Business News

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts around its record heights

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting around their records as financial markets around the world take a pause following big recent moves. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% in Wednesday afternoon trading, a day after setting its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 255 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. Treasury yields ticked higher a day after sinking on a surprisingly weak update on consumer confidence. Chinese stocks rose again a day after soaring on hopes that new stimulus measures would prop up the world’s second-largest economy, but they pared their gains through the day. Oil prices gave back gains.

Strike by more than 1,000 Samsung workers enters a third week in India

NEW DELHI (AP) — A strike by more than 1,000 workers at a Samsung India Electronics plant has entered its third week. Management is at an impasse over their demands for recognition of the employees’ union and higher pay. Samsung India Electronics workers union spokesman said that the employees’ strike at the plant near the southern city of Chennai started with a key demand for a 25-30% pay hike in the average monthly salary. A Samsung official said Wednesday that management was prepared to discuss the workers’ demands. Samsung said that it paid 1.8 times more in India than the average salary of similar workers employed at other regional companies.

Meta unveils cheaper VR headset, AI updates and shows off prototype for holographic AR glasses

MENLO PARK, California (AP) — Meta unveiled updates to the company’s virtual reality headset and Ray Ban smart glasses on Wednesday along with AI advances as it tries demonstrate its artificial intelligence prowess and the next generation of computing platforms beyond smartphones and computers. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also showed off Orion, a prototype for holographic augmented reality glasses he called “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.”

In dueling speeches, Harris is to make her capitalist pitch while Trump pushes deeper into populism

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is playing up her street cred as a capitalist. Republican Donald Trump is leaning into his raw populism. The two presidential candidates are delivering a pair of dueling speeches on Wednesday that reflect how they’re honing their economic messages for voters in key swing states. Both are trying to address their perceived weaknesses while laying out their best case for a public that still worries about the economy’s health. Harris is to speak to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Trump appeared in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

Department of Justice sues Visa, alleges the card issuer monopolizes debit card markets

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market. The complaint filed Tuesday says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. It’s the latest in a recent spate of lawsuits brought by the Biden administration targeting alleged monopolistic practices. It also has sued big technology companies like Google and companies that act like middlemen such as Ticketmaster and RealPage.

New York court is set to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of his $489 million civil fraud verdict

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court is set to hear arguments in former President Donald Trump’s fight to overturn a civil fraud judgment that could cost him close to half a billion dollars. Arguments are scheduled for noon Thursday in the state’s intermediate appellate court. Trump is asking the court to nullify a judge’s findings that he deceived banks, insurers and others for years by lying about his wealth on paperwork used to make deals and secure loans. Lawyers for the ex-president and current Republican nominee contend that Judge Arthur Engoron’s verdict was “egregious” and should be reversed. Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James say the verdict was backed by “overwhelming evidence.”

CrowdStrike executive apologizes to Congress for July global tech outage

WASHINGTON (AP) — An executive at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike apologized in testimony to Congress for sparking a global technology outage over the summer. “We let our customers down,” said Adam Meyers, who leads CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence division, in a hearing before a U.S. House cybersecurity subcommittee Tuesday. CrowdStrike has blamed a bug in an update that allowed its cybersecurity systems to push bad data out to millions of customer computers, setting off a global tech outage in July that grounded flights, took TV broadcasts off air and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers.

The price of gold keeps climbing to unprecedented heights. Here’s why

NEW YORK (AP) — The rush for gold just keeps coming. Gold hit another all time high this week. The New York spot price of gold closed Tuesday at just over $2,657 per Troy ounce — the standard for measuring precious metals. That’s the highest recorded to date, up nearly $145 from a month ago and more than $740 from this time in 2023. Recent gains are largely credited to ongoing economic uncertainity, geopolitical tensions and strong demand from central banks around the world. Analysts have bullish outlooks on the price of gold for the months ahead. But, as a volatile commodity, the future is never promised.

Southwest plans to cut flights in Atlanta while adding them elsewhere. Its unions are unhappy

DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines is planning to cut about one-third of its flights in Atlanta next year to save money, and employees affected by the change are furious. The cutback comes as Southwest management is under pressure from a hedge fund to increase profits and boost the airline’s stock price. Southwest profits have been declining for the last three years. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association says the cutbacks in Atlanta are happening because Southwest management has failed to evolve and innovate. The union that represents Southwest flight attendants says the airline assured them that the Atlanta base would grow. The union president says Southwest is making employees pay a price for poor management decisions.

New Jersey hits pause on an offshore wind farm that can’t find turbine blades

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey has hit pause on an offshore wind energy project that is having a hard time finding someone to manufacture blades for its turbines. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday granted Leading Light Wind a pause on its project through Dec. 20 while its developers seek a source for the crucial components. The project from Chicago-based nvenergy and New York-based energyRE would be built off Long Beach Island. It would consist of up to 100 turbines. That’s enough to power 1 million homes.