Business category, Page 7
Retailers discounting Hershey sweets to boost key Halloween sales
NEW YORK — U.S. retailers are offering more discounts on Hershey goods ahead of its biggest holiday, Halloween, according to data, as the candymaker hiked prices due to rising costs from tariffs and cocoa inflation. The discounts come as overall chocolate candy sales per unit were flat in the 12...
Fed lowers rates, but Powell suggests move may be the last of 2025
WASHINGTON — A policy divide within the U.S. central bank and a lack of federal government data may put another interest rate cut out of reach this year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, as he acknowledged the threats that officials see to the job market but also...
Impact of massive Amazon layoffs unclear in Pittsburgh region
Amazon is cutting 14,000 jobs as it expands its use of artificial intelligence, though it’s unclear how the move will affect the Pittsburgh area. On Tuesday, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, announced the layoffs. TribLive reached out to Amazon to learn how the decision...
Giant Eagle gives opening dates for standalone pharmacies in Mt. Washington, Sewickley
A former Rite Aid in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood will reopen Thursday morning as a standalone Giant Eagle Pharmacy. Much like the Rite Aid before it, the store at 211 Virginia Ave. will fill prescriptions and sell an assortment of health, beauty and wellness products. Where it will differ is...
FDA plans to accelerate biosimilar approvals, report says
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to speed up approvals for biosimilars, or generic versions of complex biological drugs, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The regulator is expected to reduce the number of human clinical studies required for certain biosimilars and cut development costs for medicines made...
Nvidia tops $5 trillion in total value as Wall Street waits for a Fed announcement
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are rising toward more records on Wednesday as Wall Street waits to hear from the Federal Reserve in the afternoon about what it will do with interest rates. The S&P 500 added 0.3% in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 231 points,...
3 Pittsburgh area Oak Street Health locations to close in coming months
Three Pittsburgh-area Oak Street Health facilities will close their doors by February, according to the company. Among 16 total closures nationwide, locations in Homestead, Wilkinsburg and Ingram are each set to shutter. Owned by CVS Health, Oak Street Health operates more than 200 primary care centers throughout the country, specializing...
Key U.S. mortgage rate drops to 13-month low, industry group says
The interest rate on the most popular U.S. home loan dropped last week to a 13-month low after a key reading of inflation came in lower than expected, cementing expectations for another Federal Reserve interest-rate cut. The Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday the contract rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate...
Elon Musk launches Grokipedia to compete with online encyclopedia Wikipedia
Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, a crowdsourced online encyclopedia that the billionaire seeks to position as a rival to Wikipedia. Writing on social media, Musk said that Grokipedia.com is “now live” and its goal is the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Musk has previously criticized Wikipedia...
Westinghouse strikes $80B deal with U.S. for nuclear reactors
Westinghouse Electric Co. announced Tuesday an $80 billion deal with the U.S. government to build nuclear reactors. It’s the latest push from the Trump administration to boost power production as artificial intelligence supercharges electricity demand, and yet another entry into the government’s growing portfolio of private-public partnerships. “This historic partnership...
U.S. consumer confidence slips to 6-month low; worries over job availability rising
WASHINGTON -U.S. consumer confidence eased to a six-month low in October amid worries about the availability of jobs in the near-term, offering more ammunition for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again on Wednesday. The Conference Board survey on Tuesday also confirmed what economists describe as a K-shaped economy,...
Senators urge Trump to reconsider dropping Biden airline compensation plan
WASHINGTON — A group of 18 Democratic senators urged the Trump administration to reconsider its intention to drop a plan by the prior administration to require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation when flight disruptions are caused by carriers. In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation under then-President Joe Biden...
Texas sues Tylenol makers J&J and Kenvue, claiming they hid drug’s autism risks
The makers of Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, were sued Tuesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused them of knowingly hiding the drug’s supposed links to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Paxton, a Republican, filed the suit five weeks after President Donald Trump said using Tylenol...
Microsoft, OpenAI reach new deal valuing OpenAI at $500 billion
Microsoft and OpenAI on Tuesday said they had reached a deal to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, valuing OpenAI at $500 billion and clearing the way for it to become a publicly traded company. Microsoft would hold a stake of about $135 billion...
Trump slams Fed chair again, eyes replacement in a few months
TOKYO — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there was a long list of people who could take over the Federal Reserve, slamming current chairman Jerome Powell as the central bank prepared to meet this week. “We have an incompetent head of the Fed. … We got a bad Fed...
Tesla CEO Musk’s partisan politics cost automaker over 1 million EV sales, report shows
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s polarizing political actions since acquiring Twitter, which he rebranded as X, in 2022 dramatically hurt the automaker’s U.S. sales, underscoring how deeply its fortunes are intertwined with the billionaire’s persona. The findings quantify for the first time how the political actions of the world’s wealthiest person...
Trump’s ‘hot truck’ becomes symbol of Japan trade talks
TOKYO — Long associated with American ruggedness, burly pickup trucks such as Ford’s top-selling F-150 have now become a symbol of international trade talks, showing how far countries such as Japan will go to win over President Donald Trump. When Trump met Japan’s new prime minister and first female premier,...
Amazon to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs in AI push
SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon said Tuesday it will reduce its corporate workforce by about 14,000 people, in a major shakeup driven in part by adoption of artificial intelligence that will result in more cuts next year as well. This will help the company with “further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and...
Wall Street scales fresh highs on tech earnings, U.S.-China trade optimism
Wall Street’s main indexes posted record closing highs for the second day in a row on Monday as investors were hopeful about the prospects for a U.S.-China trade deal and looked forward to a week packed with high-profile technology earnings and a widely expected U.S. interest rate cut. President Donald...
Utility merger to fold Peoples Natural Gas into $63B conglomerate
American Water and Essential Utilities, two top players in the Pennsylvania utility market, have agreed to merge into a water, wastewater and natural gas conglomerate worth $63 billion. New Jersey-based American Water would absorb Essential in the $12 billion, all-stock transaction announced Monday, getting 69% control of the combined company...
UBS files application for U.S. banking license, eyeing growth
ZURICH — UBS has filed an application for a national banking license in the United States, the Swiss bank said Monday, underlining its growth ambition for the U.S. market. In a memo to UBS staff seen by Reuters, Rob Karofsky, the president of UBS Americas, and Michael Camacho, head of...
U.S. Department of Energy forms $1 billion supercomputer and AI partnership with AMD
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. has formed a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices to construct two supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su told Reuters. The U.S. is building...
Musk could leave Tesla if $1 trillion pay plan is rejected, chair warns
Elon Musk could leave Tesla as CEO if his proposed $1 trillion pay package was not approved, Chair Robyn Denholm warned in a letter to shareholders on Monday. The appeal comes ahead of the November 6 annual meeting, with Tesla’s board having faced repeated criticism for not acting in shareholders’...
Automakers face serious production disruptions because of looming chips crisis
The Detroit automakers are staring at a looming semiconductor chip crisis that could put the brakes on much of their new car production. A group representing major carmakers has warned that a dispute between China and the Dutch government has brought on a disruption in the delivery of semiconductor chips,...
Workers reject Boeing’s latest offer after nearly 3 months on strike
Striking workers at Boeing Defense in the St. Louis area rejected the company’s latest contract proposal on Sunday, sending a strike that has already delayed delivery of fighter jets and other programs into its 13th week. In a statement after the vote, union leadership said the company had failed to...
