Business News

Biden blocks Nippon Steel’s proposed deal to acquire US Steel

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has blocked the nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. This affirms his earlier vow to block the acquisition. In a Friday statement, Biden said, “We need major U.S. companies representing the major share of US steelmaking capacity to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests.” His decision comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States didn’t reach consensus on the possible national security risks of the deal last month. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel blasted the decision, saying Biden cited no credible evidence of a national security problem and suggested they’ll sue.

Stock market today: S&P 500 climbs toward its first gain since Christmas

NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 is climbing toward its first gain since Christmas. The main gauge of Wall Street’s health rose 1% Friday and was on track to break a five-day losing streak, its longest since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 260 points, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.4%. Nvidia and Tesla rose to help pull the market higher. They helped offset drops for beer, wine and liquor companies after the U.S. Surgeon General warned of cancer risks. Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said U.S. manufacturing is still weakening, but not by as much as feared.

Boeing still needs a culture change to put safety above profits, according to the head of the FAA

A year after a panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during flight, the nation’s top aviation regulator says the company needs to change its culture and put safety above profits. Federal Aviation Administration chief Mike Whitaker made the comment in an online post Friday. Whitaker will step down as FAA administrator in two weeks. He says that his agency also has more work to do in its oversight of Boeing. It was Jan. 5 of last year when a door plug blew out of Boeing 737 Max flying over Oregon. That led to increased scrutiny of Boeing by regulators and Congress.

Tesla sales dropped 1.1% in 2024, its first annual decline in a dozen years

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla’s global annual sales have fallen for the first time in more than a dozen years. It’s a blow to a stock that has soared since Donald Trump’s election and its CEO billionaire became a top policy adviser to the president elect. Sales rose 2.3% in 2024’s final quarter but that was not enough to overcome a sluggish start to the year. The annual decline for the Austin, Texas, company came despite offers of discounts such as 0% financing, free charging and low-priced leases. Tesla’s 1.79 million sales for 2024 was 1.1% below 2023 as demand for electric vehicles in the U.S. and elsewhere slowed.

US fines JetBlue $2 million for ‘chronic’ flight delays on several East Coast routes

JetBlue is getting hit with a $2 million penalty for chronically late flights. The Transportation Department said Friday that half the money will go to passengers who were delayed on flights along four routes on the East Coast between summer 2022 and late 2023. The department says it’s the first such fine against an airline over chronic delays, and it blames JetBlue for “unrealistic scheduling.” JetBlue says despite settling the matter, it blames the federal government for problems in the air traffic control system that contribute to late flights. JetBlue says the incoming Trump administration should modernize air traffic control technology and hire more controllers.

Why Apple TV+ is offering a free weekend of binge-watching

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple TV+ is hoping people will make a dent in the Strategic Popcorn Reserve by bingeing its streaming TV and movies for free this weekend. Experts are calling it a canny promotion as the eighth-place streamer looks to up its subscriber base. The two-day offer this Saturday and Sunday is intended to give viewers a taste of what’s behind the Apple paywall and get them hooked, ready to fork over $9.99 a month in the U.S. Michael D. Smith is a professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He suspects that Apple will gain lots of data to sharpen its approach to new customers and returning ones.

Puerto Rico’s new governor sworn in days after a major blackout left much of the island in the dark

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jenniffer González Colón has been sworn in as Puerto Rico’s new governor as the island held for a normally ebullient ceremony overshadowed by widespread anger over a blackout that hit the U.S. territory days ago. González is a Republican who backs President-elect Donald Trump. Her pro-statehood New Progressive Party secured a historic third consecutive term after she won the Nov. 5 election. González has pledged to make stabilizing the island’s crumbling power grid a priority. Outages were still being reported on Thursday as crews tried to stabilize the grid following the blackout that hit early Tuesday. The outages left 1.3 million customers in the dark as Puerto Ricans prepared for New Year’s Eve.

US unemployment claims fall to 211,000, the lowest level since March

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment checks dropped last week to the lowest level since March, suggesting that most workers enjoy unusual job security. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dropped by 9,000 to 211,000 last week. The four-week average of claims, which strips out week-to-week ups and downs, fell by 3,500 to 223,250. The overall numbers receiving unemployment benefits fell by 52,000 to 1.84 million.

A data company has figured out which airlines fly on time most often

Aeromexico is the most on-time airline in the world, according to a data company that compiled figures for 2024. Cirium said in its annual ranking released on Thursday that nearly 87% of the Mexican airline’s flights were on time in 2024. That puts Aeromexico slightly ahead of Saudi Arabian airline Saudia and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. Delta was the best-scoring U.S. airline despite a July computer outage that caused thousands of flight cancellations. Canadian airlines WestJet and Air Canada, along with Denver-based budget airline Frontier, were at the bottom of Cirium’s rankings among airlines in North America.

Turo-rented cars were involved in 2 deadly incidents this New Year’s. Here’s what we know

NEW YORK (AP) — Two deadly incidents on New Year’s Day — an attack being investigated as an act of terrorism in New Orleans and an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas — both involved vehicles that were rented on Turo, a peer-to-peer car sharing company. Turo says it’s “devastated by these horrible incidents” and is helping authorities with relevant information. The FBI has since confirmed that is has found “no definitive link” between the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas explosion. Still, since both incidents involved Turo-rented vehicles, there’s a spotlight on the car sharing platform.