Wire stories category, Page 40
How will we know if the U.S. economy is in a recession?
WASHINGTON — The second consecutive quarter of economic growth that the government reported Thursday underscored that the nation isn’t in a recession despite high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fastest pace of interest rate hikes in four decades. Yet the U.S. economy is hardly in the clear. The solid growth...
Wall Street opens higher; Tesla jumps after strong results
NEW YORK — Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street as traders were able to find encouraging signs in some of the earnings reports that big U.S. companies are putting out. Tesla jumped 10% in the early going Thursday after reporting results that were better than analysts were expecting and...
Economy slowed but still grew at 2.9% rate last quarterVideo
WASHINGTON — The economy expanded at a 2.9% annual pace from October through December, ending 2022 with momentum despite the pressure of high interest rates and widespread fears of a looming recession. The estimate Thursday from the Commerce Department showed that the nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest gauge...
Goldman Sachs signals partial retreat from consumer banking
NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs no longer wants to be the bank for everyone. The storied investment bank spent eight years attempting to expand its business beyond corporations and the wealthy. But in recent months, Goldman has signaled a partial retreat from those efforts by scrapping plans for a checking...
AmazonSmile’s end is alarming, say nonprofits that benefited
Amazon’s surprise decision to shut down its AmazonSmile donation program has left thousands of its nonprofit beneficiaries disappointed and concerned about finding ways to replace the funding. The e-commerce giant had launched AmazonSmile in 2013, contributing 0.5% of every purchase made by participating customers to the charity of their choosing....
Why do so many older adults choose Medicare Advantage?
In 2022, 48% of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans instead of original Medicare, and experts predict that number will be higher in 2023. Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurers and bundle Medicare benefits in a way many people find appealing — but they also limit...
Murdoch pulls plug on possible merger of News Corp., Fox
NEW YORK — Rupert Murdoch has pulled the plug on a proposal to bring back together his News Corp. and Fox Corp., saying the merger isn’t coming at the right time for shareholders. In similar statements Tuesday, the companies said their boards received letters from Murdoch withdrawing the plan. “Mr....
Justice Department sues Google over digital advertising dominance
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and several states sued Google on Tuesday, alleging that its dominance in digital advertising harms competition. The government alleges that Google’s plan to assert dominance has been to “neutralize or eliminate” rivals through acquisitions and to force advertisers to use its products by making it...
Elon Musk defends his tweets about taking Tesla private
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk returned to federal court Monday in San Francisco, testifying that he believed he had locked up financial backing to take Tesla private during 2018 meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — although no specific funding amount or price was discussed. The billionaire...
Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
NEW YORK — Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping. Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a...
Gyms that survived pandemic steadily get back in shape
NEW YORK — One day in January, a once-regular customer at Fuel Training Studio in Newburyport, Massachusetts, stopped in to take a “shred” class. She hadn’t stepped foot in the gym since before the pandemic. The customer told owners Julie Bokat and Jeanne Carter that she had been working out...
U.S. ends probe into Ford SUV exhaust issues without a recall
DETROIT — The U.S. government’s road safety agency has closed a more than six-year investigation into exhaust odors in Ford Explorer passenger cabins, determining that the SUVs don’t have high levels of carbon monoxide and don’t need to be recalled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it reviewed more...
Justice Department investigating Abbott baby formula plant
NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the Abbott Laboratories infant formula plant in Michigan that was shut down for months last year due to contamination, the company confirmed. The factory’s closure in February 2022 was a key cause of a nationwide baby formula shortage that forced parents...
2022 was slowest year for U.S. home sales in nearly a decade
LOS ANGELES — U.S. home sales tumbled to the slowest pace in nearly a decade as soaring mortgage rates and sky high prices in 2022 pushed homeownership out of reach for many Americans. The National Association of Realtors said Friday that existing U.S. home sales totaled 5.03 million last year,...
GM to sink over $900M into 4 plants, Flint to get new engine
FLINT, Mich. — General Motors says it will spend more than $900 million to update four factories, with the bulk going to an engine plant in Flint, Michigan, to build the next-generation V8 for big pickup trucks and SUVs. Factories in Rochester, New York; Defiance, Ohio; and Bay City, Michigan;...
Google axes 12,000 jobs, layoffs spread across tech sector
LONDON — Google is laying off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce, becoming the latest tech company to trim staff as the economic boom that the industry rode during the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also leads its parent company Alphabet, informed staff Friday at...
Union membership rate hits all-time low despite campaigns
The U.S. union membership rate reached an all-time low last year despite high-profile unionization campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon and other companies. Union members fell to 10.1% of the overall U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down slightly from 10.3% in 2021. The number of workers...
Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits last week
WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits in the U.S. reached a four-month low last week, a sign that employers are holding on to their workers despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the economy and tamp down inflation. U.S. jobless aid applications for the week ending Jan....
December retail sales fall 1.1% as inflation takes a tollVideo
NEW YORK — Americans cut back on spending in December, the second consecutive month they’ve done so, underscoring how inflation and the rising cost of using credit cards slowed consumer activity over the crucial holiday shopping season. Retail sales fell a worse-than-expected 1.1% in December, following a revised 1% drop...
Party City, amid rising prices, seeks bankruptcy protection
NEW YORK — Party City has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling with rising prices and a pullback in customer spending. The company, based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, said that its franchise stores, subsidiaries outside of the U.S. and its foil balloons Anagram business are not part...
Explainer: How ominous is the debt limit problem?
WASHINGTON — On the brink of hitting the nation’s legal borrowing limit on Thursday, the government is resorting to “extraordinary measures” to avoid a default. Sounds ominous, right? But — take a breath — the phrase technically refers to a bunch of accounting workarounds. Yes, accounting. Because the debt cap...
Millennial Money: 4 expenses for parents to rethink in 2023
When inflation rises, child care expenses do, too. If you’re a parent, you may be hoping to get a little financial relief during the upcoming tax season through deductions or credits. But since there have been recent reductions to both of the child tax credits, you may not get as...
Kimberly Palmer: How to tackle holiday debt in January
After years of being in debt, Rachel Kramer Bussel came to a realization: “If I don’t become proactive about it, I will be in debt for the rest of my life.” For Bussel, a freelance writer near Atlantic City, New Jersey, that meant scaling back spending and putting any available...
Elon Musk’s next drama: a trial over his tweets about Tesla
SAN FRANCISCO — While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker...
Apple CEO Tim Cook to take more than 40% pay cut
Apple CEO Tim Cook will take a more than 40% pay cut this year from a year earlier as the company adjusts how it calculates his compensation partly based on a recommendation from Cook himself. Apple Inc. said in a regulatory filing late Thursday that Cook’s target total compensation is...
