Business category, Page 236
Fed signals it will likely hold interest rates near zero for months
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is signaling that it will keep its key short-term interest rate near zero for the foreseeable future as part of its extraordinary efforts to bolster an economy that is sinking into its worst crisis since the 1930s The Fed says it will also continue to...
U.S. pending home sales sank 20.8% in March
BALTIMORE — U.S. home sales showed signs of collapsing in March, as the number of contract signs plunged sharply because of the coronavirus outbreak. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its pending home sales index, which measures signed buyer contracts, plummeted a seasonally adjusted 20.8% in March from...
U.S. study finds Gilead drug works against coronavirusVideo
For the first time, a major study suggests that an experimental drug works against the new coronavirus, and U.S. government officials said Wednesday that they would work to make it available to appropriate patients as quickly as possible. In a study of 1,063 patients sick enough to be hospitalized, Gilead...
Pandemic brings fortunes to Amazon — and headaches, tooVideo
Amazon has spent years honing the business of packing, shipping and delivering millions of products to doorsteps around the world. Now it has a captive audience. With much of the globe in various stages of a lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s largest online retailer has become a...
Stocks charge higher on hopes for progress in fighting coronavirusVideo
Stocks around the world whipped higher Wednesday, riding a wave of optimism on encouraging data about a possible treatment for covid-19. The upswell of hope was so strong that investors completely sidestepped a report showing the outbreak drove the U.S. economy to its worst quarterly performance since the Great Recession....
U.S. economy shrank at 4.8% rate last quarter as virus struckVideo
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate last quarter as the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the country and began triggering a recession that will end the longest expansion on record. The Commerce Department estimated Wednesday that the gross domestic product, the total output of...
2005 video game event offers insights into coronavirus pandemic
Video games tend to be viewed as a fun departure from reality by those who play them and a total waste of time by many who don’t. It might be that neither of those perspectives is very close to the truth, as illustrated by the way a 15-year-old event in...
Treasury plans to reclaim stimulus payments sent to deceased
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is planning to instruct people whose deceased relatives received coronavirus stimulus payments to return the money to the federal government, according to a department spokesman. The Treasury is aware that some individuals who have recently died received the $1,200 economic impact payments and plans to...
Analyst: Ford needs to consider merger after $2B lossVideo
Ford Motor Co. and its competitors have warned for weeks that their finances are teetering on the brink of uncertainty as a global pandemic continues to brutalize America and bring manufacturing to a standstill. While the current landscape is grim, coming months promise to be unrelenting. The cold reality for...
Companies seek to limit legal liability for virus infectionsVideo
As companies start planning their reopenings, business groups are pushing Congress to limit liability from potential lawsuits filed by workers and customers infected by the coronavirus. They appear to have the White House’s ear. President Donald Trump has floated shielding businesses from lawsuits. His top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said...
Pandemic exposes gaps in travel insurance coverage
NORFOLK, Va. — For many people, travel insurance has been little more than a box that pops up on a booking site to offer some cheap peace of mind. But the coverage’s limitations have been brought into stark relief during the coronavirus pandemic, leaving would-be travelers frustrated over denied claims...
Slumping tech favorites pull major US stock indexes lower
Wall Street jostled to a mixed finish Tuesday, as former stalwarts ran out of momentum and some of the market’s most beaten-down stocks turned into winners. The S&P 500 slipped 0.5% after stocks that have held up the best through this year’s sell-off fell to some of the market’s sharpest...
Southwest posts 1st quarterly loss in almost a decadeVideo
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines is posting its first quarterly loss in almost a decade and doesn’t see any improvement right now with most planes grounded on the tarmac. Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said in a prepared statement that, “The U.S. economy has been at a standstill, and the current...
Coronavirus is expected to reduce meat selection and raise pricesVideo
DES MOINES, Iowa — Meat isn’t going to disappear from supermarkets because of outbreaks of the coronavirus among workers at U.S. slaughterhouses. But as the meat plants struggle to remain open, consumers could face less selection and slightly higher prices. Industry leaders acknowledge that the U.S. food chain has rarely...
Tesla says its cars automatically stop for traffic lightsVideo
DETROIT — After testing on public roads, Tesla is rolling out a new feature of its partially automated driving system designed to spot stop signs and traffic signals. The update of the electric car company’s cruise control and auto-steer systems is a step toward CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to convert...
FNB donates $50K to Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
First National Bank’s parent company, FNB Corp., is donating $50,000 to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank for use in its covid-19 emergency food relief effort. The donation, announced Monday, is part of FNB’s $1 million commitment to support efforts throughout the seven states the Pittsburgh-based bank serves. “Providing food...
IRS adds details to online stimulus money toolVideo
For nearly two weeks now, taxpayers have been able to use a tool on the IRS website to find out the status of their coronavirus stimulus money. Now, the Get My Payment tool has been expanded to include more information about your payment from the government’s $2.2 trillion economic relief...
This Monroeville businessman created the modern conference call, and he’s not done yetVideo
It’s mid-afternoon. You’re in your home office when the laptop pings to remind you of the daily meeting starting in five minutes. If it’s a video call, you make sure your face is presentable. Maybe you slip on a work shirt and smile, knowing they’ll never suspect how your bottom...
CBO says deficit to reach $3.7 trillion in economic decline
WASHINGTON — A recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a burst of government spending on testing, health care and aid to businesses and households will nearly quadruple the government’s budget deficit to $3.7 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday. The 2020 budget deficit will explode after four coronavirus...
Wall Street ends a bumpy week with a gain, led by technology
NEW YORK — Stocks are closing out a tumultuous week with broad gains, led by familar names in technology, including Apple. The S&P 500 rose 1.4% Friday, but still ended the week lower, breaking a two-week winning streak. Stocks meandered between gains and losses for much of the morning then...
Self-employed Pennsylvanians report confusion, glitches when applying for financial assistance
More than 78,000 self-employed Pennsylvanians have applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance since the state introduced the program last week — but several who were interviewed say the process has been marred by confusion and technical glitches. “You’re just kind of in the dark, and just hoping that something comes through,”...
Dismal report on covid-19 drug sends markets downward
NEW YORK — An early rally on Wall Street suddenly vanished Thursday, the latest example of how fragile the hopes underpinning the stock market’s monthlong recovery are. The S&P 500 shot higher in the morning, completely brushing aside another stunning report showing millions of workers are losing their jobs by...
Coronavirus pushes U.S. unemployment toward highest since DepressionVideo
WASHINGTON — Unemployment in the U.S. is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with 1 in 6 American workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus. More than 4.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government said Thursday. In...
Tyson Foods idles largest pork plant as virus slams industryVideo
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Tyson Foods suspended operations Wednesday at an Iowa plant that is critical to the nation’s pork supply but was blamed for fueling a massive coronavirus outbreak in the region. The Arkansas-based company said the closure of the plant in Waterloo would deny a vital market to...
In Great Lakes region, EPA enforcement of clean water laws slackens
CHICAGO — Two months after President Trump took office, U.S. Steel dumped a plume of cancer-causing metal into a Lake Michigan tributary 20 miles away from a Chicago drinking water intake. The company reported another spill of hexavalent chromium six months later, around the same time public interest lawyers dug...
