Business category, Page 34

NEW YORK — Several online brokerage firms including Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard appeared to be down for thousands of users early Monday during one of the biggest stock markets sell-offs of 2024. User reports appeared to peak around and just before 10 a.m. ET, data from outage tracker Downdectector...

NEW YORK — Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index soared nearly 11% early Tuesday, a day after it set markets tumbling in Europe and on Wall Street. The Japanese index advanced more than 3,300 points, not quite making up for the huge loss of more than 4,400 points the day before,...

NEW YORK — Antitrust tensions are heating up in the chipmaking industry. Rivals have accused Wall Street darling Nvidia of abusing its market dominance in selling chips that power artificial intelligence — and the U.S. Justice Department is investigating these complaints, technology news site The Information reported. According to the...

The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy law and running afoul of a settlement it had reached with another federal agency. The complaint, filed together with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, comes as the U.S. and the prominent...

WASHINGTON — U.S. hiring decelerated sharply last month in the face of high interest rates as employers added a weak 114,000 jobs. Friday’s Labor Department report showed a drop from the 179,000 jobs created in June. Forecasters had expected to see 175,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate rose to...

Guardian Elder Care, the parent company of skilled nursing facilities including Belair in Lower Burrell and Oak Hill in Greensburg, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Johnstown-based health care company filed the petition for relief this week. Nineteen facilities — including locations in Lower Burrell, Greensburg, Bethel Park and...

CarShield will pay $10 million to settle charges that its advertisements and telemarketing for its extended auto warranty plans are deceptive and misleading, the Federal Trade Commission said. Many customers found that repair claims were often not covered despite making payments of up to $120 per month, the FTC said...

WASHINGTON — The attorney general for Washington, D.C., sued StubHub on Wednesday, accusing the ticket resale platform of advertising deceptively low prices and then ramping up prices with extra fees. The practice known as “drip pricing” violates consumer protection laws in the nation’s capital, Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. “StubHub...

WASHINGTON — Pay and benefits for America’s workers grew more slowly in the April-June quarter than in the first three months of the year, a trend that could keep price pressures in check and encourage the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve. Compensation as measured by the government’s Employment Cost Index...

Boeing lost more than $1.4 billion in the second quarter and said a longtime industry executive will take over as chief executive of the troubled aircraft manufacturer next week. Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, 64, a former CEO at Rockwell Collins, will succeed David Calhoun as CEO, the company said. Boeing’s loss...

If Kamala Harris becomes president, she will break the ultimate glass ceiling. Other glass already has been shattered. About a quarter of U.S. senators are women, as are roughly a quarter of the nation’s governors. Women sit in the chief executive’s chair at about 10% of the corporations in the...

AUSTIN, Texas — Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state....

Spirit Airlines is moving farther away from its history as a fee-happy budget airline and will start selling tickets that include some of its most popular extras in bundles. The Florida-based airline said Tuesday the top ticket will be a “Go Big” package that includes priority check-in, a roomier seat,...

WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings fell slightly last month, a sign that the American labor market continues to cool in the face of high interest rates. There were 8.18 million job vacancies in June, down from 8.23 million in May, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The U.S. economy and job...

U.S. Steel is banking on public pressure to push through a $14.9 billion acquisition by Nippon Steel as lawmakers and regulators balk at putting the domestic icon in foreign hands. An advertising campaign launched this year touts promises by Japan’s largest steelmaker to preserve jobs, upgrade plants and sustain American...

WASHINGTON — In a fresh broadside against one of the world’s most popular technology companies, the Justice Department is accusing TikTok of harnessing the capability to gather bulk information on users based on views on divisive social issues like gun control, abortion and religion. Government lawyers wrote in documents filed...

For University of Pittsburgh staff who watched as 3,400 faculty colleagues gained collective bargaining rights a few years back, what’s coming in the mail soon represents their own moment of choice. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board will oversee another union election at Pitt. This time, it’s for 6,300 staff. Ballots...

The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Proposition 22, the voter initiative that allows Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies to classify drivers for their ride-hailing and delivery services as independent contractors rather than as employees. In a unanimous decision released Thursday morning, the state’s top court rejected claims...

Workers went on strike Thursday at the five-star hotel in Paris where members of the International Olympic Committee are staying, walking out just a day before the opening ceremony of the Games. According to the major French union CGT, the IOC paid the hotel where staffers were striking, Hôtel du...

LOS ANGELES — Mortgage rates inched higher this week, keeping the average rate on a 30-year mortgage essentially flat and near the 7% range it’s been in most of this year. The rate rose to 6.78% from 6.77% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the...

DALLAS — Goodbye, cattle call. Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it plans to drop the open-boarding system it has used for more than 50 years and will start assigning passengers to seats, just like all the other big airlines. The airline said it has been studying seating options, running tests...

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.’s second-quarter net income fell 4.7% from a year ago as the company’s combustion engine unit posted a pretax loss due to higher warranty costs. The Dearborn, Mich., automaker said Wednesday it made $1.83 billion from April through June, compared with $1.92 billion a year ago....

The NBA said Wednesday that it is not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer to continue its longtime relationship with the league and therefore has entered into a deal with Amazon Prime Video, a move that would mean this coming season would end a nearly four-decade run...