Business category, Page 152
Western Pa. counties, municipalities to see bump in money from fees on natural gas production
Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, along with municipalities in the counties, will receive about $3.1 million from impact fees the state collected last year on Marcellus Shale gas well production, a considerable increase over the year before, according to data released Friday. Allegheny County and its municipalities will receive nearly $1.9...
Airlines were totally unprepared when travel came roaring back
Airline and airport executives spent the past two years trying to convince everyone it’s safe to fly during a pandemic, touting reduced touch points and hospital-grade filters. Little did they know how overwhelmed they’d be once travel came roaring back. From Sydney, where passengers are waiting for hours to check...
T-shirts? Ice cream? Retailers cash in on Juneteenth
NEW YORK — Retailers and marketers have been quick to commemorate Juneteenth with an avalanche of merchandise from ice cream to T-shirts to party cups. But many are getting backlash on social media for what critics say undermines the day, designated as a federal holiday last year to honor the...
Wall Street closes worst week since 2020 with slight gain
NEW YORK — Wall Street closed out its most punishing week since the 2020 coronavirus crash with a meandering day of trading Friday that left it a bit higher. The S&P 500 rose 8.07 points, or 0.2%, to 3,674.84 after waffling between modest losses and gains for most of the...
GM ups price of already pricey Hummer EV
Amid rising commodity costs, General Motors is upping the price on its GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV by $6,250 starting June 18. The base price for the Hummer EV 3X coming this fall will go from $98,400 to $104,650. The Hummer EV 2X available next spring will be $94,650,...
Canceled flights rise across U.S. as summer travel heats up
U.S. airlines canceled high numbers of flights for a second straight day on Friday as they tried to recover from storms while accommodating growing crowds of summer vacationers. By early afternoon in the eastern U.S., airlines has scrubbed more than 1,100 flights after canceling more than 1,700 on Thursday, according...
Pennsylvania unemployment rate lowest in nearly 3 years
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point, down to 4.6% in May, according to figures provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. It’s the lowest unemployment rate in Pennsylvania since Oct. 2019, months before the pandemic began. In contrast, the U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged over...
Wall Street tumbles on fears for economy as more rates rise
NEW YORK — Fear swept through financial markets Thursday, and Wall Street tumbled as worries roared back to the fore that the world’s fragile economy may buckle under higher interest rates. The S&P 500 fell 3.3% in a widespread wipeout to more than reverse its blip of a 1.5% rally...
Fed attacks inflation with its largest rate hike since 1994
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday intensified its drive to tame high inflation by raising its key interest rate by three-quarters of a point — its largest hike in nearly three decades — and signaling more large rate increases to come that would raise the risk of another recession....
Explainer: Just how high is the risk of another recession?
WASHINGTON — Inflation is at a 40-year high. Stock prices are sinking. The Federal Reserve is making borrowing much costlier. And the economy actually shrank in the first three months of this year. Is the United States at risk of enduring another recession, just two years after emerging from the...
Wall Street rallies after dismal week as Fed decision looms
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are rallying Wednesday, on track for their first gain in six days, but more turbulence may be ahead when the Federal Reserve announces in the afternoon how sharply it’s raising interest rates. The S&P 500 was 1.2% higher as investors ready for the Fed’s rate...
Biden tells oil refiners: Produce more gas, fewer profits
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on U.S. oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel, saying their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump. “The crunch that families are facing deserves immediate action,” Biden...
U.S. report: nearly 400 crashes of automated tech vehicles
DETROIT — Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 involving Teslas, according to statistics released by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cautioned against using the numbers to compare automakers, saying it didn’t weight them by the number...
So long, Internet Explorer. The browser retires today
SAN FRANCISCO — Internet Explorer is finally headed out to pasture. As of Wednesday, Microsoft will no longer support the once-dominant browser that legions of web surfers loved to hate — and a few still claim to adore. The 27-year-old application now joins BlackBerry phones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots...
Employers, counselors see ‘huge need’ for summertime workers
Employers expecting to fill job vacancies with the traditional summertime influx of high school students have been left wondering where the workers have gone. Many employers are “literally begging for new employees” with little result, said Don Acker, program manager for Equus Workforce Solutions in New Kensington. “Right now, we...
Stocks dip deeper into bear market ahead of big Fed news
NEW YORK — Most stocks on Wall Street dipped Tuesday in their first trading after tumbling into a bear market on worries that high inflation will push central banks to clamp the brakes too hard on the economy. The S&P 500 fell 14.15, or 0.4%, to 3,735.48 as investors braced...
Millennial Money: Maximize your music festival savings
Attendees of this year’s Coachella music festival have posted viral videos adding up their expenses from the weekend — with costs reaching the thousands for flights, hotels, food, drinks, outfits and rideshares. Plus the ticket, which can start around $400 for a three-day pass to a popular festival like Lollapalooza...
Musk to address Twitter employees for 1st time this week
Elon Musk will address Twitter employees Thursday for the first time since the billionaire and Tesla CEO offered $44 billion to buy the social media platform, the company said Tuesday. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced an all-hands meeting to employees in an email on Monday, saying they’d be able to...
The S&P 500 is in a bear market; here’s what that means
NEW YORK — Wall Street is back in the claws of a bear market as worries about inflation and higher interest rates overwhelm investors. The Federal Reserve has signaled it will aggressively raise interest rates to try to control inflation, which is the highest in decades. Throw in the war...
Pandemic has caused a changing face of the workweek
The workweek as it once existed likely has changed forever. Four-day workweeks. Zoom calls. Hybrid schedules. Full-time remote. All have become standard operating procedure for many businesses and their employees. Companies were forced to adjust — or be faced with the prospect of folding — after the covid-19 pandemic struck....
John Dorfman: The 26 stocks I own personally and for clients
I recommend about 250 stocks a year in this column, but in a typical client portfolio, I own only 20 to 30 stocks. Readers sometimes are curious about which stocks I own. Here’s a rundown on my current holdings. Communications The world clamors for American entertainment and information. I own...
Bear market hits Wall Street as stocks, bonds, crypto dive
Wall Street tumbled into what’s called a bear market Monday after fears about a fragile economy and rising interest rates sent the S&P 500 more than 20% below its record set early this year. The index sank 3.9% in the first chance for investors to trade after getting the weekend...
Bitcoin plunges as major crypto lender halts operations
NEW YORK — Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were collapsing in price Monday, after a major crypto lender halted all withdrawals citing “extreme market conditions.” It is the second collapse of a part of the cryptocurrency world in the last two months. The stablecoin Terra imploded in early May, erasing tens...
McDonald’s shrinking menu means healthier foods are vanishing
McDonald’s diners have said goodbye to salads. Stock investors should be glad they’re gone. A pandemic-driven menu overhaul at McDonald’s Corp. has eliminated more nutritious menu options such as grilled-chicken sandwiches and fruit and yogurt parfaits. The world’s biggest restaurant company is trimming out offerings to move diners through lines...
U.S. inflation at new 40-year high as price increases spread
WASHINGTON — The prices of gas, food and most other goods and services jumped in May, raising inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs. Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from a year earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year increase of 8.3%, the...
