Business News

JetBlue’s $3.8 billion buyout of Spirit Airlines is blocked by judge citing threat to competition

DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge is siding with the Biden administration and blocking JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, saying the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition. The Justice Department sued to block the merger, saying it would drive up fares by eliminating Spirit, the nation’s biggest low-cost airline. JetBlue argued that the deal would help consumers by making JetBlue a stronger competitor against bigger rivals that dominate the U.S. air-travel market. U.S. District Judge William Young, who presided over a non-jury trial last year, said in the ruling Tuesday that the government had proven “that the merger would substantially lessen competition in a relevant market.”

Top Federal Reserve official says inflation fight seems nearly won, with rate cuts coming

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Federal Reserve official said he’s increasingly confident that inflation will continue falling this year back to the Fed’s 2% target level, after two years of accelerating price spikes that hurt millions of American households. The official, Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, noted that inflation is slowing even as growth and hiring remain solid — a combination that he called “almost as good as it gets.” Waller’s remarks follow recent comments from other senior Fed officials that suggest the central bank remains on track to cut its benchmark short-term interest rate this year. In December, the Fed’s policymakers collectively forecast that they would cut their rate three times in 2024.

At Davos, Zelenskyy lashes out at Putin and presses allies to boost Ukraine’s fight

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has come out swinging against Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. He also urged Tuesday political and corporate leaders facing war fatigue in the West to enforce sanctions, help rebuild the country and advance the peace process. Israel’s war with Hamas, which passed the 100-day mark, has siphoned off much of the world’s attention and sparked concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East. Qatar’s prime minister says the world should focus on defusing the conflict in Gaza and that would ease tensions elsewhere, such as in the Red Sea.

Banks prepare to take on the Biden administration over billions of dollars in overdraft fees

NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to propose rules this week that further rein in banks’ ability to charge customers a fee when they overdraw their bank account. Opponents of the fees often cite the example of a $3 cup of coffee costing someone $40. The banking industry is gearing up to fight back with a multimillion-dollar marketing and lobbying campaign. While banks have drastically cut back on overdraft fees in the past decade, the nation’s biggest banks still take in roughly $8 billion in overdraft fees every year, according to data from the CFPB and bank public records.

Provider of faulty computer system apologizes to hundreds affected by UK Post Office scandal

LONDON (AP) — Fujitsu, the company whose faulty computer accounting system resulted in the wrongful conviction of hundreds of Post Office branch managers across the U.K., has apologized to the victims for its role in the country’s biggest ever miscarriage of justice and said it was long aware that the software had bugs. Paul Patterson, the Europe director of Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd., told a committee of lawmakers on Tuesday that the company has a “moral obligation” to contribute to a fund to compensate the branch managers who, over decades, suffered from the failures of the accounting system, which was introduced in 1999. The Post Office’s chief executive, Nick Read, says it has earmarked around a billion pounds ($1.3 billion) for compensation.

Shell to sell big piece of its Nigeria oil business, but activists want pollution cleaned up first

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Shell has reached an agreement with a consortium of companies to sell its onshore business in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in a deal worth $2.4 billion. It is the latest move by the London-based energy major to limit its presence in the challenging Niger Delta environment, where it has faced decadeslong local pushbacks to its oil exploration. Activists want Shell to address environmental damage, such as compensation for affected communities, as a condition for the government’s approval of the deal. Shell says the deal is designed to preserve its commitments, including remediation where spills occurred in the past.

The Baltimore Sun bought by Sinclair media executive

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Sun newspaper has been purchased by David D. Smith, the executive chairman of the media conglomerate Sinclair Inc. Smith told the newspaper he acquired Baltimore Sun Media from the investment firm Alden Global Capital in a private deal reached on Friday. He did not disclose how much he paid in the agreement. Smith bought the paper independently of Sinclair, which is known for its ownership of local television news stations across the U.S., though he said there could be partnerships between the two brands in the future. He will remain the executive chairman at Sinclair.

Goldman Sachs 4Q profits jump 51%, but full year reflects difficult period for the bank

NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs’ profits jumped 51% from a year earlier, the investment bank said Tuesday, helped by the strong returns in the overall market in the last three months of the year. However the storied investment bank closed out a difficult 2023 with its profits down nearly a third from 2022, as the bank wrote off its consumer banking franchise and laid off employees in what the bank has called a turnaround year. Morgan Stanley also had a difficult quarter, where it was hit by one-time charges.

More CEOs fear their companies won’t survive 10 years as AI and climate challenges grow, survey says

LONDON (AP) — More executives are feeling better about the global economy. But a growing number don’t think their companies will survive the coming decade without a major overhaul because of pressure from climate change and technology like artificial intelligence. That’s according to a survey of more than 4,700 CEOs released Monday by one of the world’s largest consulting firms, PwC, as business elites, political leaders and activists descended on the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Of the executives, 38% were optimistic about the strength of the economy, up from 18% last year. But 45% of the respondents were worried that their businesses wouldn’t be viable in 10 years without reinvention, up from 39% last year.

The world could get its first trillionaire within 10 years, anti-poverty group Oxfam says

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The anti-poverty organization Oxfam International says the world could have its first trillionaire within a decade. The group on Monday released an annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the World Economic Forum’s gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Oxfam says the fortunes of the five richest men have spiked by 114% in real terms since 2020, when the world was reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. They are Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett. By contrast, Oxfam says nearly 5 billion people have been made poorer since the pandemic.