Business category, Page 275
Snapchat user base grows 2%, Snap shares climb
Snap Inc.’s fortunes rise and fall on the size of Snapchat’s user base. When the user numbers started to decline in early 2018 because of a tumultuous redesign and flabby Android app, its stock price began a long slide to less than $5 a share. Executive churn followed, and a...
Stocks rally to record on earnings surprisesVideo
The S&P 500 hit an all-time high Tuesday, marking the stock market’s complete recovery from a nosedive at the end of last year. The benchmark index’s previous record was set last September, shortly before the market sank in the fourth quarter amid fears of a recession, an escalating trade war...
Henry Bloch, co-founder of H&R Block, dies at 96
After returning from military service in World War II, 24-year-old Henry Bloch started a two-man bookkeeping shop in his home town of Kansas City, Mo., that offered tax preparation as a sideline. He spent years building the business and placed a help-wanted newspaper advertisement seeking a full-time accountant. The only...
Easton’s Weyerbacher Brewing files for bankruptcy, announces new majority owner
Weyerbacher Brewing Co. Inc., the 24-year-old Easton business known for its big Belgian-style brews, is restructuring its operations. The company on Monday announced it has finalized a partnership with 1518 Holdings LLC, a Philadelphia private investment group that will take a 55% ownership stake in Weyerbacher. As part of that...
Consumers are hanging onto old mobile phones in record numbers
Wireless customers are hanging on to their old phones longer than ever. That’s the message from Verizon Communications Inc., which said its upgrade rate fell to a record low last quarter – a harbinger of tough times ahead for the iPhone and other devices. Faced with $1,000 price tags on...
Walgreens to hike minimum age for store tobacco sales
Walgreens has decided to raise its minimum age for tobacco sales several weeks after a top federal official chastised the drugstore chain for violating laws restricting access to cigarettes and other products. Walgreens said Tuesday that it will require customers to be at least 21 years old to purchase tobacco...
U.S. expands probe into air bag failures to 12.3M vehicles
DETROIT — U.S. auto safety regulators have expanded an investigation into malfunctioning air bag controls to include 12.3 million vehicles because the bags may not inflate in a crash. The problem could be responsible for as many as eight deaths. Vehicles made by Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Fiat...
America’s elderly are twice as likely to work now than in 1985Video
Just as single-income families began to vanish in the last century, many of America’s elderly are now forgoing retirement for the same reason: They don’t have enough money. Rickety social safety nets, inadequate retirement savings plans and sky high health-care costs are all conspiring to make the concept of leaving...
John Dorfman: Cheapest stocks in each sector could be bargains
What would happen if you bought the cheapest stock in each of the major stock market sectors? I’ve explored that question in 11 columns, from 2002 through 2006, and from 2013 to the present. I call this concept the Cheapskate Portfolio. I think it can be a way to find a...
Starbucks adding needle-disposal boxes to restrooms
Starbucks, recognizing it’s often a safe space for the most vulnerable visitors, has installed needle-disposal boxes in some locations. The coffee giant started adding the boxes in several U.S. markets in January after receiving requests from employees last year, a spokeswoman said. It will add them to any store where...
Wegmans to go plastic-bag free in N.Y. before state ban
ALBANY, N.Y. — Wegmans will eliminate single-use plastic grocery bags at its New York state stores by year’s end — just before a state ban on the packing takes effect, the grocery store chain announced Monday. The Rochester, N.Y.-based grocery chain also said it will work to reduce the usage...
BPW of Pennsylvania to celebrate 100th year at Washington convention
Business and Professional Women of Pennsylvania, an advocacy group for women in business statewide, will celebrate its centennial June 6-9 in Washington County. The group, founded in 1919, will hold its annual convention at Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh-Meadow Lands, 340 Racetrack Road, North Strabane Township. The theme, “Celebrating 100...
Home sales fall 4.9% in slow start to spring buying season
WASHINGTON — Sales of existing U.S. homes fell in March after a huge gain the previous month, held back partly by a sharp slowdown among the most expensive properties. The National Association of Realtors says home sales fell 4.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.21 million, down from...
Tesla gears up for fully self-driving cars amid skepticism
SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears poised to transform the company’s electric cars into driverless vehicles in a risky bid to realize a bold vision that he has been floating for years. The technology required to make that quantum leap is scheduled to be shown off to Tesla...
What the Apple-Qualcomm-Intel dance means for the future of 5G
The market for a critical component in next-generation smartphones is undergoing a dramatic shift at the dawn of the 5G era. At its center is Qualcomm, the silicon-chip maker whose miniature modems help put the “phone” in iPhone. Now, analysts say, two key developments last week stand to make Qualcomm...
Earth, meet Polo: Ralph Lauren unveils plastic bottle shirt
NEW YORK — Polo Ralph Lauren on Thursday launched a version of its iconic polo shirt made entirely of recycled plastic bottles and dyed through a process that uses zero water. David Lauren, the youngest son of the company’s founder and its chief innovation officer, told The Associated Press ahead...
From cherry pies to French dressing, FDA to ease some food rules
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump may soon be able to claim a sweet victory for his deregulation push, with officials preparing to get rid of the decades-old rules for frozen cherry pies. Emails show the Food and Drug Administration planned to start the process for revoking the standard for...
Airlines could someday weigh passengers like luggage
In the name of fuel effeciency among airlines, a British start-up is looking into the idea of weighing passengers — just like luggage — before flights. The more a plane weighs, the more fuel it will need to burn to complete its flight. This is why your luggage is so...
Cocoapreneur Pgh highlights black businesses in Pittsburgh, encourages support
The Cocoapreneur Directory Launch Party highlights the progresses and successes of black businesses in the Pittsburgh region while encouraging people to continue to support them. It begins at 7 p.m. Friday at SLATE studio in the Strip District. Hosted by Cocoapreneur Pgh, a black business and consultancy which creates and...
PSU study: Fake smiling at work can lead you to drink more off the job
Faking it at work can drive a person to drink. That’s what Penn State researchers found out in a new study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. The PSU team — along with researchers from the University at Buffalo — looked into the drinking habits of people who...
U.S. recession looks less likely in 2020, boosting Trump’s chances of re-election
WASHINGTON — A noticeable shift has taken place on Wall Street and among many economists and business leaders in recent weeks: Fears of an imminent recession have faded and been replaced with cautious optimism, especially about 2020, a trend that bodes well for President Donald Trump as he seeks re-election....
Watch: Pack of Boston Dynamics robot dogs pulls truckVideo
Mush. A pack of robot dogs stood in for real dogs, and a box truck instead of a sled, in a new video released by a U.S. robotics company, showing the robots pulling the truck with apparent ease. The video posted Tuesday shows 10 four-legged, though headless, robot SpotMini pulling...
U.S. trade deficit narrows to $49.4 billion in February
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit fell for the second straight month in February, and the politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China narrowed. The Commerce Department says the gap between the goods and services that the United States sells and what it buys from the rest...
Bulging stockpiles to weigh on 2019 U.S. growth
The rising stockpiles of cars, furniture and other goods that helped the U.S. economy boom in 2018 are poised to cause a hangover this year. Inventory accumulation added an average 1.2 percentage point to U.S. growth in the third and fourth quarters, government figures show, and were a key to...
Banks lead U.S. stocks to slight gains amid mixed earnings
Stocks closed slightly higher on Wall Street on Tuesday, erasing the market’s modest losses from a day earlier. The gains, which followed a rally in overseas stock indexes, came as investors sized up the latest batch of company earnings reports. Financial stocks led the way higher as bond yields rose,...
