Business category, Page 175
Stocks close higher, but indexes still end week in the red
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street on Friday, but the market still ended the week lower as inflation worries weighed on investors’ moods earlier in the week. The S&P 500 index added 33.58 points, or 0.7%, to end at 4,682.85. While it closed higher, the benchmark index still ended the...
Johnson & Johnson to split into two companies
Johnson & Johnson is splitting into two companies, peeling off the division selling Band-Aids and Listerine from its medical device and prescription drug business. The world’s biggest maker of health care products, founded in 1886, said Friday the move will help improve the focus and speed of each company to...
Spotify to buy Ohio audiobooks firm, expanding audio ambitions
Spotify on Thursday said it will buy Ohio-based audiobooks distribution company Findaway as the Swedish streaming service continues to expand its audio offerings beyond music and podcasts. “It is Spotify’s ambition to be the destination for all things audio both for listeners and creators,” Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s chief research &...
Kellogg’s files lawsuit against its striking cereal workers
OMAHA, Neb. — The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha complaining that striking workers are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and intimidating replacement workers as they enter the plant. The company based in Battle Creek, Mich., asked a judge to order the Omaha...
Study: U.S. shoppers outspend Chinese to restore luxury market
MILAN — The personal luxury market of high-end accessories, leather goods and apparel has snapped back to pre-pandemic levels as U.S. shoppers outspent those in China in pursuit of the latest fashion trends, according to a study released Thursday by the Bain consultancy. Global consumer spending on personal luxury goods,...
Hot inflation report slams bond market, sends stocks lowerVideo
NEW YORK — An eye-opening report on inflation that was hotter than expected slammed into the bond market on Wednesday, sending yields jumping, and helped knock stocks lower. Prices for beef, electricity and other items that consumers paid in October surged from year-ago levels at the fastest overall pace since...
Hershey goes salty, buys Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels for $1.2B
Hershey is expanding its salty snack portfolio with the purchase of Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels. The Hershey Co. said Wednesday it will spend $1.2 billion for North Dakota-based Dot’s Pretzels LLC as well as Pretzels Inc., an Indiana-based manufacturer of Dot’s Pretzels that operates three plants. The deal is expected to...
U.S. consumer prices soared 6.2% in past year, most since 1990
WASHINGTON — Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.2% in October compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, gas and housing left Americans grappling with the highest inflation rate since 1990. The year-over-year increase in the consumer price index exceeded the 5.4% rise in September, the Labor Department...
U.S. jobless claims drop to pandemic low of 267,000
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a new pandemic low 267,000 last week, another sign that the job market is recovering from last year’s sharp coronavirus downturn. Jobless claims fell by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The four-week average of claims,...
Gas station owners from Rostraver ordered to pay nearly $300K in back wages, overtime pay
A Rostraver couple agreed in federal court to pay $281,029 in back wages, plus $1,762 in civil penalties, for intentionally shortchanging two gas station employees over 30 months. U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn J. Horan in Pittsburgh approved the consent decree between Om Shiva Enterprises Inc. which owns and operates...
John Dorfman: Loews, Graham Holdings are selling below book value
Sure, the stock market’s on the expensive side. But some stocks still are selling for less than book value (essentially, corporate net worth). Why should you care? Because, despite skeptics who say book value is an obsolete measure, buying stocks below book value can be a highly profitable strategy. Beginning...
Former Mon Valley bank reopens as startup incubator
A shuttered bank branch in the Mon Valley has reopened as a nonprofit hub for small businesses and entrepreneurs, thanks to a new partnership fueled by a charitable gift in the form of a hefty real estate discount. The Mon Valley Business Resource Center — now open in the former...
Another day, another record on Wall Street as stocks inch up
NEW YORK — Wall Street clawed its way to more records on Monday, with stock indexes creeping higher after another listless day of trading. The S&P 500 inched up by 4.17 points, or 0.1%, to 4,701.70 after drifting between a small loss and gain through the day. It’s the eighth...
Gun maker Remington moves to Georgia in $100M, 856-job deal
ATLANTA — Gun maker Remington Firearms will move its headquarters from Ilion, New York, to Georgia, with plans to open a factory and research operation there. The company announced Monday that it would invest $100 million in the operation in LaGrange, Georgia, southwest of Atlanta, hiring 856 people over five...
Appeals court stays vaccine mandate on larger businesses
A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4...
U.S. hiring rebounded in October, with 531,000 jobs added
WASHINGTON — America’s employers stepped up their hiring in October, adding a solid 531,000 jobs, the most since July and a sign that the recovery from the pandemic recession is overcoming a virus-induced slowdown. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell to 4.6% last...
Deere warns striking workers not to expect better offerVideo
Deere executives said Wednesday that the company wouldn’t return to the bargaining table with striking workers because it wouldn’t offer a better contract than one they rejected that included immediate 10% raises. Marc Howze, the chief administrative officer of Deere & Co., said the deal the United Auto Workers union...
Stocks rise after Fed says it will dial back aid for economyVideo
Stock indexes on Wall Street shrugged off a downbeat start and notched more record highs Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced plans to begin reducing the extraordinary aid for the economy it has been providing since the early days of the pandemic. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and the Dow...
Pittsburgh area adds jobs in September, loss of workers reflects slow recovery
The Pittsburgh region had 10,000 fewer workers in September than a year ago, despite the availability of the covid vaccine, employers offering higher wages and the federal government eliminating extra jobless benefits. The seven-county region saw the labor force decrease to 1.16 million workers in September, a drop of 13,600...
Stocks gain, pushing the Dow Jones industrials over 36,000 for 1st timeVideo
Wall Street added to its recent run of milestones Tuesday as stock indexes hit new highs again and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 36,000 points for the first time. The Dow and benchmark S&P 500 each rose 0.4%. The Nasdaq gained 0.3%. The three indexes also notched all-time...
Facebook to shut down face-recognition system, delete data
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook said it will shut down its face-recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others. “This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage...
U.S. says oil, gas sales damage climate — but won’t stop them
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration is planning to sell oil and gas leases on huge tracts of public land in the U.S. West, despite the Interior Department’s conclusion that doing so could cost society billions of dollars in climate change impacts. Administration officials announced last week that government regulators...
U.S. files antitrust suit to stop major book publisher merger
The Justice Department is suing to block a $2.2 billion book publishing deal that would have reshaped the industry, saying consolidation would hurt authors and, ultimately, readers. German media giant Bertelsmann’s Penguin Random House, already the largest American publisher, wants to buy New York-based Simon & Schuster, whose authors include...
Kennametal revenues rise, net income up
Kennametal Corp.’s sales jumped by 26% in the July-through-September quarter compared with a year ago and earnings per share rose 69 cents from the same quarter a year ago, the company said Monday. The Pittsburgh-based maker of metalworking tools said it earned 43 cents a share on sales of $483.5...
Major Wall Street stock indexes eke out more record highs
Stocks closed with modest gains Monday on Wall Street, extending the major indexes’ recent record-setting run. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% after spending much of the day wavering between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% and the Nasdaq rose 0.6%. The gains pushed the three...
