Business News

US consumer sentiment ticks down slightly, but most expect inflation to ease further

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers became slightly less optimistic about the economy this month, though they continue to expect inflation to cool further, a potential sign that price increases will keep slowing. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index slipped to 76.5 in March, barely below February’s figure of 76.9. Americans’ outlook has essentially remained fixed since January, when it leapt higher. Sentiment is about halfway between its all-time low, reached in June 2022 when inflation peaked, and its pre-pandemic averages. Americans’ outlook on the economy will likely have a significant effect on the presidential race, which will likely focus heavily on perceptions of President Joe Biden’s economic record.

Businesses are ready for April’s total solar eclipse with celestial-themed doughnuts and beer

NEW YORK (AP) — With the April 8 total solar eclipse right around the corner, U.S. businesses are ready for the celestial event. Hotels and resorts along the prime path are luring in visitors with special packages while big companies like Southwest and Delta are selling seats on eclipse-viewing flights. Still, small businesses within the eclipse’s path of darkness appear to be leading the charge. Towns and shop owners have been planning for the eclipse and the anticipated huge crowds. Offerings include eclipse-themed beer and doughnuts and an array of limited-edition merchandise, like earrings and baby onesies.

McDonald’s apologizes for global system outage that shut down some stores for hours

LONDON (AP) — McDonald’s has apologized for a global technology outage that shuttered some restaurants for hours. The Chicago-based company said the outage was caused by a third-party technology provider. It says the outage started around 12 a.m. CDT on Friday during a configuration change and was close to being resolved about 12 hours later, said. Earlier in the day, system failures were reported worldwide, shuttering some restaurants for hours. The website Downdetector also reported a spike in problems with the McDonald’s app. McDonald’s says the outage was not a cybersecurity issue or related to its shift to Google Cloud as a technology provider.

Prosecutors seek from 40 to 50 years in prison for Sam Bankman-Fried for cryptocurrency fraud

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors are asking a New York judge to sentence FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to between 40 and 50 years in prison for cryptocurrency crimes they described as a “historic fraud.” Prosecutors submitted their presentence recommendations on Friday to a federal judge who will sentence him later this month. Bankman-Fried was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy charges in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors say he cost customers and investors in FTX and its related companies at least $10 billion from 2017 through 2022. He was extradited to the United States in December 2022 from the Bahamas after his companies collapsed a month earlier.

Real estate lawsuit settlement upends decades-long policies that helped set agent commissions

A powerful real estate trade association has agreed to pay $418 million and change its rules to settle lawsuits claiming homeowners have been unfairly forced to pay artificially inflated agent commissions when they sold their homes. Under the terms of the settlement announced Friday, the National Association of Realtors agreed to change rules that for decades required brokers or agents who list a home for sale on the trade groups affiliated Multiple Listing Services to offer compensation up front to agents representing potential homebuyers. Last fall, a federal jury hearing a lawsuit brought by home sellers ordered the NAR and other defendants to pay almost $1.8 billion in damages.

Gerald Levin, the former Time Warner CEO who engineered a disastrous mega-merger, is dead at 84

SAN FRANCISO (AP) — Gerald Levin, who led Time Warner Media into a disastrous $182 billion merger with the internet provider America Online, has died at the age of 84. Levin had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, although his cause of death on Wednesday was not given in media reports. Earlier in his career, the Time Inc. executive helped turn a sleepy cable channel called Home Box Office into a national network soon known as HBO. He went on to head the company eventually known as Time Warner, leading it into the 2001 merger that created AOL Time Warner, but was unwound in 2009, seven years after Levin resigned his job.

Boeing tells airlines to check pilot seats after report that an accidental shift led plane to plunge

Boeing is telling airlines to inspect switches on pilots’ seats after a published report said an accidental seat movement might have caused a jetliner’s sudden plunge earlier this week. Boeing said on Friday it recommended that airlines inspect the cockpit seats on their 787 Dreamliners the next time they perform maintenance on the planes. The Wall Street Journal reported that a flight attendant on the LATAM Airlines flight traveling between Australia and New Zealand on Monday might have accidentally hit a switch on the back of a cockpit seat, pushing the pilot into the controls and causing the nose of the plane to tilt down. About 50 people were injured.

Honda and Nissan agree to work together in developing electric vehicles and intelligent technology

TOKYO (AP) — Nissan and Honda have announced they will work together in developing electric vehicles and auto intelligence technology, sectors where Japanese automakers have fallen behind. The chief executives of Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. appeared together at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday to announce that Japan’s second and third biggest automakers will look into areas with a potential for collaboration. Both sides said the details of the non-binding agreement are still being worked out. The executives said the companies will develop core technologies together, but their products will remain different. Japanese automakers have fallen behind rivals such as Tesla and BYD in developing EVs, partly because they have historically been so successful with combustion engine vehicles.

Apple to pay $490 million to settle allegations that it misled investors about iPhone sales in China

Apple has agreed to pay $490 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging CEO Tim Cook misled investors about a steep downturn in iPhone’s sales in China. The slowdown in China sales culminated in a jarring revision to the company’s revenue forecast. The preliminary settlement filed in federal court Friday stems from a shareholder lawsuit focused on how Apple relayed information about how iPhone models released in September 2018 were performing in China. The complaint contended Cook signaled the iPhone was off to a decent start in an investor conference call in early November 2018, only to then warn in early January 2019 of a significant drop in sales.

Across the US, batteries and green energies like wind and solar combine for major climate solution

In the Arizona desert, a Danish company is building a massive solar farm that includes batteries that charge when the sun is shining and supply energy back to the electric grid when it’s not. Ørsted’s Eleven Mile Solar Center has more than 850,000 solar panels and opens this summer. The United States is rapidly adding batteries, most of them the lithium-ion type, to store energy at large scale. Increasingly, these are getting combined with solar and wind projects. The agencies that run electric grids, utilities and renewable developers say this is essential for a clean energy future because batteries allow renewables to replace fossil fuels, while keeping the lights on and delivering power exactly when it’s needed.