Business category, Page 257
High prices drove U.S. home sales down 2.2% in September
WASHINGTON — U.S. home sales fell 2.2% in September, as rising home prices and lower inventories have stifled homebuyers. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that homes sold last month declined at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.38 million units, ending a two-month streak of sales gains. Existing-home...
Macy’s to stop selling real fur by end of fiscal year 2020
NEW YORK — Macy’s Inc. says it will stop selling real fur by the end of its fiscal year 2020 at its namesake stores, Bloomingdale’s, as well as at its discount outlets. As part of the announcement, the department store chain says it will close its fur vaults and salons....
Purloined Portfolio a collection from bright minds
Stolen fruit, anyone? Filings with the Securities and Exchange Administration make it easy to follow what almost any U.S. money manager is doing with his or her portfolio. I like to keep tabs on what my competitors are doing, especially the competitors I respect. Once a year, I feature some...
Online ordering boom gives rise to virtual restaurantsVideo
NEW YORK — Frato’s Pizza looks like a typical family restaurant, with its black-and-white checkered floor and red chairs. But in the kitchen, the cooks are whipping up dishes for four other restaurants at the same time. There is, of course, the gourmet pizza that patrons have come to expect...
Stocks end lower; S&P 500 notches 2nd straight weekly gain
The S&P 500 index closed out an uneven week of trading on Wall Street with its second straight weekly gain, even though stock indexes ended lower Friday. Technology companies led the slide, erasing some of the market’s gains from a day earlier. Communication services, industrials and health care stocks also...
Comcast opens store in North Huntingdon
Comcast Corp. opened an Xfinity store along Route 30 in North Huntingdon, part of an expansion that has seen the Philadelphia-based communications company open 12 stores in Western Pennsylvania. The global media company, which provides cable television service and high-speed internet and phone service, opened the store at 8691 Route...
Juul halts sales of fruit, dessert flavors for e-cigarettesVideo
WASHINGTON — Juul Labs stopped selling fruit and dessert flavors Thursday, acknowledging the public’s “lack of trust” in the vaping industry. The voluntary step is the company’s latest attempt to weather a growing political backlash blaming its flavored-nicotine products for hooking a generation of teenagers on electronic cigarettes. Juul, the...
U.S. home construction fell 9.4% last month
WASHINGTON — U.S. home building fell last month, driven by a sharp decline in the construction of new apartments. The Commerce Department said Thursday that housing starts dropped 9.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.26 million. The construction of new apartments plunged 28.3% to an annual pace of...
Netflix heads into showdown with slowing subscriber growthVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix’s subscriber growth is bogging down even before the leading video streaming service confronts high-powered threats from Apple and Walt Disney Co. The latest sign of the challenges the company is facing emerged Wednesday with the release of its third-quarter results. The numbers provided further evidence that...
Technology companies lead modest slide for U.S. stock indexes
A day of mostly listless trading on Wall Street ended Wednesday with modest losses as the stock market gave back some of its gains from the day before. Technology stocks accounted for most of the selling, which lost some of its momentum toward the end of the day. Energy companies...
Solid company earnings power broad rally for U.S. stocks
Stocks notched solid gains on Wall Street Tuesday as investors welcomed surprisingly good quarterly results from some of the nation’s biggest companies. Strong earnings from UnitedHealth Group, JPMorgan Chase and other companies helped power the market’s broad gains, erasing modest losses from a day earlier. Investors are looking to the...
New Jersey breaks its monthly sports betting record
ATLANTIC CITY — Gamblers wagered a record-breaking $445 million on sports in New Jersey in September, the largest monthly total in the state since legal sports betting began in June 2018. The release of figures Tuesday came as the rapidly growing New Jersey sports betting market challenges Nevada for nationwide...
Harley temporarily suspends electric motorcycle production
NEW YORK — Harley-Davidson is suspending production of its highly anticipated electric motorcycle because of technical issues that arose during a final quality check. The manufacturer is counting on the LiveWire motorcycle to attract younger customers and counter flagging sales in the United States as its traditional customer base ages....
Marathon Petroleum and Prudential have dividend appeal
With impeachment and trade war in the air, the stock market probably won’t roar ahead in the next 12 months. Anything can happen, but my guess is that the coming 12 months will see a normal gain of 10% or less. In that environment, wouldn’t it be nice to have...
China’s trade with U.S. shrinks again in September
BEIJING — China’s trade with the United States fell by double digits again in September amid a tariff war that threatens to tip the global economy into recession. Exports to the United States, China’s biggest foreign market, fell 21.9% to $36.5 billion, a deterioration from August’s 16% decline, customs data...
California governor signs fur sales, circus performance bans
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products and bar most animals from circus performances under a pair of bills signed Saturday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Under the first-in-the-nation fur law, residents will no longer be able to sell or make clothing, shoes or...
Judge will halt lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, its owners
A judge will halt lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and its owners for six months in hopes of finalizing a settlement over the OxyContin maker’s role in the national opioid crisis, he said Friday. In a hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain strongly brushed aside the argument from a group of...
U.S. consumers snap up Italian Parmesan before tariffs hitVideo
MILAN — U.S. consumers who appreciate the tang of aged Italian Parmesan cheese as an aperitif or atop their favorite pasta dish are stocking up ahead of next week’s tariff hike and as dairy producers in the two countries square off. The Italian agricultural lobby Coldiretti said Friday that sales...
West Virginia farmers quadrupled their hemp crop this year
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Farmers more than quadrupled West Virginia’s industrial hemp crop this year. Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt’s office says about 130 farmers grew 641 acres of industrial hemp in 2019, up from 155 acres in 2018. And more’s coming: The department’s statement says more than 400 applications have been...
Stocks climb for 2nd straight day on U.S.-China trade optimism
Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street for the second straight day Thursday as the U.S. and China kicked off a new round of negotiations in their long-running trade war. Technology companies and banks led the rally as investors turned hopeful that the 13th round of trade talks will bring...
Boeing to team with Porsche on electric flying carVideo
The idea of a flying car just got a bit of class. And environmental friendliness. Reuters reports planemaker Boeing Co. announced Thursday it is working with Porsche — owned by Volkswagen — on a concept electric flying car. Boeing has been in competition with other companies to build aerial vehicles...
Social Security checks to rise modestly amid push to expand benefitsVideo
WASHINGTON — Millions of retirees will get a modest 1.6% cost-of-living increase from Social Security in 2020, an uptick with potential political consequences in an election year when Democrats are pushing more generous inflation protection. The increase amounts to $24 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates...
‘Jesus Shoes’ filled with holy water sell out for $3,000
Is it the holy water in the soles? Perhaps it’s the crucifix on the laces. Or maybe it’s the stitched “MT 14:25” on the side. We know it can’t be the bargain basement price: $3,000. Whatever it is, the Jesus Shoe is one hot item. The sneakers that appear to...
U.S. stocks notch broad gains amid renewed trade deal hopes
Stocks notched broad gains Wednesday on Wall Street as investors regained some of their optimism about the prospects for progress in the trade war between the U.S. and China. A day after escalating trade tensions led to a sharp sell-off, investors drew encouragement from reports that Beijing signaled it is...
Dick’s Sporting Goods destroyed $5 million worth of guns, CEO Edward Stack saysVideo
Dick’s Sporting Goods destroyed $5 million worth of assault rifles instead of returning them to their manufacturers, the Findlay-based company’s CEO told CBS in an interview. CEO Edward Stack spoke to CBS national correspondent Lee Cowan in an interview that aired on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “If we really think these...
