Business category, Page 282
Target hits on all cylinders in the fourth quarter
MINNEAPOLIS — Strong online sales, traffic growth in newly remodeled stores and expanded delivery options pushed Target beyond most expectations in the crucial fourth quarter, when retailers ring up holiday sales. Target, which is fighting with Walmart as well as Amazon for online dominance, reported a 31 percent spike in...
John Dorfman: Omaha man wins Derby of Economic Forecasting
“What did everybody get wrong this year?” my wife asked me at breakfast Sunday. It was a good question. I’ve been running the Derby of Economic Forecasting Talent, or DEFT, more or less annually since 1999. Contestants must predict six economic variables — gross domestic product, inflation, the interest rate...
Truck driver shortage could impact prices of consumer goodsVideo
Despite a national truck driver shortage, commercial driver’s license schools in the area are seeing an uptick in enrollments, thanks to incentives such as higher wages and better benefits. But the push to mitigate the shortage could soon have an impact on the prices of consumer goods, said Kevin Steward,...
Evidence grows that Trump’s trade wars are hitting U.S. economy
WASHINGTON — President Trump regularly declares that he’s winning his trade wars. Yet evidence is growing that the U.S. economy is a net loser so far. In two separate papers published over the weekend, some of the world’s leading trade economists declared Trump’s tariffs to be the most consequential trade...
Qualcomm puts value of patents on line in first Apple jury trial
Qualcomm is putting the value of its patent portfolio on the line in a California courtroom in its hometown to try to make Apple pay for using technology the chipmaker credits for the iPhone’s commercial success. It’s the first time a U.S. jury will have a say in the two-year,...
Cheap prices will be the latest casualty of the trucker shortage
America’s trucker shortage is about to hit consumers right where it hurts: in the kitty litter. McDonald’s long-time distributor Martin-Brower Co. is raising delivery fees, imperiling low menu prices, and Procter & Gamble Co., Church & Dwight Co. and Hasbro Inc. are sounding the alarm that higher freight fees could...
EBay rethinking future of StubHub and classified business
NEW YORK — EBay said Friday that it is considering the sale or spin-off its ticket-reselling site StubHub and its classified ads business after a push from an activist investor. Back in January, Elliott Management said in a letter to the company in that it believed the e-commerce company would...
U.S. consumer spending fell sharp 0.5 percent in December
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending tumbled 0.5 percent in December, the biggest decline in nine years. Meanwhile, incomes were rose sharply in December but edged down in January. The Commerce Department says the fall in consumer spending followed sizable gains of 0.7 percent in October and 0.6 percent in November....
Walmart to make ‘every effort’ to keep disabled greeters
After more than a week of backlash, Walmart is pledging to make “every effort” to find other roles for disabled workers who’d accused the retailer of targeting them as it prepares to eliminate the “people greeter” job at 1,000 stores. Greg Foran, president and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. stores, said...
Martha Stewart partners with Canadian cannabis firm
No, you’re not smoking something. Martha Stewart has entered the fast-growing — but still legally murky — cannabis market. The domestic diva who brought us hemp yarn is now partnering with Canada’s Canopy Growth Corp. to develop new products containing CBD, a compound derived from hemp and marijuana that doesn’t...
Elon Musk’s long-promised $35,000 Model 3 has finally arrived, Tesla says
A Tesla electric car that mainstream drivers can afford has finally arrived, Elon Musk’s automaker said Thursday, finally achieving a long-delayed promise that could help propel the upstart automaker into the American middle-class garage. Tesla’s Model 3 sedan, already the country’s best-selling electric car, will now be offered at a...
YouTube suspends comments on videos of kids to curb pedophiles
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube said Thursday it will turn off comments on nearly all videos featuring kids — potentially affecting millions of posts on the site — after reports last week that pedophiles were leaving inappropriate comments on innocuous videos of children. The change comes as YouTube grapples with moderating...
Working parents are an endangered species. That’s why Democrats are talking child care.
Democrats’ child-care proposals, such as the plan put forward by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., last week, target an increasingly rare breed: the working parent. Parents make up a smaller share of the U.S. labor force now than at any other time in at least a century, according to our analysis...
Gap to create 2 independently publicly traded companies
NEW YORK — Gap Inc. is splitting into two. The retailer said Thursday that it’s creating two independent publicly traded companies — low-priced Old Navy and a yet-to-be named company, which will consist of the iconic Gap brand, Athleta, Banana Republic, Intermix and Hill City. The San Francisco-based company said...
J.C. Penney closes more stores as sales deteriorate
NEW YORK — J.C. Penney is closing more stores after a weak holiday sales season. Net income tumbled nearly 70 percent and revenue slid 8 percent in the fourth-quarter, the most crucial period of the year for retailers who bank on a surge in holiday sales. The company did beat...
U.S. economic growth just missed 3 percent mark in 2018
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy slowed in the final three months of last year to an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent, the slowest pace since the beginning of 2018, as the government shutdown and other factors took a toll on growth. Economists believe growth has slowed even more in...
SeaWorld parks see first annual gain in attendance since 2015
Last year proved to be a comeback for long beleaguered SeaWorld Entertainment, which saw its first annual gain in attendance since 2015, the company reported Thursday. Total visitation in 2018 grew by approximately 1.8 million guests to reach 22.6 million, an increase of 8.6 percent. Company revenue also rose by...
Hyundai, Kia recall over 500K vehicles as fire risk spreads
DETROIT — Hyundai and Kia have added more than a half-million vehicles to 3½-year string of U.S. recalls for engine failures and fires. Three recalls released Thursday by the government add new problems and vehicles to the Korean automakers’ list of safety woes, which have brought hundreds of complaints about...
Taxed and confused? Here’s where to get tax filing help
It’s tough to know all the answers at tax time, particularly in a year with massive tax law changes. Sometimes people need help, but where should they turn? Here are a few options: IRS The IRS has answers to most tax questions online. Its website also has a number of...
Coal official allegedly cheated on safety tests, putting miners at risk of black lung
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A coal company manager took part in cheating on tests designed to protect miners from contracting deadly black lung disease, a federal grand jury has charged. The grand jury issued a new indictment adding Glendal “Buddy” Hardison to a group of mine officials charged with conspiring to...
Race for shareholder profits has left workers in the dust, according to new research
A relentless focus on maximizing shareholder value has contributed to stagnant middle-class wages in the United States and fueled the rise of a society increasingly divided between haves and have-nots, according to a new working paper published by the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive economic think tank. “Nearly fifty years of...
Stair-climbing robot is hitting streets in FedEx delivery test
Call it R2-D2 without the attitude. FedEx Corp. envisions a not-too-distant future in which it relies on Star Wars-style robots for more deliveries, as portrayed in a company video. Imagine a box-shaped bot that can roll out of a neighborhood pharmacy and drop off prescription medicine at a nearby house....
A very merry Christmas at Best Buy with sales booming
NEW YORK — Best Buy put up some big holiday sales numbers Wednesday, more evidence that Americans are willing and able to spend on gadgets and big TVs. The nation’s consumer electronics chain delivered a better-than-expected 3 percent increase in sales at established stores for the fiscal fourth quarter. The...
Bayer vows strong defense in Roundup cancer cases
BERLIN — Germany’s Bayer AG, which bought Monsanto Co. last year, has underlined its determination to fight cases involving the Roundup weed-killer in the face of more than 11,000 lawsuits so far. In August, a San Francisco jury awarded a man $289 million after determining Roundup, part of the Monsanto...
Workers at ex-GE Transportation plant go on strike
ERIE — Workers at the former GE Transportation plant in northwestern Pennsylvania have gone on strike for the first time in a half-century, and a day after completion of a merger between GE Transportation and Wabtec. Employees at the plant now owned by Wabtec (the former Westinghouse Airbrakes Technologies Corp.)...
