Business category, Page 189
John Dorfman: My fat profit margin stocks returned 78% in 2020; here’s another 5 to try
It’s been a great year for stocks with fat profit margins. Five fat-margin stocks that I recommended on September 7, 2020 have returned 78.6% through September 3 of this year. Gamco Investors Inc. (GBL), Mario Gabelli’s investment company, led the way with a 136% return. A year ago, I wrote...
Western Pa. business owners lament: Where have all the workers gone?Video
Rod Darby has a great location for The Trailside Pub & Restaurant, overlooking the Youghiogheny River in West Newton. Diners can sit on the deck watching hikers, bikers and runners travel the Great Allegheny Passage, the popular trail connecting Pittsburgh with Washington, D.C. Attracting customers to his business has not...
Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after covid
Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori — an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks. “It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the...
Alle-Kiski Valley employers across all business sectors looking for workers, employment agency says
PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski said Friday it has received more than 300 job postings in the past month. “Jobs are available from virtually every business sector,” said Phil Grove, account representative for PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski. Jobs range from ones for which applicants need no previous experience to ones requiring advanced degrees,...
Electric boats making waves without the noise
The auto industry has raced ahead on an electric wave with more manufacturers joining the race seemingly every day. The boating industry has sputtered far behind, bogged down by low-horsepower engines and batteries that take up nearly half the boat. That’s in the process of changing. Bolstered by new technology,...
$4M deal: Hempfield purchases 43 acres from Excela, agrees to transfer grant
Excela Health will receive $4 million in a deal with Hempfield supervisors, who agreed to pay the health care provider $1 million for a 43-acre parcel of land in the township and transfer funds from a $3 million state grant. County records show Excela originally bought the land for $3.75...
Stocks decline after negative jobs report, bond yields rise
Stocks were falling Friday after a critical report on U.S. hiring showed employers created far fewer jobs than expected. It gave investors pause on whether the delta variant of the coronavirus was starting to impact economic growth out of the pandemic. The S&P 500 index fell 0.1% as of 10...
U.S. hiring slows to just 235,000 jobs after 2 strong months
WASHINGTON — America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a surprisingly weak gain after two months of robust hiring at a time when the delta variant’s spread has discouraged some people from flying, shopping and eating out. The August job gains the government reported Friday fell far short of...
Stocks shake off an afternoon stumble to end modestly higher
The stock market recovered from an afternoon stumble Thursday and ended with some modest gains, enough to mark more record highs for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite. Investors had a fresh batch of economic data to weigh as they gauge the economic recovery, but much of the focus...
GM, Ford halt some production as chip shortage worsens
DETROIT — The global shortage of computer chips is getting worse, forcing automakers to temporarily close factories including those that build popular pickup trucks. General Motors announced Thursday that it would pause production at eight North American plants during the next two weeks, including two that make the company’s top-selling...
East Huntingdon firm gets $579,000 low-interest state loan to build plant
An East Huntingdon firm that manufactures wood shipping crates, pallets and non-wood crates for the military and industry was awarded a $579,072 low-interest loan from the state to buy a 6.7-acre industrial property to build a new manufacturing plant and consolidate operations in a $1.44 million project, the state said....
U.S. jobless claims reach a pandemic low as hiring strengthens
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 340,000, a pandemic low, another sign that the job market is steadily rebounding from the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Jobless claims dropped by 14,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The weekly count has mostly...
Stocks end with miniscule gains, enough to nudge Nasdaq to record
Stocks inched mostly higher on Wednesday, enough to nudge the Nasdaq composite index to an all-time high. Markets continue to remain quiet ahead of Friday’s jobs report and the Labor Day holiday in the United States on Monday. The S&P 500 index rose 1.41 points, less than 0.1%, to close...
S&P 500 ends August higher, its 7th straight monthly gain
A wobbly day on Wall Street ended Tuesday with major indexes slipping just below recent record highs, but the S&P 500 closed out August solidly in the green with its seventh straight monthly gain. Investors are busy trying to figure out just how much of an impact rising covid-19 cases...
Walgreens joins other retailers with starting pay boost
Walgreens will hike starting pay to $15 an hour beginning in October, as employers across the United States continue boosting wages to attract workers. The drugstore chain said Tuesday that the wage hike will take effect in phases and be completed by November 2022. It will affect workers in the...
Survey: Owners frustrated when linking phones to vehicles
Automobile quality rose last year, but glitches in pairing smartphones with infotainment systems frustrated owners more than anything, according to a large U.S. survey of auto owners. For the first time, a brand from Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis, ranked No. 1 for having the fewest problems. Ram trucks finished first,...
Survey: 55% of Americans expect to search for a new job over the next 12 months
The coronavirus pandemic massively disrupted Americans’ working lives, and a new Bankrate survey suggests that it’s causing many of them to now re-evaluate what they want out of their careers. Most Americans (55 percent) who are either employed or looking for a job — what economists would describe as being...
Disney World will resume selling annual passes again Sept. 8
Walt Disney World will resume selling annual passes for its theme parks Sept. 8. Expect new names for the passes — which have increased in price — as well as strengthened ties to park reservations, which are staying around, the company announced Monday. The number of reservations that a passholder...
U.S. home prices soar at record pace in June
WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices jumped by a record amount in June as homebuyers competed for a limited supply of available houses, the latest evidence that the housing market remains red-hot. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index jumped 19.1% in June compared with a year earlier, the largest...
John Dorfman: Lab Corp., 4 other stocks boast value, momentum
Twice a year in this column, I hunt for stocks that seem to possess both value and momentum. Even though the market has hit records lately, it’s still possible to find stocks that have both qualities. Here are five I recommend. Each of them has beaten the Standard & Poor’s...
As Ida leaves Gulf, analysts foresee modest economic damage
WASHINGTON — With more than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi having lost power, Hurricane Ida is sure to take a toll on the energy, chemical and shipping industries that have major hubs along the Gulf Coast. But the impact on the overall U.S. economy will likely be modest...
S&P 500, Nasdaq notch more records even as the Dow slips
Gains for several Big Tech stocks helped push the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite to more record highs Monday on Wall Street, even as weakness elsewhere in the market sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average and small-company stocks lower. The S&P 500 also set a record high last Friday...
Virus variant batters airline bookings for Labor Day weekend
After a surge in bookings early this summer, U.S. airline passengers are planning fewer trips as the spread of the coronavirus delta variant continues to discourage travel. Spending for the Labor Day holiday was down 16% from 2019 as of Aug. 21, while bookings were off 15%, according to the...
PNC to raise base wages to $18 an hour, latest bank to do so
NEW YORK — PNC Bank is the latest large U.S. financial services company to increase wages in a bid to keep and attract employees, raising its minimum wage to $18 an hour while also giving higher-paid workers a bump in pay. The bank said Monday that the wage increase will...
Universal Studios sets opening for 1st theme park in China
BEIJING — Universal Studios announced Monday that its first theme park in China will open in the country’s capital in September. The company set the opening date for Sept. 20, according to a statement and video posted on the Chinese social media site WeChat. Under construction since 2016, the theme...
