Business category, Page 9
Makes a lot of cents: Giant Eagle issues over $2 million in gift cards through penny exchange
From a few rolls held in one hand to buckets so heavy they were best hauled in a shopping cart, Giant Eagle’s double-your-money offer for pennies was too good for many to pass up Saturday. “With the way the economy is, every little extra bit of money helps. This is...
A toy maker takes his case against Trump’s tariffs to the Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — Within days of Donald Trump announcing his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Rick Woldenberg was looking for a law firm to help him sue the U.S. president. “I’m not willing to allow politicians to destroy what we have built up over generations,” said Woldenberg, CEO of educational...
Philips Respironics to lay off nearly 200 workers from Westmoreland locations
Dutch health technology giant Philips Respironics has notified state officials it plans to lay off nearly 200 people at three Westmoreland County locations beginning in early 2026. Philips issued a WARN notice to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, part of a move the company initially announced in June...
Pittsburgh autonomous vehicle firm Aurora hits the gas on driverless truck rollout
Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation is accelerating the rollout of its driverless trucks as it looks to evolve from a promising experiment to a profitable enterprise. A new route that launched last week — the company’s second — runs from Fort Worth to El Paso in Texas. It spans about 600 miles....
The great AI buildout shows no sign of slowing
A momentous week in the technology sector made it clear there is no sign the boom in building artificial intelligence infrastructure is slowing — despite the bubble talk. Nvidia, whose processors are the AI revolution’s backbone, became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market value. Microsoft and OpenAI...
What the latest Fed rate cut means for your money — even if the next one is not certain
NEW YORK - The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key interest-rate target by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that another move in 2025 is not guaranteed. “A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone...
Retailers discounting Hershey sweets to boost key Halloween sales
NEW YORK — U.S. retailers are offering more discounts on Hershey goods ahead of its biggest holiday, Halloween, according to data, as the candymaker hiked prices due to rising costs from tariffs and cocoa inflation. The discounts come as overall chocolate candy sales per unit were flat in the 12...
Fed lowers rates, but Powell suggests move may be the last of 2025
WASHINGTON — A policy divide within the U.S. central bank and a lack of federal government data may put another interest rate cut out of reach this year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, as he acknowledged the threats that officials see to the job market but also...
Impact of massive Amazon layoffs unclear in Pittsburgh region
Amazon is cutting 14,000 jobs as it expands its use of artificial intelligence, though it’s unclear how the move will affect the Pittsburgh area. On Tuesday, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, announced the layoffs. TribLive reached out to Amazon to learn how the decision...
Giant Eagle gives opening dates for standalone pharmacies in Mt. Washington, Sewickley
A former Rite Aid in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood will reopen Thursday morning as a standalone Giant Eagle Pharmacy. Much like the Rite Aid before it, the store at 211 Virginia Ave. will fill prescriptions and sell an assortment of health, beauty and wellness products. Where it will differ is...
FDA plans to accelerate biosimilar approvals, report says
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to speed up approvals for biosimilars, or generic versions of complex biological drugs, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The regulator is expected to reduce the number of human clinical studies required for certain biosimilars and cut development costs for medicines made...
Nvidia tops $5 trillion in total value as Wall Street waits for a Fed announcement
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are rising toward more records on Wednesday as Wall Street waits to hear from the Federal Reserve in the afternoon about what it will do with interest rates. The S&P 500 added 0.3% in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 231 points,...
3 Pittsburgh area Oak Street Health locations to close in coming months
Three Pittsburgh-area Oak Street Health facilities will close their doors by February, according to the company. Among 16 total closures nationwide, locations in Homestead, Wilkinsburg and Ingram are each set to shutter. Owned by CVS Health, Oak Street Health operates more than 200 primary care centers throughout the country, specializing...
Key U.S. mortgage rate drops to 13-month low, industry group says
The interest rate on the most popular U.S. home loan dropped last week to a 13-month low after a key reading of inflation came in lower than expected, cementing expectations for another Federal Reserve interest-rate cut. The Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday the contract rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate...
Elon Musk launches Grokipedia to compete with online encyclopedia Wikipedia
Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopedia that the billionaire seeks to position as a rival to Wikipedia. Writing on social media, Musk said that Grokipedia.com is “now live” and its goal is the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Musk has previously criticized Wikipedia...
Westinghouse strikes $80B deal with U.S. for nuclear reactors
Westinghouse Electric Co. announced Tuesday an $80 billion deal with the U.S. government to build nuclear reactors. It’s the latest push from the Trump administration to boost power production as artificial intelligence supercharges electricity demand, and yet another entry into the government’s growing portfolio of private-public partnerships. “This historic partnership...
U.S. consumer confidence slips to 6-month low; worries over job availability rising
WASHINGTON -U.S. consumer confidence eased to a six-month low in October amid worries about the availability of jobs in the near-term, offering more ammunition for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again on Wednesday. The Conference Board survey on Tuesday also confirmed what economists describe as a K-shaped economy,...
Senators urge Trump to reconsider dropping Biden airline compensation plan
WASHINGTON — A group of 18 Democratic senators urged the Trump administration to reconsider its intention to drop a plan by the prior administration to require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation when flight disruptions are caused by carriers. In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation under then-President Joe Biden...
Texas sues Tylenol makers J&J and Kenvue, claiming they hid drug’s autism risks
The makers of Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, were sued Tuesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused them of knowingly hiding the drug’s supposed links to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Paxton, a Republican, filed the suit five weeks after President Donald Trump said using Tylenol...
Microsoft, OpenAI reach new deal valuing OpenAI at $500 billion
Microsoft and OpenAI on Tuesday said they had reached a deal to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, valuing OpenAI at $500 billion and clearing the way for it to become a publicly traded company. Microsoft would hold a stake of about $135 billion...
Trump slams Fed chair again, eyes replacement in a few months
TOKYO — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there was a long list of people who could take over the Federal Reserve, slamming current chairman Jerome Powell as the central bank prepared to meet this week. “We have an incompetent head of the Fed. … We got a bad Fed...
Tesla CEO Musk’s partisan politics cost automaker over 1 million EV sales, report shows
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, which he rebranded as X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker’s U.S. sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with the billionaire’s persona. The findings quantify for the first time how the political actions of the world’s wealthiest person...
Trump’s ‘hot truck’ becomes symbol of Japan trade talks
TOKYO — Long associated with American ruggedness, burly pickup trucks such as Ford’s top-selling F-150 have now become a symbol of international trade talks, showing how far countries such as Japan will go to win over President Donald Trump. When Trump met Japan’s new prime minister and first female premier,...
Amazon to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs in AI push
SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon said Tuesday it will reduce its corporate workforce by about 14,000 people, in a major shakeup driven in part by adoption of artificial intelligence that will result in more cuts next year as well. This will help the company with “further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and...
Wall Street scales fresh highs on tech earnings, U.S.-China trade optimism
Wall Street’s main indexes posted record closing highs for the second day in a row on Monday as investors were hopeful about the prospects for a U.S.-China trade deal and looked forward to a week packed with high-profile technology earnings and a widely expected U.S. interest rate cut. President Donald...
