Business category, Page 95
Invenergy scraps plan for gas-fueled power plant in southern Allegheny County
A Chicago-based company has scrapped plans to build a natural gas-fueled power plant on the Youghiogheny River in southern Allegheny County. Invenergy requested to terminate its Allegheny County Health Department permit for the project last week, according to county records. A company spokesperson said Invenergy was dropping the proposal in...
Want to buy now, pay later this holiday season? Ask yourself these 5 questions first
Shoppers gearing up for the 2023 holiday season won’t have to look hard for a convenient way to pay for all those presents. ” Buy now, pay later,” a type of payment plan that divides the total cost of your purchase into smaller installments, is offered at most major retailers,...
U.S. producer prices slide 0.5% in October, biggest drop since 2020
WASHINGTON — U.S. wholesale prices fell sharply last month as inflationary pressure continued to ease after a year and a half of higher interest rates. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — dropped 0.5% in October from September,...
Target puts up strong 3rd quarter numbers with customers under pressure from inflation
NEW YORK — Target on Wednesday reported better-than-expected profits and sales in its third quarter, benefiting from efforts to hold down costs. Revenue slipped more than 4%, however, with customers saddled with broadly higher costs as the holiday season nears. The Minneapolis retailer has been trying to right itself after...
John Dorfman: Kraft Heinz, Capital One look good based on book value
I believe the value approach to investing is in the early stages of a comeback, after a decade in retreat. Roughly speaking and oversimplifying, value was usually a good stock-picking method from 1930 to 2013. Since then, growth and momentum investors have smiled, while value investors have wept. A stock...
Westmoreland airport contemplates future as airline merger looms
Local leaders insist they don’t know what the future holds for Arnold Palmer Regional Airport amid fears the Unity facility’s lone carrier could pull up stakes pending the outcome of a proposed airline merger. “We don’t have a plan,” said Westmoreland County Airport Authority board member Richard Ridilla. “No one...
Astrobotic expansion could spur creation of ‘space district’ in Pittsburgh, officials say
Pittsburgh’s leading space company said Tuesday it plans to move some of its operations into a $20 million office building on the North Side and more than double its workforce. Astrobotic, a Manchester-based company that builds equipment to send to the moon, said it has bought a five-story building on...
Disney says it has $40 billion economic impact in Florida as it battles DeSantis in court
ORLANDO, Fla. — Disney on Tuesday released a study showing its economic impact in Florida at $40.3 billion as it battles Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointees over their takeover of the district that governs the entertainment company’s massive resort in central Florida. Disney accounted for 263,000 jobs in...
YouTube creators will soon have to disclose use of gen AI in videos or risk suspension
YouTube is rolling out new rules for AI content, including a requirement that creators reveal whether they’ve used generative artificial intelligence to make realistic-looking videos. In a blog post Tuesday outlining a number of AI-related policy updates, YouTube said creators that don’t disclose whether they’ve used AI tools to make...
U.S. consumer inflation eased in October, driven lower by cheaper gas, cars and airfares
WASHINGTON — Inflation in the U.S. slowed last month in a sign that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are continuing to cool the consumer price spikes that have bedeviled consumers for the past two years. Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that prices either fell or rose only...
Giant Eagle to merge fuel discounts with newer myPerks loyalty program
Giant Eagle customers who have been earning GetGo gasoline discounts through the supermarket’s fuelperks+ loyalty program will be switched to the store’s newer myPerks program next year. Giant Eagle announced on its website that it will retire the fuelperks+ program effective Jan. 25 and will automatically move customers with accounts...
Moody’s lowers U.S. credit outlook, though keeps triple-A rating
WASHINGTON — The credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook on the U.S. government’s debt on Friday to “negative” from “stable,” citing the cost of rising interest rates and political polarization in Congress. Moody’s retained its top triple-A credit rating on U.S. government debt, though it is the...
Highmark CEO’s pay tops $9.47 million in 2022
Highmark President David Holmberg took home about $9.47 million in 2022, an increase of 9.6% over his compensation in the previous year, according to financial statements filed Friday. For Holmberg, who also serves as board chairman, that pay package includes a base compensation of about $1.57 million and bonuses and...
Pittsburgh’s URA to help fund Oakland housing development for low-income LGBTQ+ seniors
Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority is providing a $1.6 million loan to developers who want to build a six-story apartment building in South Oakland that caters to low-income LGBTQ+ seniors. The Oakland Pride development on Forbes Avenue, approved in September by the Planning Commission, will have 48 apartments, all of them...
Pittsburgh office market stabilized in 3rd quarter after being pummeled by pandemic
Office vacancies in Pittsburgh stabilized in the third quarter after the market was pummeled by a pandemic that forced many workers out of offices and into their homes, according to reports from two real estate firms. “One of the reasons why you haven’t seen much adjustment to the overall vacancy...
From Hollywood to auto work, organized labor is flexing its muscles. Where do unions stand today?
NEW YORK — Once again, U.S. labor unions are flexing their muscles in the national spotlight. In Hollywood, the actors union reached a tentative deal with major studios late Wednesday to end a months-long strike. Las Vegas hotel workers also scored breakthough agreements with Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International...
Hollywood’s strikes are both now over as actors reach deal with studios, return to work with writers
LOS ANGELES — On Thursday, for the first time in more than six months, neither Hollywood’s actors nor its writers will be on strike. The long-awaited clearing in the industry’s stormiest season in decades comes as a deal was reached late Wednesday to end what was, at nearly four months,...
SAG-AFTRA committee approves deal with studios to end historic strike
LOS ANGELES — SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee has approved a a tentative deal with the major studios that would end a nearly four-month-long strike that has sidelined thousands of workers. The tentative contract — which still must be ratified by the union’s board and members — would boost minimum pay for...
First lady Jill Biden highlights Western Pa. workforce development efforts during Pittsburgh stop
First lady Jill Biden visited Pittsburgh on Wednesday and praised the region’s efforts in expanding workforce development programs and other career training initiatives. Pittsburgh was designated a “workforce hub” in May. That provided federal funding and other assistance to existing workforce training programs in the region. Pittsburgh is one of...
Nextdoor lays off 25% of its full-time staff as neighborhood social network works to cut costs
NEW YORK — Nextdoor is laying off 25% of its full-time staff as the neighborhood-focused social network company cuts costs with its losses widening. The job eliminations are part of a larger cost reduction plan that aims to slash Nextdoor’s current personnel expenses by up to $60 million annually, the...
John Dorfman: What’s up most in 2023? Cipher Mining, Carvana
Some of the biggest gainers this year are so obscure that many investors won’t have heard of them. On Nov. 4, I checked the biggest gainers year-to-date among all stocks with a market value of $1 billion or more. And the winners are…. 1. Cipher Mining Inc., up 632% 2....
Millions of retired Americans aren’t coming back to work as predicted
More than three-and-a-half years after covid struck, the U.S. still has around 2 million more retirees than predicted, in one of the most striking and enduring changes to the nation’s labor force. The so-called Great Retirement induced by covid-19 is evident in the divergence between the actual number of retirees...
WeWork seeks bankruptcy protection, a stunning fall for a firm once valued at close to $50 billion
NEW YORK — WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a stunning fall for the office sharing company once seen as a Wall Street darling that promised to upend the way people went to work around the world. In a late Monday announcement, WeWork said it entered into a...
Fortnite maker accuses Google of bullying and bribing to block competition to its Android app store
SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Monday confronted the second major U.S. antitrust trial in two months to cast the internet powerhouse as a brazen bully that uses its immense wealth and people’s dependence on one of its main products to stifle competition at consumers’ expense. The trial that opened in...
Starbucks increases U.S. hourly wages and adds other benefits for non-union workers
Starbucks is increasing pay and benefits for most of its U.S. hourly workers after ending its fiscal year with record sales. But the company said Monday that unionized workers won’t be eligible for some of those perks, a sign of the continuing tension between the Seattle coffee giant and the...
