Business category, Page 115
Retail sales up 0.4% in April, buoyed by solid job market, easing inflationary pressure
NEW YORK — Consumers picked up their spending modestly in April from March, buoyed by a solid job market and easing inflationary pressures. A bump up in demand for new cars also helped results, according to the Commerce Department report issued Tuesday. Retail sales increased 0.4% in April from March...
John Dorfman: Acuity, Littelfuse join the Do Nothing Club
Some people love stocks that are surging. Others love stocks that have been knocked down. Investors pay less attention to stocks that have been holding still, and therein may lie an opportunity. Some of these Do Nothing stocks may just … well, do something. Hence, my Do Nothing Club. It...
Alcoa strikes 8-year deal to supply Emirates Global Aluminium
Alcoa inked a multi-year agreement for the Pittsburgh-based company to supply Emirates Global Aluminum with smelter grade alumina. The 8-year agreement, which begins in 2024, will allow EGA to procure as much as 15.6 million metric tons of alumina from Western Australia. The deal will represent a significant portion of...
Hill District Federal Credit Union gets $1.1 million from FNB
The Hill District Federal Credit Union received a $1.1 million investment from F.N.B. Corporation, the holding company of First National Bank, with the goal of boosting financial services to the neighborhood. Pittsburgh-based FNB is building its headquarters in Lower Hill. Construction on the FNB Financial Center began in September 2021...
What you need to know about a glass cliff and why it could put Twitter’s new CEO in danger
Less than two months into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk declared that whoever took over as the company’s CEO “must like pain a lot.” Then he promised he’d step down as soon as he found a replacement “foolish enough” to want the job. That person, Musk announced...
3M fires company executive for inappropriate conduct weeks after promotion
WASHINGTON — 3M has fired prominent company executive Michael Vale due to “inappropriate personal conduct and violation of company policy,” the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics announced on Monday. Vale was promoted to group president and chief business and country officer just last month. Vale worked at...
Federal Appeals Court says Elon Musk must abide by SEC settlement
NEW YORK — Elon Musk cannot back out of a settlement with securities regulators that was reached after his 2018 tweets claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla private caused the electric vehicle maker’s share price to jump and led to a temporary halt in trading, an appeals court...
Vending machines are the latest tool for fighting opioid overdoses
WASHINGTON — Vending machines that have long been stocked with snacks are getting repurposed to distribute life-saving supplies to help fight the opioid epidemic. A growing number of cities and local governments are making so-called “harm reduction” items, including the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, available for free via machines. Interest in...
Ed Harrell, former president of Tribune-Review Publishing, dies at 83
Known for his loud, distinctive laugh, Ed Harrell could easily be heard in a crowded room. Once, he was in New York on business and failed to tell his sister that he would be in town. His schedule was pretty booked. They found themselves in the same restaurant, unaware of...
Washington & Jefferson to start offering bachelor’s degree in nursing
Washington & Jefferson College plans to start offering a bachelor’s degree in nursing starting in the fall of 2024. W&J leaders say the move makes sense, with nurses in high demand and the school able to partner with nearby Washington Health System’s Washington Hospital. The college plans to enroll 24...
Wall Street slips as households get more nervous
NEW YORK — Stocks are slipping Friday as a listless week on Wall Street appears to be heading toward a quiet close, even as big worries continue to roil under the surface. The S&P 500 was edging 0.2% lower and on pace for a sixth straight week where it moved...
Airfares take a dip ahead of summer vacation season
Airfare is down a bit from this time last year for Americans eager to travel again. But it’s still more expensive to pack your bags and board a flight than before the covid-19 pandemic. The overall cost of travel is up 18% compared with April 2019 and up 2% versus...
Average long-term mortgage rate falls to 6.35% this week, lowest level in 5 weeks
LOS ANGELES — The average rate on a long-term U.S. home loan is down to the lowest level in five weeks, welcome news for house hunters facing a market constrained by persistently high prices and a near-historic low number of homes for sale. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that...
Elon Musk says he’s found a woman to lead Twitter as new CEO
Elon Musk said Thursday he has found a new CEO for Twitter, or X Corp. as it’s now called — and it’s a woman. He did not name her but said she will be starting in about six weeks. Musk, who bought Twitter last fall and has been running it...
McDonald’s found liable for girl’s burns from chicken nuggets. Next up: Jury to determine how much company will pay
McDonald’s is to blame for not warning customers about the dangers of its overheated Chicken McNuggets, one of which fell on a little girl’s lap and left her with second-degree burns on her upper thigh in 2019, a Broward jury ruled Thursday. A second jury will be empaneled to decide...
Peloton recalling more than 2 million exercise bikes. Here’s why:
Peloton is recalling more than 2 million of its exercise bikes because the bike’s seat post assembly can break during use, posing fall and injury hazards. The recall includes about 2.2 million of the Peloton Bikes Model PL01. The bikes were sold from January 2018 through May 2023 for about...
U.S. jobless claims filings highest since 2021, job market remains healthy
The number of Americans filing for jobless claims last week rose to its highest level in a year-and-a-half, though the labor market remains healthy by historical standards. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 6 rose by 22,000 to 264,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s up from...
U.S. wholesale price data for April points to easing inflation pressures
WASHINGTON — Wholesale prices in the United States rose modestly last month, the latest sign that inflationary pressures may be easing more than a year after the Federal Reserve unleashed an aggressive campaign of steadily higher interest rates. From March to April, the government’s producer price index rose just 0.2%...
Fed’s Tom Barkin: Inflation still ‘stubbornly high’ and isn’t easing fast enough toward 2% targetVideo
Inflation remains “stubbornly high” and is no longer making much progress toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, a top Fed official said Wednesday, hours after price data for April were released. In an interview, Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said he is also seeing some...
‘BlackBerry’ film taps into device that ruled pre-iPhone eraVideo
Almost everyone knows Steve Jobs’ uncanny vision, relentless drive and technological wizardry hatched the iPhone, a breakthrough that continues to reshape culture 16 years after the late Apple co-founder introduced the device to the world. But when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone was the must-have gadget....
U.S. prices stay high, showing inflation pressures persist
WASHINGTON — Consumer prices in the United States rose again in April, and measures of underlying inflation stayed high, suggesting that rising costs could persist for months to come. Prices rose 0.4% from March to April, the government said Wednesday, up from 0.1% from February to March. Compared with a...
Goldman to pay $215 million to end case on underpaying women
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has agreed to pay $215 million to put an end to a long-running class-action lawsuit that accused the Wall Street giant of systemically underpaying women. The New York-based bank struck the deal with lawyers representing about 2,800 female associates and vice-presidents, according to a joint statement...
Wendy’s turns to AI-powered chatbots for drive-thru orders
Wendy’s will begin testing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot next month that will talk to customers and take drive-thru orders, becoming the latest fast-food chain to employ the technology. The system, powered by Google Cloud’s AI software, will be as natural as talking to an employee and has the ability to...
Millennial Money: Should I join a class-action lawsuit?
It might have happened to you a few times in past years: You received an email or mail notice inviting you to join a class-action lawsuit, or notifying you that you’ve been automatically included. But being part of such a lawsuit might be intimidating, especially if you need to opt...
John Dorfman: As rates rise, here are 5 stocks with little debt
Thanks to Jerome Powell and his crew at the Federal Reserve, interest rates are about five percentage points higher than they were a year ago. For stock pickers, that means debt once again matters. This should be a good environment for folks who prefer low-debt companies. Beginning in 1998, I’ve...
