Business category, Page 182
Ohio retirement fund sues Facebook over investment lossVideo
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s largest public employee pension fund has sued Facebook — now known as Meta — alleging that it broke federal securities law by purposely misleading the public about the negative effects of its social platforms and the algorithms that run them. The lawsuit by the Ohio Public...
Stocks rise on Wall Street as retail sales remain healthy
Stocks closed higher Tuesday on Wall Street as investors reviewed solid earnings reports from big retailers and a surprisingly strong report on consumer spending. The government reported that Americans largely shrugged off higher prices last month and stepped up their spending at retail stores and online. The Commerce Department said...
Americans ramped up retail spending a strong 1.7% last month
WASHINGTON — Many Americans have taken a darker view of the economy as inflation has worsened. Yet so far, they appear no less willing to spend freely at retailers — an encouraging sign for the crucial holiday shopping season. Buoyed by solid hiring, healthy pay gains and substantial savings stemming...
Pfizer asks U.S. officials to OK promising covid-19 pill
WASHINGTON — Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to authorize its experimental pill for covid-19, setting the stage for a likely launch this winter of a promising treatment that can be taken at home. The company’s filing comes as new infections are rising once again in the United States, driven mainly...
John Dorfman: Quidel, Logitech candidates for January Bounce
Punished for their sins, real or imagined, a few hundred stocks are down this year despite a rising market. Investors are busily selling these unfortunate stocks, establishing tax losses that can offset their gains elsewhere. In effect, the losers get kicked while they are down. Some have fallen to what...
Stock indexes end wobbly day mostly lower on Wall Street
Stocks closed mostly lower after wobbling most of Monday on Wall Street as the market comes off its first weekly loss in six weeks and investors move past the recent round of mostly solid corporate earnings. The S&P 500 fell less than 1 point, or less than 0.1% to 4,682.80....
Washington seeks over $38 billion from opioid distributors
SEATTLE — After rejecting a half-billion-dollar settlement, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday took the state’s case against the nation’s three biggest drug distributors to trial, saying they must be held accountable for their role in the nation’s opioid epidemic. The Democrat delivered part of the opening statement in...
Key reason for supply shortages: Americans keep spending
Take a step back from the picked-over store shelves, the stalled container ships and the empty auto showrooms, and you’ll find a root cause of the shortages of just about everything. Even as the pandemic has dragged on, U.S. households flush with cash from stimulus checks, booming stock markets and...
Stocks wobble on Wall Street ahead of retailer earnings
Stocks wobbled in midday trading on Wall Street Monday as the market comes off its first weekly loss in six weeks. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 11:56 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9 points, or less than 0.1%, to 36,109 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%....
‘Buy it now’: The time has come to start holiday shopping or risk missing Christmas
If you haven’t started holiday shopping, you might be falling behind. The culprit is supply chain disruptions. This year, more than any in recent memory, it is imperative to get an early start checking off items for those on your naughty-or-nice list, retail analysts say. “Inventory concerns, combined with constantly...
Amazon workers in New York withdraw petition to unionize
The National Labor Relations Board has confirmed that a group of Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York has withdrawn its petition to hold a vote to unionize. The move comes less than two weeks before the labor board was expected to hold a hearing to determine whether there was...
Stocks close higher, but indexes still end week in the red
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street on Friday, but the market still ended the week lower as inflation worries weighed on investors’ moods earlier in the week. The S&P 500 index added 33.58 points, or 0.7%, to end at 4,682.85. While it closed higher, the benchmark index still ended the...
Johnson & Johnson to split into two companies
Johnson & Johnson is splitting into two companies, peeling off the division selling Band-Aids and Listerine from its medical device and prescription drug business. The world’s biggest maker of health care products, founded in 1886, said Friday the move will help improve the focus and speed of each company to...
Spotify to buy Ohio audiobooks firm, expanding audio ambitions
Spotify on Thursday said it will buy Ohio-based audiobooks distribution company Findaway as the Swedish streaming service continues to expand its audio offerings beyond music and podcasts. “It is Spotify’s ambition to be the destination for all things audio both for listeners and creators,” Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s chief research &...
Kellogg’s files lawsuit against its striking cereal workers
OMAHA, Neb. — The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha complaining that striking workers are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and intimidating replacement workers as they enter the plant. The company based in Battle Creek, Mich., asked a judge to order the Omaha...
Study: U.S. shoppers outspend Chinese to restore luxury market
MILAN — The personal luxury market of high-end accessories, leather goods and apparel has snapped back to pre-pandemic levels as U.S. shoppers outspent those in China in pursuit of the latest fashion trends, according to a study released Thursday by the Bain consultancy. Global consumer spending on personal luxury goods,...
Hot inflation report slams bond market, sends stocks lowerVideo
NEW YORK — An eye-opening report on inflation that was hotter than expected slammed into the bond market on Wednesday, sending yields jumping, and helped knock stocks lower. Prices for beef, electricity and other items that consumers paid in October surged from year-ago levels at the fastest overall pace since...
Hershey goes salty, buys Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels for $1.2B
Hershey is expanding its salty snack portfolio with the purchase of Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels. The Hershey Co. said Wednesday it will spend $1.2 billion for North Dakota-based Dot’s Pretzels LLC as well as Pretzels Inc., an Indiana-based manufacturer of Dot’s Pretzels that operates three plants. The deal is expected to...
U.S. consumer prices soared 6.2% in past year, most since 1990
WASHINGTON — Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.2% in October compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, gas and housing left Americans grappling with the highest inflation rate since 1990. The year-over-year increase in the consumer price index exceeded the 5.4% rise in September, the Labor Department...
U.S. jobless claims drop to pandemic low of 267,000
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a new pandemic low 267,000 last week, another sign that the job market is recovering from last year’s sharp coronavirus downturn. Jobless claims fell by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The four-week average of claims,...
Gas station owners from Rostraver ordered to pay nearly $300K in back wages, overtime pay
A Rostraver couple agreed in federal court to pay $281,029 in back wages, plus $1,762 in civil penalties, for intentionally shortchanging two gas station employees over 30 months. U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn J. Horan in Pittsburgh approved the consent decree between Om Shiva Enterprises Inc. which owns and operates...
John Dorfman: Loews, Graham Holdings are selling below book value
Sure, the stock market’s on the expensive side. But some stocks still are selling for less than book value (essentially, corporate net worth). Why should you care? Because, despite skeptics who say book value is an obsolete measure, buying stocks below book value can be a highly profitable strategy. Beginning...
Former Mon Valley bank reopens as startup incubator
A shuttered bank branch in the Mon Valley has reopened as a nonprofit hub for small businesses and entrepreneurs, thanks to a new partnership fueled by a charitable gift in the form of a hefty real estate discount. The Mon Valley Business Resource Center — now open in the former...
Another day, another record on Wall Street as stocks inch up
NEW YORK — Wall Street clawed its way to more records on Monday, with stock indexes creeping higher after another listless day of trading. The S&P 500 inched up by 4.17 points, or 0.1%, to 4,701.70 after drifting between a small loss and gain through the day. It’s the eighth...
Gun maker Remington moves to Georgia in $100M, 856-job deal
ATLANTA — Gun maker Remington Firearms will move its headquarters from Ilion, New York, to Georgia, with plans to open a factory and research operation there. The company announced Monday that it would invest $100 million in the operation in LaGrange, Georgia, southwest of Atlanta, hiring 856 people over five...
