Business category, Page 234
Walmart’s online sales surge 74% amid coronavirusVideo
NEW YORK — Walmart became a lifeline to millions of people as the coronavirus spread and its profit and sales surged during the first quarter, topping almost all expectations. Online sales jumped 74%, fueled by a rush on canned foods, paper towels and other supplies as people sheltered in place....
Trump points to good news as restaurant owners tell of fearsVideo
WASHINGTON — Restaurant owners gave President Donald Trump a sobering accounting of the widespread damage the coronavirus pandemic has dealt their industry and asked him to adjust a loan program for small businesses to address their concerns. The president put a hopeful spin on the situation, saying encouraging news on...
John Dorfman: 4 stocks you should sell right now
Weeding isn’t just for gardens. I recommend that investors weed their portfolios at least once a year. Since the United States faces a recession — a stiff one, in my view — this is a good time to look at your holdings and weed out companies that have high debt,...
J.C. Penney plans to close more than 240 stores
NEW YORK — J.C. Penney will close almost 30% of its 846 stores as part of a restructuring under bankruptcy protection. The Plano, Texas, retailer said Monday that it plans to close about 192 stores by February 2021, and then 50 additional stores in the year after that. That would...
Uber cuts 3,000 jobs as virus slashes payroll by 25%Video
NEW YORK — Uber has cut 3,000 jobs from its workforce, its second major wave of layoffs in two weeks as the coronavirus slashed demand for rides. The San Francisco company has cut a quarter of its workforce since the year began, eliminating 3,700 people from the payroll earlier this...
Stocks rally on hopes for vaccine and economic recoveryVideo
NEW YORK — The stock market bounced back from its worst week in nearly two months Monday as optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus and hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year put investors in a buying mood. The S&P 500 climbed...
Pandemic claims another retailer: 118-year-old J.C. Penney
NEW YORK — The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the storied but troubled department store chain J.C. Penney into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth major retailer to meet that fate. As part of its reorganization, the 118-year-old company said late Friday it will be shuttering some stores. It said...
Reopening the economy doesn’t necessarily mean people are opening wallets
Suzann Ordile spent her time and money on restaurants and entertainment before the coronavirus disrupted life in the Philadelphia region and across the world. In a typical week, the Newtown lawyer ordered takeout twice, saw a couple shows with her wife and dined near a theater in Princeton. She squeezed...
University students recreate campuses in Minecraft to host graduationsVideo
The notion of a video game enthusiast as a sweaty, jobless loser alone in his mother’s basement goes back as far as video games, themselves. Not only do gamers come in all shapes, sizes, ages, genders and income brackets, but the concept of players as antisocial is equally outmoded. Many...
Tesla picks Austin, Tulsa as finalists for new US factory
DETROIT — Tesla has picked Austin, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, as finalists for its new U.S. assembly plant, a person briefed on the matter said Friday. The person says company officials visited Tulsa in the past week and were shown two sites. It wasn’t clear if there were any other...
Lawsuit: Former Mad Mex manager was fired for seeking time off after domestic violence attack
A Pittsburgh woman is suing Mad Mex and its parent company, alleging she was fired for requesting time off for medical treatment and court appearances after a domestic violence attack. The woman, a former manager at the restaurant’s Waterworks mall location, alleged in a lawsuit she was met with roadblocks...
U.S. layoffs surged to record high of 11.4 million in March
WASHINGTON — U.S. layoffs soared in March to a record 11.4 million after state and local governments closed restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other nonessential businesses in response to the intensifying viral outbreak. The Labor Department also said Friday that job openings plunged, and hiring fell, though those changes weren’t...
Zoom to open research and development center in Pittsburgh
Zoom, the video-conferencing software company whose popularity has skyrocketed in the social-distancing age, announced Thursday it will open two new research and development centers, including one in Pittsburgh. The company is seeking an office location near Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland. It will open another center in the greater Phoenix...
Uber to require all drivers and riders to wear masks starting Monday
Uber will require all of its drivers and riders worldwide to wear masks over their faces for the foreseeable future, Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said Wednesday. Khosrowshahi made the announcement during a conference call outlining new health and safety steps Uber is taking in order to ease concerns about the...
Drive-in theaters across Western Pa. set to open Friday
Drive-in movies theaters are set to open Friday across southwestern Pennsylvania as the state begins to loosen some coronavirus restrictions that have been in place since March. They include Evergreen Drive-In Theatre near Mt. Pleasant and Dependable in Moon. Others are Brownsville in Fayette County, Riverside in Armstrong County, Skyview...
Texas firm eyes several Levin Furniture stores in bankruptcy deal
The Mt. Pleasant flagship store that was the foundation for the century-old Levin Furniture empire may reopen — but only as part of a new furniture chain under a pending bankruptcy court deal. A Texas-based private equity firm bid $6.7 million to buy leases and unsold furniture in 27 Art...
Wall Street drops after reopening worries lead to late slide
Worries about the downside of reopening the economy too soon are weighing on markets, and Wall Street fell Tuesday to its biggest loss since the start of the month. The S&P 500 dropped 2.1% after spending much of the day drifting between small gains and losses, as investors debate whether...
Twitter to label disputed covid-19 tweets
CHICAGO — Twitter announced Monday it will start alerting users when a tweet makes disputed or misleading claims about the coronavirus. The new rule is the latest in a wave of stricter policies that tech companies are rolling out to confront an outbreak of virus-related misinformation on their sites. Facebook...
State says workers don’t have to report if business reopens illegally
Pennsylvania workers who refuse to report to any business that opens in violation of Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders will not lose their unemployment benefits, a state official said Monday. “If a business opens in defiance of the governor’s orders … those employees may stay home and not lose their benefits,”...
Intel mulls new chip plant amid concern over Asian supplies
NEW YORK — Intel is talking to the Trump administration about building a new semiconductor plant in the United States amid concern about relying on suppliers in Asia for chips used in a wide variety of electronics. A spokesman for Intel, the biggest American chip maker, said Sunday the company...
Trump’s economic team braces for worsening job market in MayVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers on Sunday argued that a “safe” reopening of the U.S. is needed urgently as they stare down the worst job numbers since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, although Trump has said he’s in no rush to enact another round of economic stimulus, the...
Elon Musk threatens to exit California over coronavirus restrictions
Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened Saturday to pull the company’s factory and headquarters out of California in an escalating spat with local officials who have stopped the company from reopening its electric vehicle factory. On Twitter, Musk also threatened to sue over Alameda County Health Department coronavirus restrictions that have...
Stocks rise on hopes that awful jobs report marks the bottom
Wall Street doubled down on its bet that the worst of the recession has passed, sending stocks higher again on Friday despite another historic, crushing report on the job market. Stocks around the world were already rising before the U.S. government gave its monthly report on jobs, in part on...
South African brewer says it may dump 400 million bottles of beer
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South African Breweries, one of the world’s largest brewers, says it may have to destroy 400 million bottles of beer as a result of the country’s ban on alcohol sales that is part of its lockdown measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. South...
33 million have sought U.S. unemployment aid since coronavirus hitVideo
WASHINGTON — Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades. Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions...
