Business category, Page 57
TGI Fridays files for bankruptcy protection as sit-down restaurant struggles continue
Restaurant chain TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy protection Saturday, saying it is looking for ways to “ensure the long-term viability” of the casual dining brand after closing many of its branches this year. The Dallas-based company’s Chapter 11 filing in a Texas federal court accelerates a gradual decline for an...
Wendy’s closing 140 more restaurants as part of push to update its locations
Wendy’s plans to close 140 U.S. restaurants before the end of this year on top of the 100 it said it would close in May. But in a conference call with investors Thursday, the company said those closures will be offset by new restaurant openings. Wendy’s said it plans to...
Downtown Pittsburgh’s Carl W. Herrmann Furs to close
The final week of October, despite temperatures in the mid to high 70s, customers were waiting outside of Carl W. Herrmann Furs. They wanted to say goodbye to a long-standing business in Downtown Pittsburgh. “The store wasn’t even open yet but they were here,” said Carl “Guy” W. Herrmann IV,...
U.S. employers added just 12,000 jobs last month as hurricanes and strikes sharply reduce payrolls
WASHINGTON — America’s employers added just 12,000 jobs in October, a total that economists say was held down by the effects of strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls. The report provided a somewhat blurry view of the job market at the end of a presidential race...
Autonomous truck company Aurora delays hauling freight without human drivers until April
Autonomous truck company Aurora Innovation says it won’t start hauling freight without humans on board until April of next year, a delay from previous statements that commercial service would begin by the end of 2024. The Pittsburgh company on Wednesday said the April launch of driverless semis traveling from Dallas...
McDonald’s E. coli case count rises as federal officials inspect an onion grower
WASHINGTON — Federal officials on Wednesday reported more cases of E. coli poisoning among people who ate at McDonald’s, as government investigators seeking the outbreak’s source identified an “onion grower of interest” in Washington state. The Food and Drug Administration said 90 people across 13 states have fallen ill in...
PepsiCo closing 4 bottling plants and cutting nearly 400 jobs as it streamlines operations
PepsiCo said Wednesday it plans to close four U.S. bottling plants and lay off nearly 400 workers as part of its efforts to streamline its operations. The company said the closures will impact 136 workers in Cincinnati; 131 in Chicago; 127 in Harrisburg, Pa.; and fewer than 50 in Atlanta....
John Dorfman: These 5 stocks are hedge-fund faves
Many of this country’s most talented stock pickers choose to work at hedge funds, where salaries and bonuses often are more attractive than at bank trust departments or mutual funds. Gurufocus.com publishes a screen of stocks that are popular with leading hedge funds. For this column, I took that screen...
U.S. job openings fell in September to a 3½-year low
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings tumbled last month to their lowest level since January 2021, a sign that the labor market is losing some momentum. Still, openings remain well above pre-pandemic levels. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that the number of job openings dropped to 7.4 million in September from...
American consumers feeling much more confident as Election Day nears
WASHINGTON — American consumers are feeling quite a bit more confident this month as Election Day approaches, a business research group says. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index jumped to 108.7 in October from 99.2 in September. It was the biggest monthly gain since March of...
Allegheny Technologies posts 3rd quarter net income of $82.7M
DALLAS — Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) on Tuesday reported third-quarter net income of $82.7 million. The Dallas-based company said it had net income of 57 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs, came to 60 cents per share. The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate...
Vinyl thrives at United Record Pressing as nation’s oldest record maker plays a familiar tune
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — During the six decades since United Record Pressing stamped out the Beatles’ first U.S. single, the country’s oldest vinyl record maker has survived 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, Napster, iPods and streaming services. Now, the Nashville-based company has rebounded so dramatically that some of its equipment and technology has...
McDonald’s value meals turn around U.S. sales in 3rd quarter with customers hungry for deals
Value meals helped turn around McDonald’s U.S. sales in the third quarter with customers smarting from higher prices all over, but that recovery could be dented in the final months of the year by an E. coli outbreak tied to the company’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers. U.S. same-store sales — or...
Who is better for economy, Trump or Harris? Here’s how their policies compare
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series examining where presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on the biggest issues. Today’s segment focuses on the economy. Former President Donald Trump, never shy to borrow from Ronald Reagan, asked supporters at a recent rally in Unity a simple...
Owner Jeff Bezos defends Washington Post’s decision not to endorse as the right, ‘principled’ one
NEW YORK — Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate as “right” and “principled” and pushed back against any notion that he ordered it up to protect his business interests. That decision, announced Friday, has reportedly led to tens...
Volkswagen’s employee council says the automaker plans to close at least 3 German plants
BERLIN — Volkswagen has informed employee representatives that it wants to close at least three plants in Germany, the head of the company’s works council said Monday. Employee council chief Daniela Cavallo said at a meeting with Volkswagen workers at the company’s Wolfsburg headquarters that management also plans cuts at...
Switching jobs? There’s more to do with your 401(k) than just rolling it over
Job hopping is one of the best ways workers have to increase their pay, and a surprisingly solid job market means they still have opportunities. That’s great news for workers, but remember: Make sure you’re setting aside as much into your new 401(k) plan as your old one. When a...
Mark Cuban stumps for Kamala Harris’ economic agenda, says Trump’s will increase inflation
Billionaire and Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban knows a bit about starting and growing businesses, but he first learned about being broke, eating condiment sandwiches and scraping by to keep a fledgling enterprise going. Speaking to a room of small business owners and entrepreneurs Saturday in East Liberty, Cuban, 66, used...
In a suburban Miami shopping center, Kmart’s last ‘Blue Light Specials’ flicker
MIAMI — The last Kmart on the U.S. mainland sits at the west end of a busy suburban Miami shopping center, quiet and largely ignored. All around it are thriving chain stores attracting steady streams of customers in sectors where the former box-store chain was once a major player: Marshalls,...
‘We can do big things’: Shapiro unveils $600M makeover for Downtown Pittsburgh
Buoyed by nearly $600 million of investments, a new plan for Downtown Pittsburgh unveiled Friday by Gov. Josh Shapiro includes nearly 1,000 new housing units, improvements to public spaces in the Golden Triangle and increased public safety efforts. “To have a strong and vibrant commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you have to...
Russia’s central bank raises interest rate to 21% to fight inflation boosted by military spending
MOSCOW — Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21% in an effort to combat growing inflation as government spending on the military strains the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and drives up workers’ wages. The central bank...
McDonald’s says onions from California grower linked to deadly E. coli outbreak
A California grower was the source of fresh onions linked to a deadly E. coli food poisoning outbreak at McDonald’s, officials with the restaurant chain said Thursday. Meanwhile, other fast-food restaurants — including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King — pulled onions from some menus. McDonald’s officials said...
U.S. applications for jobless benefits fall, but continuing claims rise to highest level since 2021
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, but the total number of those collecting benefits rose to its highest level in almost three years. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims fell by by 15,000 to 227,000 for the week of Oct. 19....
Boeing factory workers vote to reject contract and continue 6-week strike
SEATTLE — Boeing factory workers voted Wednesday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a six-week strike that has halted production of the aerospace giant’s bestselling jetliners. Local union leaders in Seattle said the proposal fell short of the majority of support needed from members of the...
U.S. fines American Airlines $50 million over mishandling of disabled passengers, wheelchairsVideo
DALLAS — The U.S. government fined American Airlines $50 million for failing to provide wheelchair assistance to passengers with disabilities and damaging thousands of wheelchairs over a five-year period, The Transportation Department said Wednesday that “in some cases,” wheelchair users were injured, but it did not give a number. American...
