Business category, Page 194
Georgia governor waives state’s gas tax for now due to pipeline outage
CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he is suspending state taxes on motor fuels through Saturday to offset increasing prices after a computer hack led a key pipeline that carries fuel to much of Georgia to shut down. The Republican said Tuesday that he wanted to provide price...
Wall Street opens lower led by more drops in Big Tech stocks
BANGKOK — Shares dropped Tuesday in Asia after selling of several Big Tech companies pulled U.S. benchmarks lower. Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong declined while Shanghai advanced. Despite reassurances from the Federal Reserve and a much weaker than expected U.S. jobs reading last week, investors have refocused on the...
Japan’s Nissan sees smaller loss, promises sales recovery
TOKYO — Nissan reduced its losses in the January-March quarter as restructuring efforts kicked in, despite damage to sales from the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday. Nissan Motor Co.’s quarterly losses totaled $743 million, a fraction of the $6.5 billion in red ink it racked up last year....
John Dorfman: Why I relish low-debt stocks
When it comes to picking stocks, most investors go gaga over earnings and pay little attention to a company’s financial strength. I say that a strong financial position is far more important than whether a company “beat consensus” by 10 cents a share in the latest quarter or failed to...
Pipeline hit by cyberattack could be back by week’s end
WASHINGTON — The operator of a major U.S. pipeline hit by a cyberattack said Monday it hopes to have service mostly restored by the end of the week. Colonial Pipeline offered the update after revealing that it had halted operations because of a ransomware attack the FBI has linked to...
Tech sell-off drags stocks lower, pulling market below highsVideo
A sell-off in technology companies dragged stocks lower Monday on Wall Street, pulling the major indexes back from their recent all-time highs. The S&P 500 fell 1% after wobbling between small gains and losses the first half of the day. The decline broke a three-day winning streak for the benchmark...
AGs urge Facebook to drop ‘Instagram for kids’ proposalVideo
A bipartisan group of 44 attorneys general has written to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to drop company plans for a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced Monday. The attorneys general in the letter said they are concerned about...
Facebook rules are ‘shambles,’ oversight board co-chairman saysVideo
WASHINGTON — Facebook Inc.’s internal rules for banning content are a “shambles,” and the company needs to fix the process to have credibility in enforcing them, a member of the social media giant’s independent content oversight board said. The comments by Michael McConnell, the panel’s co-chairman, follow its decision last...
Breeze eases plan to rely on students as flight attendants
Breeze Airways, a start-up carrier that hopes to begin flying this spring, is giving up on a plan to hire only college students as flight attendants after the strategy failed to draw enough applicants. The airline founded by JetBlue creator David Neeleman posted a new listing for flight attendants on...
Stocks rally to records after grim jobs data undercuts rates
NEW YORK — Stocks are rallying to records on Wall Street Friday despite a stunningly disappointing report on the nation’s job market, as investors see it helping to keep interest rates low. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% in morning trading, above the 4,232 level. If it stays there, it would...
U.S. employers added just 266K jobs in April as hiring slows
WASHINGTON — America’s employers added just 266,000 jobs last month, sharply lower than in March and a sign that some businesses are struggling to find enough workers as the economic recovery strengthens. With viral cases declining and states and localities easing restrictions, businesses have added jobs for four straight months,...
Fed warns U.S. financial system remains vulnerable to threats
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is warning that the U.S. financial system remains vulnerable to threats stemming from the global pandemic, including the possibility of a sharp rise in global interest rates that could strain developing countries. A worsening of the pandemic could stress the financial systems in emerging markets...
Google says 20% of workers will be remote, many more hybrid
Google says it expects about 20% of its workforce to still work remotely after its offices reopen this fall, while some 60% will work a hybrid schedule that includes about three days in the office and two days “wherever they work best.” The remaining 20% can change their location to...
Nebraska launches ‘beef passport’ program for meat eating
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts ramped up his crusade for the meat industry on Wednesday by endorsing a new “beef passport” program to promote meat eating, a few weeks after he blasted Colorado’s governor for a resolution encouraging its residents to eat less. Ricketts, a Republican, cast meat as essential to...
Stocks edge higher as tech gains offset healthcare slide
A choppy day of trading on Wall Street ended Thursday with stocks broadly higher and another all-time high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Banks and technology companies led a late-afternoon turnaround that pushed the S&P 500 to a 0.8% gain, reversing the benchmark index’s losses for the week. Gains...
Productivity rebounds at solid 5.4% rate in 1st quarter
U.S. productivity posted a sharp rebound between January and March after falling in the previous quarter. Labor costs declined slightly. Productivity increased at an annual rate of 5.4% in the first quarter, recovering from a 3.8% rate of decline in the fourth quarter of last year, the Labor Department reported...
U.S. unemployment claims fall to a pandemic low of 498,000
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 498,000, the lowest point since the viral pandemic struck 14 months ago and a sign of the job market’s growing strength as businesses reopen and consumers step up spending. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that...
Stock indexes mixed as tech rebound fades; Peloton sinks
Major U.S. stock indexes closed mixed Wednesday after an early technology company rebound faded, tempering the market’s recovery from a sell-off a day earlier. The S&P 500 eked out a 0.1% gain after having been up 0.7% in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed a 0.3% gain,...
Biden repeals Trump-era rule on gig workers
NEW YORK — The Biden administration nullified a Trump-era rule Wednesday that would have made it easier to classify workers as independent contractors, blocking a change supported by delivery and ride-hailing services. The Labor Department’s decision came just two days before the Trump-era rule was supposed to take effect. The...
Peloton recalls treadmills, halts sales, after a child dies
NEW YORK — Peloton is recalling about 125,000 of its treadmills, less than a month after denying they were dangerous and saying it would not pull them from the market, even though they were linked to the death of a child and injuries of 29 others. The company said Wednesday...
Covid restrictions to lift, but businesses still finding hiring workers difficult
Businesses across the region welcomed Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement Tuesday lifting covid-19 restrictions by Memorial Day, but they expressed cautious optimism alongside frustration as they now face the challenge of filling job openings. “It should be great, but on the other hand, we’re all in the same boat looking for...
GM profit surges to $2.98B on sales of higher-margin trucks
DETROIT — General Motors’ first-quarter net income surged to $2.98 billion as strong U.S. consumer demand and higher prices offset production cuts brought on by a global shortage of computer chips. Despite the semiconductor shortage, GM stuck with full-year pretax earnings guidance of $10 billion to $11 billion issued earlier...
Janet Yellen clarifies she is not predicting Fed rate increasesVideo
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that she is not predicting when the Federal Reserve may need to start raising interest rates. She was seeking to clarify her earlier remarks that rattled financial markets. Yellen suggested early Tuesday that interest rates may need to rise slightly to keep...
Technology shares sink broader market although Dow has gain
Technology companies dragged indexes lower Tuesday on Wall Street, pulling the market further from its recent all-time highs. The S&P 500 fell 0.7%, erasing its gains from last week. Big technology companies like Apple and Microsoft fell as the sector declined for the sixth straight day. Losses in communications stocks...
U.S. trade deficit hits record $74.4 billion in March
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit surged to a record $74.4 billion in March as an improving U.S. economy drove purchases of imported foreign goods. The deficit, the gap between what America buys from abroad and what it sells to other countries, was 5.6% greater than the February gap of...
