Business News

Social Security cost-of-living benefits increase announcement coming Thursday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of millions of Social Security recipients will learn Thursday how big a cost-of-living boost they’ll get to their benefits next year. In advance of the announcement, analysts forecast that the benefit boost would be about 2.5% for 2025, smaller than the increase the past two years. Recipients received a 3.2% increase in benefits this year, following a historically large 8.7% jump in 2023 that was brought on by record-high inflation. More than 70 million people participate in the Social Security program, with the average benefit totaling about $1,920 a month. The AARP estimates that a 2.5% COLA would increase that by $48 a month.

Stock market today: Wall Street modestly lower as earnings, US economic data roll in

Wall Street is leaning toward losses early with corporate earnings and U.S. economic data arriving. Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell 0.1% before the opening bell Thursday. Delta Air Lines skidded to a 6.8% loss in premarket after the Atlanta-based carrier said its third-quarter earnings fell 26% after it struggled to overcome a global technology outage that led to thousands of flight cancellations. Later Thursday, the government releases U.S. consumer price data for September and the latest data on layoffs.

Tesla is unveiling its long-awaited robotaxi amid doubts about the technology it runs on

DETROIT (AP) — Expectations are high for Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi unveiling at a Hollywood studio Thursday night. Too high for some analysts and investors. The company began selling software it calls “Full Self-Driving” nine years ago that still can’t drive itself. Yet it’s expected to show off the so-called “Cybercab,” vehicle, which may not have a steering wheel or pedals. The unveiling comes as CEO Elon Musk tries to persuade investors that his company is more about artificial intelligence and robotics as it struggles to sell its core products, an aging lineup of once-cutting-edge electric vehicles. But some analysts say Musk has yet to demonstrate that Tesla’s system can travel safely without a human driver ready to step in to prevent crashes.

Delta’s Q3 profit fell below $1 billion after global tech outage led to thousands of cancellations

Delta Air Lines says third-quarter earnings fell 26% largely because of fallout from a technology outage that caused several thousand canceled flights in July. It’s the second straight quarter that Delta’s profit has dropped from the same period last year. Delta said Thursday that it expects to return to year-over-year earnings growth in the fourth quarter. CEO Ed Bastian says bookings for Thanksgiving and Christmas are strong. But the CEO says he expects Americans to pull back on spending for travel and other big-ticket items until they know the outcome of the November elections.

UK’s new Labour government sets out overhaul of workers’ rights

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new Labour government has unveiled a slew of new rights for workers, including more generous rules for sick pay and parental leave and major restrictions on certain precarious employment practices such as zero-hour contracts and fire and rehire. The Employment Rights Bill, published Thursday around 100 days since Labour took power for the first time in 14 years following its crushing victory over the Conservative Party in the general election, has been described by ministers as the biggest overhaul of workers’ rights for a generation. The 28 measures have been broadly welcomed by unions and lobby groups representing businesses, though one described it as “clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned.”

US considers asking court to break up Google as it weighs remedies in the antitrust case

The U.S. Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business in order to eliminate its online search monopoly. But it’s just one of many potential remedies under consideration. In a late court filing on Tuesday, federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open the underlying data Google uses to power its ubiquitous search engine and artificial intelligence products to competitors. A federal judge ruled in August that Google’s search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation. Google plans to appeal but must wait until the remedies are decided.

Climate solution: Form Energy secures $405M to speed development of long-awaited 100-hour battery

Form Energy, a company that is beginning to produce a longer-lasting alternative to lithium batteries, hit a milestone Wednesday with an announcement of $405 million in funding. The money will allow Form to speed up manufacturing at its first factory in Weirton, West Virginia and continue research and development. Manufacturing long-duration energy storage at a commercial scale is seen as essential for lowering carbon emissions that are causing climate change, because it makes clean energy available when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

In Wrexham, the ‘Rob and Ryan effect’ goes beyond the soccer club as tourism and investments grow

WREXHAM, Wales (AP) — A former market and mining town in north Wales has become a new and unlikely tourist destination in Britain after its soccer team was bought by Hollywood celebrities Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Wrexham is thriving on and off the field following the 2021 takeover. Its notoriety has only increased since Reynolds and McElhenney launched a fly-on-the-wall TV series called “Welcome to Wrexham,” which has turned the team’s players and some of Wrexham’s residents into familiar faces on screens around the world. Tourism is soaring in Wrexham, businesses are moving to the area and optimism is now rife in a city that was long overlooked and often slighted.

Sanewashing? The banality of crazy? A decade into the Trump era, media hasn’t figured him out

NEW YORK (AP) — Is the media “sanewashing” Donald Trump? Numbed by the “banality of crazy?” Should television networks show him more, or less? How do you fact-check him? Should you? Nearly a decade into the political Trump Era, less than a month before he stands for election as the Republican candidate for president for the third straight time, it’s remarkable how much he continues to baffle the news media whose job it is to cover him. Now, as time gets short in an abbreviated campaign, some experts suggest returning to what conventional wisdom once said was unwise: giving people more of an unvarnished view of what he actually says.

Trump has long blasted China’s trade practices. His ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles were printed there

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of copies of Donald Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bible were printed in China, a country that the former president has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices. Global trade records reviewed by The Associated Press show a publisher in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou shipped close to 120,000 of the Bibles to the United States between early February and late March. The largest and most recent load of 70,000 copies of Trump’s Good Book arrived by container vessel at the Port of Los Angeles on March 28, two days after Trump announced he had partnered with country singer Lee Greenwood to hawk the Bibles. The Trump campaign did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment.