. Lately, though, water is scarce on Almeida’s modest farm in Caconde, a town in one of Sao Paulo state’s key...
Apple releases AI software for a smarter Siri on the iPhone 16
Apple is accelerating the rollout of a software update that will implant artificial intelligence into its virtual assistant Siri and automate a variety of tedious tasks to coincide with the release of its latest iPhone. The free update enabling the first set of features in Apple’s suite of artificial intelligence...
Penn State to pay $700K in gender discrimination case
Penn State University will pay $703,742 in back wages and interest to settle a U.S. Department of Labor case alleging gender pay discrimination against female staff and faculty, the parties announced. The amount will be shared among the women impacted. Penn State said the inequities found by the department were...
