Business category, Page 227
Yelp: More than half of US business ‘temporary’ closures now permanent
More than half of the business closures that were temporary when the covid-19 outbreak began are now considered permanent, according to Yelp. Of the 132,580 closures listed on its website as of July 10, 55% are permanent, up 14 percentage points from the end of June, according to the Yelp’s...
Pa. Consumer Advocate: FirstEnergy can’t recover $60 million alleged bribe from customers
FirstEnergy Corp. would not be able to raise electric rates on its 720,000 West Penn Power Co. customers in an attempt to recoup what federal prosecutors say was $60 million in bribes allegedly paid to Ohio power brokers. Prosecutors allege the bribes were paid in an effort to secure a...
U.S. sales of existing homes jump 20% after a 3-month slump
BALTIMORE — Americans stepped up their home purchases in June by a robust 20.7% after the pandemic had caused sales to crater in the prior three months. But the housing market could struggle to rebound further in the face of the resurgent viral outbreak and a shrinking supply of homes...
Warrendale-based rue21 plans to open 3 new stores amid pandemic
Warrendale-based rue21 found a way to make it through a trying time for retailers during the coronavirus pandemic. While some specialty stores filed for bankruptcy or closed, rue21 will open brick-and-mortar stores in South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas this month, according to a press release. The company sells casual apparel...
Walmart to close its stores on Thanksgiving Day
NEW YORK — Walmart said that it will be closing its namesake stores and Sam’s Clubs on Thanksgiving Day this year, saying that it wants to have its employees spend time with their families during the coronavirus pandemic. The move, announced Tuesday, marks the first major indication of how covid...
John Dorfman: LGI Homes and Progressive show rapid revenue growth
One sign of a good stock is rapid revenue growth. Sure, profits are what ultimately count. But you can’t grow profits for long unless revenue is growing too. Right now, some investors are chasing companies with fast revenue growth but scant earnings or none — the likes of Uber Technologies...
Head of the line: Big companies got coronavirus loans first
NEW YORK — Ever since the U.S. government launched its emergency lending program for small businesses on April 3, there have been complaints that bigger companies had their loans approved and disbursed more quickly. There is now evidence to back up those complaints. An Associated Press analysis of Small Business...
Stirring in oil patch, Chevron buys Noble for $5 billion
NEW YORK — Chevron will take over Noble Energy for $5 billion in the first big deal announced since the coronavirus pandemic shook the energy sector. Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has been shopping for assets since last year and with crude prices down more than 30% this year,...
LL Bean inks first wholesaler partnerships in US
FREEPORT, Maine — L.L. Bean is expanding from its original model of direct-to-customer catalog sales and in-stores sales with an agreement to sell products in Nordstrom, Staples and sporting goods chain SCHEELS. The company’s first wholesale agreements in the U.S. represent a push to get L.L. Bean products in front...
3M files lawsuits for price gouging of N95 masksVideo
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — The leading manufacturer of N95 masks in the United States says it has investigated 4,000 reports of fraud, counterfeiting and price gouging in connection with the product and has filed 18 lawsuits. 3M, based in Maplewood, is among the largest global producers of the N95 mask, which...
EU court cancels U.S. data-sharing pact over snooping concerns
The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people’s data. The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely...
Experts say Twitter breach troubling, undermines trust
HONG KONG — A breach in Twitter’s security that allowed hackers to break into the accounts of leaders and technology moguls is one of the worst attacks in recent years and may shake trust in a platform politicians and CEOs use to communicate with the public, experts said Thursday. The...
Target, Kohl’s, CVS latest to require masks in all stores
Target, Kohl’s and CVS have now added themselves to the list of stores requiring customers to wear a mask while shopping there. Target and CVS joined in on Thursday, while Kohl’s announced their news Wednesday. USA Today reports Target’s mask requirement will go into effect Aug. 1. The policy does...
Stocks open lower on Wall Street; Twitter sinks after hack
NEW YORK — Stocks opened broadly lower on Wall Street on Thursday, extending weakness in overseas markets. The S&P 500 index gave up 0.6% in the early going, led by losses in technology companies. Twitter sank after a breach in its security allowed hackers to break into the accounts of...
U.S. retail sales jump 7.5% in June, but economy still ails
BALTIMORE — U.S. retail sales climbed a solid 7.5% in June, a sign that the economy was healing right before infections from the coronavirus spiked again and dragged down hopes for a steady recovery. The Census Bureau reported Thursday that retail sales are 1.1% higher than their levels from a...
Obama, Biden, Gates Twitter accounts hacked in bitcoin scam
Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam. The ruse included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft...
Mail could be delayed as new postal head pushes cost-cutting
WASHINGTON — Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a “different mindset” to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus...
JC Penney cuts 1,000 jobs as it closes stores
JC Penney says it will cut 1,000 jobs as it tries to fight its way out from under bankruptcy protection. The company last month said it had identified just over 150 stores for closure in the first phase of a restructuring in which it will become a smaller operator. The...
Walmart to require customers to wear masks at all its stores
Walmart will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its stores, including Sam’s Club locations, beginning Monday. The move makes it the largest retailer to introduce such a policy that has otherwise proven difficult to enforce without state and federal requirements. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company said that about...
Europe’s shift to electric cars picks up despite recessionVideo
FRANKFURT, Germany — The coronavirus has canceled business plans all over the world but Europe’s push into electric cars isn’t one of them. Sales of battery-powered and hybrid cars have held up better than the overall market amid a deeply painful recession, mainly thanks to the action of governments. The...
Burger King addresses climate change by changing cows’ dietsVideo
Burger King is staging an intervention with its cows. The chain has rebalanced the diet of some of the cows by adding lemon grass in a bid to limit bovine contributions to climate change. By tweaking their diet, Burger King said Tuesday that it believes it can reduce a cow’s...
Demand rises for robot cooks as kitchens combat covid-19
HAYWARD, Calif. — Robots that can cook — from flipping burgers to baking bread — are in growing demand as virus-wary kitchens try to put some distance between workers and customers. Starting this fall, the White Castle burger chain will test a robot arm that can cook french fries and...
Best Buy to require customers to wear masks amid coronavirus spike
NEW YORK — Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its stores nationwide, even in states or localities that don’t require them to do so. The retailer, based in Richfield, Minn., joins a growing but still short list of...
U.S. budget deficit hits all-time high of $864 billion in June
WASHINGTON — The federal government incurred the biggest monthly budget deficit in history in June as spending on programs to combat the coronavirus recession exploded while millions of job losses cut into tax revenues. The Treasury Department reported Monday that the deficit hit $864 billion last month, an amount of...
Stocks slam into reverse as coronavirus keeps scarring economyVideo
NEW YORK — Wall Street got a painful reminder that the coronavirus pandemic isn’t going away, and a big early gain for stocks suddenly flipped to losses after California showed how it’s still scarring the economy. The S&P 500 fell 0.9%, with all the losses accumulating in the last hour...
