Business category, Page 250
Zoom to open research and development center in Pittsburgh
Zoom, the video-conferencing software company whose popularity has skyrocketed in the social-distancing age, announced Thursday it will open two new research and development centers, including one in Pittsburgh. The company is seeking an office location near Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland. It will open another center in the greater Phoenix...
Uber to require all drivers and riders to wear masks starting Monday
Uber will require all of its drivers and riders worldwide to wear masks over their faces for the foreseeable future, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said Wednesday. Khosrowshahi made the announcement during a conference call outlining new health and safety steps Uber is taking in order to ease concerns about the...
Drive-in theaters across Western Pa. set to open Friday
Drive-in movies theaters are set to open Friday across southwestern Pennsylvania as the state begins to loosen some coronavirus restrictions that have been in place since March. They include Evergreen Drive-In Theatre near Mt. Pleasant and Dependable in Moon. Others are Brownsville in Fayette County, Riverside in Armstrong County, Skyview...
Texas firm eyes several Levin Furniture stores in bankruptcy deal
The Mt. Pleasant flagship store that was the foundation for the century-old Levin Furniture empire may reopen — but only as part of a new furniture chain under a pending bankruptcy court deal. A Texas-based private equity firm bid $6.7 million to buy leases and unsold furniture in 27 Art...
Wall Street drops after reopening worries lead to late slide
Worries about the downside of reopening the economy too soon are weighing on markets, and Wall Street fell Tuesday to its biggest loss since the start of the month. The S&P 500 dropped 2.1% after spending much of the day drifting between small gains and losses, as investors debate whether...
Twitter to label disputed covid-19 tweets
CHICAGO — Twitter announced Monday it will start alerting users when a tweet makes disputed or misleading claims about the coronavirus. The new rule is the latest in a wave of stricter policies that tech companies are rolling out to confront an outbreak of virus-related misinformation on their sites. Facebook...
State says workers don’t have to report if business reopens illegally
Pennsylvania workers who refuse to report to any business that opens in violation of Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders will not lose their unemployment benefits, a state official said Monday. “If a business opens in defiance of the governor’s orders … those employees may stay home and not lose their benefits,”...
Intel mulls new chip plant amid concern over Asian supplies
NEW YORK — Intel is talking to the Trump administration about building a new semiconductor plant in the United States amid concern about relying on suppliers in Asia for chips used in a wide variety of electronics. A spokesman for Intel, the biggest American chip maker, said Sunday the company...
Trump’s economic team braces for worsening job market in MayVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers on Sunday argued that a “safe” reopening of the U.S. is needed urgently as they stare down the worst job numbers since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, although Trump has said he’s in no rush to enact another round of economic stimulus, the...
Elon Musk threatens to exit California over coronavirus restrictions
Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened Saturday to pull the company’s factory and headquarters out of California in an escalating spat with local officials who have stopped the company from reopening its electric vehicle factory. On Twitter, Musk also threatened to sue over Alameda County Health Department coronavirus restrictions that have...
Stocks rise on hopes that awful jobs report marks the bottom
Wall Street doubled down on its bet that the worst of the recession has passed, sending stocks higher again on Friday despite another historic, crushing report on the job market. Stocks around the world were already rising before the U.S. government gave its monthly report on jobs, in part on...
South African brewer says it may dump 400 million bottles of beer
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South African Breweries, one of the world’s largest brewers, says it may have to destroy 400 million bottles of beer as a result of the country’s ban on alcohol sales that is part of its lockdown measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. South...
33 million have sought U.S. unemployment aid since coronavirus hitVideo
WASHINGTON — Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades. Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions...
Bank of England: U.K. economy to shrink by most since 1706Video
LONDON — The Bank of England warned Thursday that the British economy could suffer its deepest annual contraction in more than three centuries as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, before bouncing back next year. In what it describes as a “plausible” scenario, the bank said the British economy will...
TV broadcaster Sinclair fined record $48 million over Tribune deal
The federal government has fined Sinclair Broadcasting Corp. $48 million, largely because of actions the TV broadcaster took in its failed attempt to acquire smaller rival Tribune Media. Sinclair in 2017 proposed a $3.9 billion deal for Tribune’s TV stations, attempting to extend its reach into new markets. The deal...
Wall Street dips to week’s first loss despite tech’s efforts
Stocks fell on Wall Street Wednesday, sending the market to its first loss in three days, after more depressing data rolled in on the devastation sweeping the global economy. The S&P 500 dropped 0.7%, and three out of four stocks in the index sank. But the market’s losses would have...
Small businesses slash more than 11 million jobs in April
NEW YORK — The nation’s small businesses slashed more than 11 million jobs in April as they were forced to close or suffered steep revenue losses amid the coronavirus outbreak. The tally from ADP counts jobs lost at the payroll provider’s business customers with under 500 workers. The smallest companies,...
With factories dark, GM profit slumps 88%; 2Q likely worseVideo
DETROIT — General Motors’ first-quarter net income fell 88%, but it still managed to make $247 million despite the arrival of the global coronavirus pandemic. U.S. automakers suspended production in much of the world in late March. For GM, that clipped revenue for the quarter by 6%, to $32.7 billion,...
Stocks end higher on Wall Street even after late-day stumble
Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street on Tuesday as more countries relaxed restrictions on businesses, raising hopes for a recovery from the historic plunge that is sweeping the global economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% after losing about half of its early gains in a late-afternoon burst of selling....
U.S. service sector shrinks for first time since recessionVideo
WASHINGTON — The U.S. service sector shrank for the first time in a decade last month as the pandemic forced shutdowns and layoffs nationwide. The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its service-sector index fell to 41.8 in April, compared with a March reading of 52.5. Any reading below...
Treasury says April-June borrowing will be a record $2.99T
WASHINGTON — The economic paralysis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is forcing the U.S. Treasury to borrow far more than it ever has before — $2.99 trillion in the current quarter alone. The amount is more than five times the government’s previous record borrowing for a quarter, $569 billion, set...
Global slowdown drops Kennametal earnings, sales
The global economic slowdown hit Kennametal Inc. hard in the quarter ending March 31, as it earned just 3 cents per share from net income that plunged to just $2.24 million on sales that dropped to $483.0 million, a 19% decline from a year ago. The Pittsburgh-based industrial toolmaker said...
Give me that old time religion: Low-debt stocks
I love low-debt stocks. Companies with little or no debt have staying power when an unexpected emergency pops up — the current pandemic, for example. They almost never have to sell a promising division because they need cash. They may be able to launch new initiatives, make acquisitions or increase...
Wall Street gives back more of April’s leap, led by airlinesVideo
NEW YORK — Stocks are falling in early trading on Wall Street Monday, as the market gives back a bit more of the gargantuan gains made during its best month in decades. Airline stocks had some the market’s sharpest losses after famed investor Warren Buffett said he’d dumped all his...
J.Crew files for Chapter 11 as pandemic chokes retailVideo
NEW YORK — The owner of J.Crew is filing for bankruptcy protection, the first major retailer to do so since the pandemic forced the closing of most stores in the United States. More retail bankruptcies are expected in coming weeks with the doors of thousands of stores still locked, though...
