Business category, Page 237
Auto insurance companies sending money directly to customers as result of covid-19
Auto insurance companies are offering financial relief to customers while stay-at-home directives reduce the number of people driving during the coronavirus pandemic. Companies offering relief assistance include Erie Insurance, GEICO, Progressive, State Farm, Allstate and Travelers. Erie Insurance said it would provide $200 million in dividends directly to personal and...
Trump Organization, written out of U.S. bailout, taps European aid
The Trump Organization is seeking U.K. and Irish bailout money to help cover wages for bartenders, bagpipers and other employees furloughed from its European golf properties because of the coronavirus lockdown. Overseas businesses owned by President Trump can tap government funds meant to help retain workers. In the U.S., by...
Delta Air Lines posts $534 million in losses, with even bigger losses looming
Delta Air Lines, the biggest and most profitable U.S. airline, lost $534 million in the first quarter, a setback that will appear trivial when the full force of the pandemic is revealed in the current quarter. Delta warned Wednesday that revenue during the April-through-June quarter, typically a period of harried...
Stocks claw higher on Wall Street, oil prices regain ground
NEW YORK — Stocks around the world are clawing higher on Wednesday, and the S&P 500 climbed toward the first gain in what’s been a dismal week for markets. Even the oil market gained ground. Prices for crude have been turned upside down because of how much extra oil is...
Trump bars new immigration green cards, not temporary visas
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced what he described as a “temporary suspension of immigration into the United States.” But the executive order would bar only those seeking permanent residency, not temporary workers. Trump said Tuesday he would be placing a 60-day pause on the issuance of green cards in...
Pandemic and chill: Netflix adds a cool 16 million subscribersVideo
BERKELEY, Calif. — Netflix picked up nearly 16 million global subscribers during the first three months of the year, helping cement its status as one of the world’s most essential services in times of isolation or crisis. The quarter spanned the beginning of stay-at-home orders in the U.S. and around...
Chipotle agrees to record $25 million fine over tainted food
LOS ANGELES — Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. agreed Tuesday to pay a record $25 million fine to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people in the U.S. from 2015 to 2018. The fast food company was charged in Los Angeles federal court with...
Oil’s chaotic collapse deepens; stocks drop worldwideVideo
NEW YORK Oil prices crumpled even further Tuesday, and U.S. stocks sank to their worst loss in weeks as worries swept markets worldwide about the economic carnage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The market’s spotlight was again on oil, where prices have plummeted because very few people are flying or...
John Dorfman: A handful of ways to invest defensively
I never abandon the stock market utterly, and I don’t think anyone should. But when a recession looms, it makes sense to get more defensive. That means investing in sectors that usually withstand bear markets and recessions fairly well. Traditional choices include consumer staples, gold, health care stocks, tobacco and...
Gov’t relief loans to restaurant chains draw complaints
Some big restaurant chains have obtained loans from the government under a small-business relief program, leading business groups to cry foul even though the loans are within the guidelines of the lending program. The Paycheck Protection Program exhausted its $350 billion in funding last week and many small businesses were...
Oil price goes negative as demand collapses; stocks take a plungeVideo
NEW YORK — Oil futures plunged below zero on Monday, the latest never-before-seen number to come out of the economic coma caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Stocks and Treasury yields also dropped on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%, but the market’s most dramatic action by far was...
10 years after BP spill: Oil drilled deeper; rules relaxed
NEW ORLEANS — Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling in deeper and deeper waters, where payoffs can be huge but risks are greater than ever. Industry leaders and government officials say they’re determined...
Former Treasury Secretary, Alcoa head Paul O’Neill dies at Pittsburgh home at age 84
Paul O’Neill wasn’t the type to put on airs. The plain-speaking former Treasury secretary and retired head of aluminum giant Alcoa was as comfortable in a corporate board room as he was donning blue jeans and hiking several blocks from his home in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood to have breakfast with...
Gov. Tom Wolf lays out plan for reopening Pennsylvania’s economy
The plan to reopen Pennsylvania’s economy will be slow and gradual, hinging on a “regional, sector-based approach,” Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday, though he offered no timetable on when the plan would be enacted. The plan, available on the governor’s website, comes in three phases — relief, reopening and recovery...
Howard Hanna offers pandemic-impacted agents advance pay on future earnings
Getting paid based on commission rather than salary, whether it is selling cars, insurance, or houses, can be tough — especially when the state closes a worker’s business as part of a sweeping effort to stop the spread of coronavirus. Howard Hanna Real Estate Service, the largest real estate firm...
Crisis fund helps Allegheny, Beaver organizations cope with pandemic
A Pittsburgh nonprofit has tapped funding from the Hillman Foundation to provide loans and grants to organizations in Allegheny and Beaver counties that are experiencing economic distress during the covid-19 pandemic. New Sun Rising announced Thursday it has used $100,000 in seed money from the Hillman Foundation to create a...
EPA guts rule credited with cleaning up coal-plant toxic air
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday gutted an Obama-era rule that compelled the country’s coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other human health hazards, a move designed to limit future regulation of air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler...
Workers returning to Pa. liquor stores to boost online sales
To help process online orders, workers will be back on the job at many state-owned wine and liquor stores, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said Thursday. The stores will not be open to the public. Gov. Tom Wolf’s office gave the OK to reopen more than 100 of the state...
Facebook to warn users who ‘liked’ coronavirus hoaxesVideo
Have you liked or commented on a Facebook post about the covid-19 pandemic? Facebook is about to begin letting you know if you’ve spread bad information. The company will soon be letting users know if they liked, reacted to, or commented on posts with harmful misinformation about the virus that...
U.S. home construction collapsed 22.3% in MarchVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. home-building activity collapsed in March as the coronavirus spread, with housing starts tumbling 22.3% from a month ago. The Commerce Department said Thursday that ground breakings occurred last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2 million units, down from a 1.56 million pace in February....
Government closing in on small business lending limitVideo
NEW YORK — The government is closing in on the $349 billion lending limit on its Paycheck Protection Program that is sending relief money to the nation’s small businesses. The Small Business Administration says that it has approved more than 1.6 million loans worth more than $339 billion. The program...
Stocks climb as pandemic winners pull away on Wall Street
NEW YORK — Even in this new stay-at-home, increasingly jobless economy, some businesses are making out as clear winners, and gains for Amazon, health care companies and stocks in other pockets of the market helped prop up Wall Street on Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% after flipping between small...
5.2 million more seek unemployment aid as U.S. layoffs spreadVideo
WASHINGTON — The wave of layoffs that has engulfed the U.S. economy since the coronavirus struck forced 5.2 million more people to seek unemployment benefits last week, the government reported Thursday. Roughly 22 million have sought jobless benefits in the past month — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job...
Economic pain from virus spreading quickly as the pandemicVideo
PARIS — Economic pain from the coronavirus pandemic spread even more widely Thursday, weighing heavily on nations, businesses and ordinary people as countries struggled to restore confidence that stores, factories, airplanes and schools could reopen safely. In France, Amazon suspended operations altogether after a court ruled it wasn’t doing enough...
How should you spend your stimulus check? Here is what experts say
The check is not in the mail. But that big coronavirus stimulus check — up to $1,200 for singles, $2,400 for married couples and an extra $500 for each qualified child — might be in your bank account if the IRS has direct deposit information on you. Some families will...
