Wire stories category, Page 121
Bud Light touches nerve with corn syrup Super Bowl ads
NEW YORK — Bud Light attacked rival brands in its Super Bowl ads, but it was the corn industry that felt stung. The spots trolled rival brands that use corn syrup. One showed a medieval caravan schlepping a huge barrel of corn syrup to castles owned by Miller and Coors....
Gannett turns down $1.36B buyout offer
MCLEAN, Va. — The publisher of USA Today and other newspapers is rejecting a $1.36 billion buyout from a hedge-fund backed media group with a history of taking over newspapers and slashing jobs. MNG Enterprises, better known as Digital First Media, made its unsolicited bid of $12 per share last...
GM plant closings will hit parts suppliers far and wide
TOLEDO, Ohio — The sting from a major restructuring at General Motors and its planned closings of five North American factories in the coming months is putting thousands of jobs at auto parts suppliers at stake, as well. While GM expects nearly all its U.S. blue-collar workers whose jobs are...
Stocks eke out gains after a bumpy day
NEW YORK — Stocks held on to tiny gains at the end of an up-and-down day of trading on Wall Street. Major indexes were higher for much of the morning as investors applauded the latest burst of hiring by U.S. employers. The enthusiasm was tempered, however, by a disappointing revenue...
U.S. employers add robust 304K jobs; joblessness up to 4%
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers shrugged off last month’s partial government shutdown and engaged in a burst of hiring in January, adding 304,000 jobs, the most in nearly a year. The healthy gain the government reported Friday illustrated the job market’s durability nearly a decade into the economic expansion. The U.S....
When marketing flops: 5 Super Bowl ads that backfired
Advertisers that spend millions of dollars on the Super Bowl are trying to avoid what the Ram truck company did with a Martin Luther King speech or what Groupon did spoofing promos for charities. Though such messages can get attention, it’s the wrong kind of attention. Groupon got buzz all...
U.S. average mortgage rates edge up; 30-year at 4.46 percent
WASHINGTON — U.S. long-term mortgage rates edged up after declining in recent weeks. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.46 percent, from 4.45 percent last week. Despite the recent declines, home borrowing rates are above last year’s levels....
As Wall Street spasmed with fear, 401(k) savers held steady
NEW YORK— While professional traders on Wall Street scrambled to sell stocks amid a fear-fueled, nearly 20 percent drop for the S&P 500 late last year, most people at home remained relatively calm when it came to their own retirement savings. So say numbers from Fidelity Investments, which show that...
Fed keeps key rate unchanged and pledges to be ‘patient’
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is keeping its key interest rate unchanged and signaling it could leave rates alone in the coming months given economic pressures and mild inflation. The Fed also says it’s prepared to slow the reduction of its bond holdings if needed to support the economy. The...
Trump Organization to use E-Verify for worker status checks
NEW YORK — The Trump Organization, responding to claims that some of its workers were in the United States illegally, said Wednesday that it will use the E-Verify electronic system at all of its properties to check employees’ documentation. A lawyer for a dozen immigrant workers at the Trump National...
After bankruptcy, PG&E headed back to court over wildfires
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will be back in a U.S. courtroom a day after declaring bankruptcy, as it tries to convince a judge not to order dramatic steps to try to prevent its equipment from causing more wildfires. U.S. Judge William Alsup is scheduled to hear...
What industry has seen pay fall below average in the most states? Public schools.
In a search for jobs which once paid well, but have fallen below average in most states, we considered hundreds of industries. Public schools stood out. In the early 1990s, when today’s veteran educators were starting out, public-school teachers and support staff pulled in above-average paychecks in 26 of the...
China says U.S. charges against Huawei and its executive are ‘immoral’
BEIJING — The Chinese government Tuesday condemned U.S. indictments against the Chinese tech giant Huawei as “deep political motivations and manipulations,” as relations between the world’s two largest economies hardened on the eve of crucial trade talks. U.S. officials Monday announced indictments filed in New York accusing Huawei Chief Financial...
Stocks end mixed as Wall Street assesses earnings
NEW YORK — Stocks posted an uneven finish on Wall Street on Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 index its second decline in a row. An early gain faded as investors assessed a mixed bag of corporate results and looked ahead to a heavy schedule of news on companies and the...
U.S. consumers rattled by shutdown, roiling markets
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence tumbled this month to its lowest reading in a year and a half, tested by the partial government shutdown and roiling financial markets. Still, consumer spirits remain robust by historic standards. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index...
Workspaces centered on women on the rise in #MeToo movement
MINNEAPOLIS — Entering the year-old workspace ModernWell feels like coming into a comfortable spa. Clean lines give way to cozy touches like footstools covered with faux fur and a roaring fire surrounded by comfortable armchairs. Women type away on laptops at tables scattered throughout. There is not a man in...
China tells U.S. to stop ‘unreasonable crackdown’ on Huawei
BEIJING — China called on Washington on Tuesday to “stop the unreasonable crackdown” on Huawei after the United States stepped up pressure on the tech giant by indicting it on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran. Beijing will “firmly defend” its companies, a foreign ministry statement said....
Justice Department charges Chinese telecom giant Huawei with fraud
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department fired a legal broadside Monday at Chinese telecom giant Huawei, alleging the company operated a long-running scheme to deceive financial institutions about its activities in Iran and tried to steal sensitive information from T-Mobile. The charges follow others in recent months lodged by the Trump...
Companies navigate dementia conversations with older workers
CHICAGO — Experts say that U.S. companies are increasingly navigating delicate conversations with employees suffering from cognitive declines as the American workforce ages. Workers experiencing early stages of dementia may struggle with tasks they’ve long completed without difficulty. Historically punctual employees may forget about scheduled meetings. And those who have...
Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost
BILLINGS, Mont. — As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe...
Super-rich Americans getting younger and multiplying
A survey of U.S. investors with $25 million or more finds their average age dropped by 11 years since 2014 to 47. These fabulously rich Americans, whose ranks have more than doubled since the depths of the Great Recession, are younger than less wealthy millionaires. The average age of those...
How timekeeping software helps companies nickel and dime their workers
If you work on an hourly basis, you may not have given much thought to what happens to your hours after you log out of your workstation. You might assume those hours are simply converted into dollars and show up on your paycheck. However, there are a lot of ways...
Economy likely to pick up, though pain may linger for some
BALTIMORE — The U.S. economy will likely resume its steady growth now that the government has reopened, though economists say some scars — for the nation and for federal workers — will take time to heal. Most analysts estimate that the 35-day partial shutdown shaved a few tenths of a...
Trump administration eyes transferring control of Citgo to new Venezuelan government it has recognized
WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department plans to claim Venezuela’s U.S.-based international reserves and state-owned assets - including oil refiner and distributor Citgo - on behalf of the newly recognized government headed by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, removing them from the control of President Nicolás Maduro. In a vaguely worded statement...
Researchers say Amazon face-detection technology shows bias
NEW YORK — Facial-detection technology that Amazon is marketing to law enforcement often misidentifies women, particularly those with darker skin, according to researchers from MIT and the University of Toronto. Privacy and civil rights advocates have called on Amazon to stop marketing its Rekognition service because of worries about discrimination...
