Business

The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation continues to show signs of cooling, accompanied by moderate growth in consumer spending - positive news for central bankers aiming to control rising prices and curb demand. In May, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index rose 2.6% from a year earlier, meeting economists’ expectations and down slightly from April’s 2.7% increase. Excluding the more volatile food and fuel prices, core inflation also rose 2.6% year-over-year, down from April’s 2.8%. On a monthly basis, inflation remained remarkably subdued, with overall prices not showing any significant increases. The Federal Reserve is likely to scrutinize this new inflation data as it considers its next policy moves. Since 2022, the Fed has aggressively raised interest rates ...

Employers added 272,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, well above what economists had expected as hiring had gradually slowed. That was up from an average of 232,000 jobs in the previous 12 months, muddying the picture of an economy easing into a more sustainable pace. Most worrying for the Federal Reserve, which meets next week and then again in July, is that wages rose 4.1% from a year ago, a sign that inflation may not yet be defeated. “For those who thought they would see a rate cut in July, that door has largely been closed,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist at U.S. Bank. While wage increases are good for workers, she noted, persistent price increases undermine their spending power. Shares fell shortly after the report was released, before...

Boeing is facing new criticism after the revelation of a January crash involving a 737 Max plane. During a factory tour, a Boeing executive revealed details about missing bolts that led to a panel coming off mid-flight . The information sharing has angered the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which called it a “blatant violation” of investigative rules. The NTSB is investigating the crash and says Boeing is not allowed to discuss details or speculate on the cause. As punishment, they will limit Boeing’s access to information about the investigation and bar it from questioning others at an upcoming hearing. This comes after two fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, which raised concerns about Boeing’s past assurances of improved safety measures. The January crash and employee rep...

Anthony JF O'Reilly, a charming, ambitious, Irish-born former president of the HJ Heinz Company who also owned newspapers, luxury brands and trophy houses in France and the Bahamas, only to lose nearly everything in his eighth, has died. decade. on May 18 in Dublin. He was 88 years old. The Irish Times and other Irish newspapers, citing a family spokesman, said he died in hospital. No cause was given. From his earliest days, Mr O’Reilly, known as Tony, was shy about giving gifts. He was a top-flight rugby player in his teens: “the red-headed pin-up of Irish rugby,” as the Guardian called him. His talent for business was equally precocious. At 26, as marketing director of the Irish Dairy Board, he created the Kerrygold brand to sell Irish butter to English food shoppers, and it...

The European Union (EU) accuses Microsoft of foul play after regulators accused the tech giant of unfairly bundling its popular Teams video conferencing software with its Office suite. This practice, the EU says, gives Teams an unfair advantage over competitors like Zoom and Slack. The issue centers on how Microsoft packages Teams within its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions, which include programs like Word, Excel, and Outlook. Regulators believe this bundling essentially forces companies to adopt Teams if they want Microsoft's other widely used programs. This, they argue, harms competition by limiting customer choice. This is just the latest chapter in the EU's ongoing efforts to curb the dominance of big tech companies. Just a day earlier, the EU had attacked Apple for its...

An American Airlines passenger who kicked and spit at flight attendants and passengers and attempted to open the cabin door before being secured to his seat with duct tape is being sued by the Federal Aviation Administration for $81,950 , the largest fine ever issued by the agency for unruly behavior. behavior. The passenger, Heather Wells, 34, of San Antonio, was traveling first class from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 7, 2021, when About an hour into the flight she ordered a Jack Daniel's and became agitated and said she "wanted to get off" the plane, according to a lawsuit filed June 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Ms. Wells began running toward the back ...

That has changed significantly in recent years, as the three national credit reporting agencies – TransUnion, Equifax and Experian – have eliminated much of that debt from credit reports. In the last two years, they stopped reporting debts less than $500 and debts less than a year in collections. According to a recent study by the Urban Institute, these changes have erased medical debt from the credit reports of millions of Americans. The percentage of Americans with unpaid healthcare bills on their credit reports dropped from 12% in August 2022 to 5% in August 2023. Americans who cleared medical debt from their credit reports during that period saw their credit scores increase by an average of 30 points, the Urban Institute study found, moving them out of the "subprime" bracket and clo...

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company is appealing the sanctions and denied that the company used "fixed quotas." Spokeswoman Maureen Lynch Vogel said that “individual performance is evaluated over an extended period of time, compared to the performance of the entire site team” and that workers can “review their performance whenever they wish.” . California law also prohibits quotas that interfere with employees' ability to take mandatory breaks or use the bathroom, or that prevent employers from following state health and safety laws. Experts said the law was among the first in the country to regulate algorithmically tracked inventory quotas and require employers to make quotas transparent to workers. The fines announced Tuesday are the largest under the law. The...

GM and Ultium released statements saying they were pleased with the deal. The union said it wants to use the Ultium Cells contract as a model to negotiate local deals at other battery plants that GM and its Detroit rivals are building. GM began production this year at a battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and has another under construction in Lansing, Michigan. Ford Motor plans two battery plants in Kentucky, one in Tennessee and one in Michigan. Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles, plans two battery plants in Indiana. Aside from a Ford location, these plants involve joint ventures that were brought under the umbrella of the UAW as part of national contracts the union signed with Ford and Stellantis last fall. The Ultium Cells contract includes moving w...

At the center of the federal criminal trial is an incident in 2021 in which Mr. Watson's deputy deceived Goldman Sachs employees on a fundraising call by posing as a YouTube executive. The revelation of the call precipitated Ozy's downfall. Defense lawyers for Mr. Watson and Ozy accused his deputy, Samir Rao, of the false phone call and of misrepresenting Ozy's financial details to potential investors. Ms. Frison said in her opening statement in May that Mr. Rao was “incompetent for the role he was filling.” Mr. Rao and Suzee Han, Ozy's former chief of staff, pleaded guilty last year to fraud charges. Watson's defense continued to point the finger at Rao during cross-examination this week, pressing prosecution witnesses about Mr Watson's personal involvement in the alleged illegal condu...