Business category, Page 76
Dallas executive Kimberly Fields to take reins at ATI
ATI will have new leadership July 1. Kimberly Fields will assume the role of CEO to replace Robert Wetherbee, head of the specialty metals company since 2018. Fields of Dallas has served the past two years as chief operating officer and was named president in 2023. “I’m honored to succeed...
The Fed indicated rates will remain higher for longer. What does that mean for you?
NEW YORK — Mortgage rates, credit card rates, auto loan rates, and business loans with variable rates will all likely maintain their highs, with consequences for consumer spending, after the Federal Reserve indicated Wednesday that it doesn’t plan to cut interest rates until it has “greater confidence” that price increases...
Number of Americans applying for jobless claims remains historically low
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week and remains historically low as the labor market continues to show resiliency in the face of high interest rates and elevated inflation. The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending April 27 was 208,000,...
4 new businesses to check out in downtown Greensburg
Downtown Greensburg has some new neighbors. Four businesses have opened along South Pennsylvania Avenue and Otterman Street in recent months, selling gift items, wellness services, baked goods and upscale bar food. The Greensburg Community Development Corporation — a nonprofit focused on revitalizing the city — received 15 occupancy permits from...
Federal Reserve says interest rates will stay at 2-decade high until inflation further coolsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday emphasized that inflation has remained stubbornly high in recent months and said it doesn’t plan to cut interest rates until it has “greater confidence” that price increases are slowing sustainably to its 2% target. The Fed issued its decision in a statement after...
Snyder Mansion-turned-workplace a hit with employees on Pittsburgh’s North Side
It’s not every day a job interview takes place in a historic mansion. But for Logann Woodley of Franklin Park, interviewing inside a sprawling brownstone built for the late Pittsburgh steel and iron magnate William Penn Snyder sealed the deal. Today, it’s the headquarters of Babb, Inc., an insurance broker....
Wall Street holds steady after the Federal Reserve says it will keep rates high
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady after the Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would keep its main interest rate at the highest level since 2001, just as markets expected. The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in afternoon trading, roughly where it was before the Fed’s announcement. The...
U.S. job openings fall to 8.5 million in March, the lowest level in over 3 years
WASHINGTON — U.S. jobs openings slid in March to the lowest level in more than three years, but stayed at historically high levels in a sign that the job market remains resilient in the face of higher interest rates. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that employers posted 8.5 million vacancies...
Trump awarded 36 million more Trump Media shares worth $1.8 billion after hitting price benchmarks
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has secured an additional $1.8 billion worth of shares in Trump Media, according to a regulatory filing this week. Based on the company’s stock hitting certain price benchmarks, Trump was awarded an additional 36 million shares in the company that owns his social media...
Workers, activists around the world hold May Day rallies urging greater rights, more pay
ISTANBUL — Workers, activists and others around the world took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over the pressure of rising prices and calls for greater labor rights. Pro-Palestinian sentiments were also on display. Police in Istanbul used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to...
Ford recalls Maverick pickups in U.S. because tail lights can go dark
DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford is recalling nearly 243,000 Maverick small pickup trucks in the U.S. because the tail lights may not illuminate. The company says a computer can falsely detect too much current on one or both of the tail lamps, causing them to stay dark while the trucks are...
John Dorfman: Checking in with top investors
The website Gurufocus.com tracks the stock picks and performance of a few dozen famous investors. In the past five years, half a dozen of them had annual returns exceeding 17%. Ron Baron leads the parade. His Baron Partners Fund had a 31.2% annual return. In today’s column, we’ll take a...
US challenges ‘bogus’ patents on Ozempic, other drugs in effort to spur competition
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are challenging patents on 20 brand-name drugs, including the blockbuster weight-loss injection Ozempic, in the latest effort by the Biden administration targeting pharmaceutical industry practices that drive up prices. The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday sent warning letters to 10 drugmakers, taking issue with patents on...
Walmart launches store-label food brand as it seeks to appeal to younger shoppers
NEW YORK — Walmart is launching the U.S. retailer’s biggest store-label food brand in 20 years in terms of the breadth of items, seeking to appeal to younger customers who are not loyal to grocery brands and want chef-inspired foods that are more affordably priced. The brand, called Bettergoods, is...
Lawmakers, advocates make last-ditch push to extend affordable internet subsidy
WASHINGTON — Twenty-three million families in the United States will have bigger internet bills starting in May. That’s because a federal broadband subsidy program they’re enrolled in is nearly out of money. Dozens of people joined Biden administration officials, advocates and U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, at...
8 U.S. newspapers sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Microsoft for copyright infringement
NEW YORK — A group of eight U.S. newspapers is suing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the technology companies have been “purloining millions” of copyrighted news articles without permission or payment to train their artificial intelligence chatbots. The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post and other papers...
Supreme Court leaves in place a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify users’ ages
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify the age of their users. The justices rejected an emergency appeal filed by the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry. The provision of House Bill 1181, signed...
Confidence of U.S. consumers continues to decline as Americans worry about the future
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated for the third straight month as Americans continue to fret about their short-term financial futures. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 97 in April from 103.1 in March. The index measures both Americans’ assessment...
Affluent Americans are driving U.S. economy and likely delaying need for Fed rate cuts
WASHINGTON — Since retiring two years ago, Joan Harris has upped her travel game. Once or twice a year, she visits her two adult children in different states. She’s planning multiple other trips, including to a science fiction convention in Scotland and a Disney cruise soon after that, along with...
Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on U.S. roadsVideo
On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board. A quarter-mile ahead, the truck’s sensors spotted a trash can blocking one lane and a tire in another. In less than a second, it signaled, moved into the unobstructed lane...
Williams-Sonoma must pay almost $3.2 million for violating FTC’s ‘Made in USA’ order
NEW YORK — Home products retailer Williams-Sonoma will have to pay almost $3.2 million for violating a Federal Trade Commission “Made in USA” order. Williams-Sonoma was charged with advertising multiple products as being “Made in USA” when they were in fact manufactured in other countries, including China. That violated a...
U.S. probes whether Tesla Autopilot recall did enough to make sure drivers pay attention
DETROIT — The U.S. government’s auto safety agency is investigating whether last year’s recall of Tesla’s Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted on its website Friday that Tesla has reported 20 more...
Fed’s preferred inflation gauge shows price pressures stayed elevated last month
WASHINGTON — A measure of inflation closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained uncomfortably high in March, likely reinforcing the Fed’s reluctance to cut interest rates anytime soon and underscoring a burden for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Friday’s report from the government showed that prices rose 0.3% from February...
These apps allow workers to get paid between paychecks. Experts say there are steep costs
NEW YORK — When Anna Branch, 37, had her hours at work reduced in 2019, she suddenly noticed ads for an app called EarnIn. “You know how they get you — the algorithms — like they’re reading your mind,” Branch said. “The ad said I could get up to $100...
Rooting for Trump to fail has made his stock shorters millions
NEW YORK — Rooting for Donald Trump to fail has rarely been this profitable. Just ask a hardy band of mostly amateur Wall Street investors who have collectively made tens of millions of dollars over the past month by betting that the stock price of his social media business —...
