Wire stories category, Page 58
Peter Thiel leaving board of Facebook parent Meta
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire and advisor to former President Donald Trump, is leaving the board of directors of Facebook parent company Meta. The company said Monday that Thiel will stay on until Meta’s next shareholder meeting later this year, where he will not stand...
IRS to end use of facial recognition to identify taxpayers
WASHINGTON — The IRS said Monday it will suspend the use of facial recognition technology to authenticate people who create online accounts after the practice was criticized by privacy advocates and lawmakers. The agency said it would no longer use a third-party service, called ID.me, for facial recognition. Critics of...
Frontier bids $2.9 billion for rival budget airline Spirit
Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines are proposing to combine in a $2.9 billion deal that would create a larger discount airline to compete against the nation’s dominant carriers and, they say, promote lower fares. Both are ultra-low-cost carriers that tempt travelers with rock-bottom prices for no-frills service but often generate...
Hershey Co. raising candy prices, including Kit Kats, Reese’s
Sorry chocolate lovers, even your favorite candy isn’t immune from inflation. The Hershey Co. announced recently it is planning “list price increases across all segments” as a way to drive sales growth. The company said the hikes will offset rising labor and ingredient costs. “Pricing will be an important lever...
Delta asks Justice Department to put unruly passengers on national no-fly list
ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines is asking the U.S. Justice Department to create a national no-fly list of passengers who have been convicted for on-board disruptions. Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta, wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland this past week saying such a “national, comprehensive unruly passenger...
Kohl’s: Buyout offers undermine value of business
NEW YORK — Kohl’s says that recent offers to purchase the department store chain undervalue its business and that it is adopting a shareholder rights plan to head off any hostile takeovers. The shareholder rights plan, known as a “poison pill,” is effective immediately and set to expire on Feb....
News Corp says it was hacked; believed to be linked to China
News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation. The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York...
U.S. employers shrug off omicron, add 467,000 jobs in January
U.S. employers added a burst of 467,000 jobs in January despite a wave of omicron infections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed. The government’s report Friday also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and...
Amazon to increase cost of Prime; annual sales rise 22%Video
Amazon is increasing the cost of its Prime membership for U.S. customers, in part to offset rising expenses associated with wages and transportation, the company announced ahead of its quarterly earnings call Thursday. The monthly fee for Prime membership will go up from $12.99 to $14.99, and the annual membership...
Stocks rise on Wall Street, extending their weekly gainsVideo
Another wobbly day of trading on Wall Street ended with more gains for stocks Wednesday, as the latest batch of company earnings reports kept investors in a buying mood. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% after having briefly dipped into the red in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average...
As omicron peak passes, airfares surging for spring and summer travel
The covid-19 era of cheap flights is swiftly coming to an end, and travel firms are seeing signs that airfares will likely reach 2019 pre-pandemic levels as soon as April. With the wost of the omicron variant waning across the country, airlines struggling to ramp up flight schedules are set...
New York Times buys viral word game Wordle
NEW YORK — The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession. It listed the purchase price as being in the “low-seven figures,” but did not disclose specifics. The Times,...
EPA restores rule to limit power-plant mercury emissions
WASHINGTON — In a reversal of a Trump-era action, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will resume enforcement of a rule that limits power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants. The EPA action restores a rule imposed under President Barack Obama and continues a practice in which...
Stocks end higher, still log worst month since March 2020
NEW YORK — Stocks notched broad gains Monday, but still posted their worst monthly loss since the early days of the pandemic, as Wall Street closes a tumultuous January wracked by worries that imminent interest-rate hikes will make everything in markets more challenging. The S&P 500 came back from an...
Spotify to add advisories to podcasts discussing covid-19
NEW YORK — As a result of protests of Spotify kicked off by Neil Young over the spread of covid-19 vaccine misinformation, the music streaming service said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing the virus. In a post Sunday, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek laid out more...
Prince Harry, Meghan express ‘concerns’ over covid-19 misinformation on Spotify
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have “concerns” about how Spotify has allowed and promoted the spread of covid-19 misinformation on its platform. Prince Harry and Meghan, who inked an exclusive multiyear partnership with the service in December 2020, said Sunday that they are pressing Spotify to take more care...
Economy grew 5.7% in 2021 in rebound from 2020 recessionVideo
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020’s brief but devastating coronavirus recession. The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year...
Hot streak: Nevada casinos win record $13.4 billion in 2021
LAS VEGAS — Nevada casinos continued a hot streak in December, tallying a 10th straight month of $1 billion or more in house winnings and propelling end-of-year figures to a record $13.4 billion. A Nevada Gaming Control Board report released Thursday provided more evidence that gambling recovered last year after...
Stocks fall, yields rise after Fed signals rate hike ‘soon’
An early rally on Wall Street gave way to a broad slide for stocks and a surge in bond yields Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled it plans to begin raising interest rates “soon” to fight a spike in inflation that the central bank says is probably getting worse. The...
Traded cryptocurrency in 2021? Here’s how to approach taxes
Professionals have a major piece of advice for those who traded cryptocurrency for the first time last year: Take your tax prep seriously. The IRS has been zooming in on cryptocurrency reporting with increasing interest in recent years. And the last thing you want is to lose money and time...
Microsoft profits up 21%, giving cushion for gaming push
REDMOND, Wash. — Demand for Microsoft’s cloud-computing services and work software helped boost its quarterly profits by 21% as the pandemic continued to keep many office workers at home. The Redmond, Wash., company on Tuesday reported fiscal second-quarter profit of $18.8 billion. It posted revenue of $51.7 billion for the...
Stocks end lower on Wall Street after another volatile day
Another volatile bout of trading on Wall Street ended with a broad pullback for stocks Tuesday, as investors grapple with economic red flags and uncertainty over how aggressive the Federal Reserve will be in fighting rising inflation. Stock indexes fell sharply to start the day, then came well off their...
Biscuit World workers say no to 1st West Virginia fast-food union
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Workers at a West Virginia franchise of a regional fast-food restaurant on Tuesday rejected efforts to form a union that would have been the first its kind in the state. Immediately after the vote, union organizers announced that they had filed unfair labor practice charges against the...
U.S. warns that chip shortage could shut down factories
The U.S. supply of computer chips has fallen to alarmingly low levels, raising the prospect of factory shutdowns, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Companies that use semiconductors are down to less than five days of inventory — a sharp drop from 40 days in 2019, according to a department survey...
Walmart invests in indoor vertical farming startup Plenty
Walmart said Tuesday it has taken a stake in agriculture startup Plenty, becoming the first large U.S. retailer to significantly invest in indoor vertical farming as a way to deliver fresher produce to its stores. Vertical farmers tout their high-quality produce that brings higher yields while using less water and...
