Business category, Page 177
Health clubs want you back. Here’s what they’re offering
Health club chains are pedaling hard to woo pandemic-weary consumers back to the gym. But some of the largest companies are taking different paths as the industry waits to see whether covid-19 infection rates recede enough to make consumers feel safe to resume communal workouts. Discount chains YouFit and Planet...
John Dorfman: Purloined Portfolio aims to steal from managers I respect
If you’re going to steal, steal from the best,” Woody Allen once said. Once a year, I try to do that. My annual Purloined Portfolio features ideas I lift from other money managers. My Purloined Portfolio from last year returned 45.9%, thanks mostly to gains in Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL, idea...
1st ETF linked to Bitcoin is set to make its debut
Interested in Bitcoin but don’t want to open a crypto trading account? Wall Street has something for you.ProShares said Monday it plans to launch the country’s first exchange-traded fund linked to Bitcoin. The ETF with the ticker symbol “BITO” is expected to begin trading Tuesday, barring any opposition from regulators....
Ford Foundation to divest millions from fossil fuels
The Ford Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States, announced Monday that it will divest millions from fossil fuels, following similar investment decisions made by other sizable foundations in recent years. For years, climate activists have put pressure on endowed institutions, like Ford, to end their...
Toyota to build $1.29B U.S. battery plant employing 1,750
DETROIT — Toyota plans to build a new $1.29 billion factory in the U.S. to manufacture batteries for gas-electric hybrid and fully electric vehicles. The plant location wasn’t announced, but the company said it eventually will employ 1,750 people and start making batteries in 2025, gradually expanding through 2031. The...
Bitcoin-mining power plant raises ire of environmentalists
An obstacle to large-scale bitcoin mining is finding enough cheap energy to run the huge, power-gobbling computer arrays that create and transact cryptocurrency. One mining operation in central New York came up with a novel solution that has alarmed environmentalists. It uses its own power plant. Greenidge Generation runs a...
Instagram fretted about retaining, engaging teenagers, report says
The photo-sharing app Instagram spent time focusing on how to retain and engage teenagers, The New York Times reported, citing internal documents. Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram was privately worried about potentially losing teenage users to other social-media platforms, calling it an “existential threat,” according to a marketing presentation for 2018, the...
Supply-chain surcharge? Sherwin-Williams latest company to add sneaky fee
Hugo Granadino recently stopped by the Sherwin-Williams paint store in Inglewood, Calif., to pick up some rollers and brushes. He’s repainting the den of his South Los Angeles home. After the purchase, Granadino, 40, took a look at his receipt and was surprised to see a 4% “supply chain charge.”...
High court rejects natural gas company’s pipeline appeal
WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected a Supreme Court appeal by the St. Louis-based natural gas company Spire Inc. to allow it to keep operating a pipeline through Illinois and Missouri. Roberts did not comment Friday in refusing to temporarily pause a lower court order affecting the operation...
Resilient shoppers push retail sales up 0.7% in September
NEW YORK — Americans continued to spend at a solid clip in September even while facing sticker shock in grocery aisles, car lots and restaurants as snarled global supply chains slow the flow of goods. Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in September from the month before, the U.S....
Stocks climb the most since March as momentum buildsVideo
Technology companies powered a broad rally for stocks Thursday on Wall Street, lifting the S&P 500 to its biggest gain since March. The benchmark index rose 1.7% a day after breaking a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.7%. More than...
Microsoft shutting down LinkedIn in China
REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft is shutting down its LinkedIn service in China later this year after internet rules were tightened by Beijing, the latest American tech giant to lessen its ties to the country. The company said in a blog post Thursday it has faced a “significantly more challenging operating...
Modest gain breaks a 3-day losing streak for S&P 500 index
Major stock indexes closed mostly higher Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak for the S&P 500 despite another choppy day of trading. The benchmark index rose 0.3% after having been down 0.5% in the early going. It’s still on pace for a 0.6% weekly loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average...
Delta posts $1.2 billion Q3 profit, touts holiday bookings
Delta Air Lines posted a $1.2 billion profit for the third quarter on Wednesday, helped by the latest installment of federal pandemic aid for the airline industry, but warned that rising fuel prices will lead to a “modest” loss in the fourth quarter. The airline also expects higher labor costs...
Inflation rises 5.4% from year ago, matching 13-year highVideo
WASHINGTON — Consumer prices rose 0.4% last month, slightly higher than August’s gain and pushing annual inflation back to the highest increase in 13 years. The consumer price index rose 5.4% in September from a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up slightly from August’s gain of 5.3% and...
U.S. regulators seek answers from Tesla over lack of recall
DETROIT — U.S. safety investigators want to know why Tesla didn’t file recall documents when it updated Autopilot software to better identify parked emergency vehicles, escalating a simmering clash between the automaker and regulators. In a letter to Tesla, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the electric car maker...
Explainer: Why Social Security COLA will jump next year
WASHINGTON — Rising inflation is expected to lead to a sizeable increase in Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2022. Exactly how much will be revealed Wednesday morning after a Labor Department report on inflation during September, a data point used in the final calculation. Over the last...
Americans quit their jobs at a record pace in August
WASHINGTON — One reason America’s employers are having trouble filling jobs was starkly illustrated in a report Tuesday: Americans are quitting in droves. The Labor Department said that quits jumped to 4.3 million in August, the highest on records dating back to December 2000, and up from 4 million in...
John Dorfman: Ethan Allen, Snap-on have dividend appeal
When clients ask me to emphasize dividends, they usually mean dividend yield. The yield is a stock’s dividend divided by its price. A $50 stock paying a $2 dividend annually has a yield of 4%, and dividend-conscious investors often look for a yield in that zone or higher. I gently...
Southwest cancels hundreds more flights, denies sickout
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines canceled more than 350 flights Monday following a weekend of major disruptions that it blamed on bad weather and air traffic control issues. The pilots union accused the company of a botched response to what it said would have been a minor challenge for other airlines....
Amazon to allow employees to work remotely indefinitely
SEATTLE — Amazon said Monday it will allow many tech and corporate workers to continue working remotely indefinitely, as long as they can commute to the office when necessary. The new policy was announced in a blog post and is a change from Amazon’s previous expectation that most employees would...
Instacart CEO Fidji Simo says online grocery shopping has room to grow
When the pandemic hit the U.S. last year, grocery delivery company Instacart suddenly became a lifeline for millions of consumers. Sales volumes skyrocketed; in one month, the company added 300,000 drivers to keep up with its orders. “We saw five years of growth packed into one year,” Instacart CEO Fidji...
Stocks give up an early gain and end lower on Wall Street
Stocks closed broadly lower after a day of choppy trading Monday on Wall Street as investors prepare for a busy week of corporate earnings and inflation updates. The major indexes made early gains, but slowly fizzled as the day progressed. The S&P 500 fell 30.15 points, or 0.7%, to 4,361.19....
Most John Deere workers reject contract offer from tractor maker
MOLINE, Ill. — The vast majority of United Auto Workers union members rejected a contract offer from Deere & Co. on Sunday that would have delivered at least 5% raises to the workers who make John Deere tractors and other equipment. “The tentative agreement reached by the UAW and John...
Small businesses navigate ever-changing covid-19 reality
NEW YORK — For a brief moment this summer, it seemed like small businesses might be getting a break from the relentless onslaught of the pandemic. More Americans, many of them vaccinated, flocked to restaurants and stores without needing to mask up or socially distance. But then came a surge...
