Business News

Biden goes into 2024 with the economy getting stronger, but voters feel horrible about it

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it. Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success by trying to highlight economic progress.

Fed is set to leave interest rates unchanged while facing speculation about eventual rate cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation edging closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, its policymakers are facing — and in some cases fueling — hopes that they will make a decisive shift in policy and cut interest rates next year, possibly as soon as spring. Such a move would reduce borrowing costs across the economy, making mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing less expensive. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though, has recently downplayed the idea that rate reductions are nearing. With the central bank poised to keep its key short-term rate unchanged when it meets this week, Powell hasn’t yet signaled that the Fed is done with its hikes.

Occidental buying CrownRock in cash-and-stock deal valued at about $12 billion

Occidental is buying oil and gas company CrownRock in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $12 billion. “We found CrownRock to be a strategic fit, giving us the opportunity to build scale in the Midland Basin,” Occidental President and CEO Vicki Hollub said in a statement. The acquisition comes at a time when there’s increasing consolidation in the energy sector. Some companies are spending heavily to increase their positions in various oil-rich areas. This includes the Permian Basin, a massive oilfield that straddles the border between Texas and New Mexico.

Stock market today: Wall Street inches quietly lower after hitting its 2023 peak last week

Wall Street is flat ahead of the release of U.S. inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s final interest rate decision of the year. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost less than 0.1% before the bell Monday. The Fed will will announce its next move on interest rates on Wednesday. Most economists expect the Fed to stand pat and not raise its benchmark borrowing rate. Cigna jumped nearly 14% in premarket after reports that the health insurer was dropping its bid to acquire Humana and spending $10 billion to buy back its own shares.

AWS chief Adam Selipsky talks generative AI, Amazon’s investment in Anthropic and cloud cost cutting

Adam Selipsky is shepherding Amazon’s cloud unit at one of the most important moments in tech history. Selipsky, the CEO of the tech giant’s cloud computing unit AWS, has been behind the various generative AI offerings Amazon has rolled out over the past few months. AWS is at the forefront of Amazon’s push into generative AI, which flooded the public consciousness last year with the release of OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT. The Associated Press recently spoke with Selipsky about how companies who use AWS are spending on cloud services, Amazon’s investment in the AI startup Anthropic and the future of generative AI. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Some nations want to remove more pollution than they produce. That will take giving nature a boost

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As countries at the COP28 climate talks are wrangling over deadlines for lowering their carbon dioxide emissions, a Danish-led group of countries has decided to set the ultimate goal: to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than they emit. The Group of Negative Emitters (GONE) was launched in Dubai by Denmark, Finland and Panama. It aims to reach its goal by slashing emissions, protecting and expanding forests, and investing in new technologies. Panama has already reached that goal with its vast forests that act as a huge carbon sink. Finland and Denmark hope to achieve it by 2035 and 2045 respectively.

Biden administration says New Hampshire computer chip plant the first to get funding from CHIPS law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration says it will provide $35 million to BAE Systems to increase production at a New Hampshire factory making computer chips for military aircraft. The aircraft include F-15 and F-35 jets. This is the first allocation of incentives from last year’s bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. That law provides more than $52 billion to boost the development and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States. The Commerce Department’s choice of a military contractor instead of a conventional chip manufacturer reveals the national security focus of the law. More and more weapons systems depend on advanced chips that could be decisive in preventing and fighting wars.

Holiday crowds at airports and on highways are expected to be even bigger than last year

Airports and highways are expected to be busier this Christmas season than they were a year ago. Auto club AAA predicted Monday that 115 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the 10 days starting right before Christmas. That’s about 2% more than last year, but not quite as many as 2019, the last holiday season before the pandemic. Most of those people will travel by car, and they’ll enjoy slightly lower gasoline prices that a year ago. Airfares are also down a bit from high levels a year ago, according to government figures.

Thousands of demonstrators from Europe expected in Brussels to protest austerity measures in the EU

BRUSSELS (AP) — Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Brussels on Tuesday to protest what they perceive as new austerity measures as the 27 European Union countries discuss ways to overhaul rules on government spending. Finance ministers from the bloc have been negotiating for months a reform of the EU’s rules limiting debt and deficits for member states, known as the Stability and Growth Pact, which would curtail the options of nations seeking to spend their way out of a crisis and potentially force them into austerity. The rulebook, which has often proved difficult to enforce and has served as a source of tension, was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic but should be reactivated next year.

Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

Elon Musk has restored the X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. It comes after Musk posted a poll this weekend on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that came out 70% in favor of the Infowars host, who repeatedly has called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax. The move poses new uncertainty for advertisers, who have fled X over concerns about hate speech appearing alongside their ads. Musk says the move is about protecting free speech rights. Jones and his Infowars show had been permanently banned in 2018 for abusive behavior.