Business News

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts lower ahead of wave of new data on the American job market

Wall Street drifted lower in premarket trading ahead of this week’s trove of data from the labor market that could influence the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates later this spring. Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% before the bell Tuesday while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%. Health care companies took a hit in early trading after the government finalized its reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage health plan providers. PVH, the owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, tumbled close to 21% after it gave a grim forecast for 2024, despite beating fourth-quarter sales and profit targets.

Israel clears way to expel Al Jazeera. Channel says Netanyahu’s incitement claim is a dangerous lie

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, calling it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement, after parliament passed a law clearing the way for the closure. Netanyahu’s pledge escalates Israel’s long-running feud against Al Jazeera. But it also threatens to heighten tensions with Qatar, which owns the channel, at a time when the Doha government is playing a key role in mediation efforts to halt the war in Gaza. The broadcaster condemned Netanyahu’s incitement claim as a “dangerous ludicrous lie.” Al Jazeera said it holds Netanyahu responsible for the safety of its staff and offices and would continue what it described as its bold and professional coverage.

Freight railroads must keep 2-person crews, according to new federal rule

Major freight railroads will have to maintain two-person crews in most circumstances under a new federal rule. The Transportation Department’s Federal Railroad Administration released the details of the rule the agency has been working on for the past two years Tuesday morning. The rule comes amid an intense focus on railroad safety following the fiery February 2023 derailment in eastern Ohio. Rail unions have long opposed one-person crews because of a combination of safety and job concerns. Railroads have sought the discretion to operate trains with only one person and move conductors to ground-based jobs.

Here’s how to protect yourself from common scams this tax season

NEW YORK (AP) — Scammers look for ways to trick people into giving them money year-round, but tax season can be particularly fraught. One of the most common tax scams is identity theft. Taxpayers usually know their identity has been stolen when they try to file their tax returns and the IRS says they’ve already done so. This usually means someone else filed in their name to try to get a refund. There are ways you can protect yourself, including setting up an identify protection pin with the IRS and not answering calls from numbers you don’t recognize.

Failed Australian rideshare app accuses Uber of illegally operating service to gain unfair advantage

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A failed Australian taxi-industry disruptor has told a court that Uber began illegally operating its ridesharing service in Australia a decade ago to gain an unfair advantage over competitors. Taxi Apps is an Australian startup that developed taxi-hailing app GoCatch. Taxi Apps filed the suit in the Victoria state Supreme Court in which it alleges Uber knowingly launched UberX illegally in Australia in 2014. The San Francisco-based rideshare giant is also accused of serious misconduct in a trial that began on Tuesday. The trial comes two weeks after Uber agreed to pay 272 million Australian dollars ($178 million) to settle a class action brought by 8,000 Australian taxi and hire car drivers.

College newspaper sweeps up 2 tiny publications in a volley against growing news deserts

Student journalists across the United States have done their bit to cover small town news for years, but a college paper in Iowa is taking a bigger swing at it. The Daily Iowan of the University of Iowa just bought two struggling weekly papers for an undisclosed price. It’s a deal believed to be the first of its kind. The students are already redoing the newspaper websites and soon plan to add interns to help write stories. The young journalists will get real-world experience while bringing the towns more news. Campus papers in other American communities are also being distributed more widely to help fill the gap left by disappearing newspapers.

UPS to become the primary air cargo provider for the United States Postal Service

UPS will become the primary air cargo provider for the United States Postal Service. The Atlanta shipping company said Monday that it had received an air cargo contract from the U.S. Postal Service that significantly expands an existing partnership between the two. UPS will move the majority of air cargo in the U.S. for the postal service following a transition period, according to UPS. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Google to purge billions of files containing personal data in settlement of Chrome privacy case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser. The move comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the search giant of illegal surveillance. Although Google isn’t paying consumers any money in the case, estimates made in court records pegged the value of the privacy controls at $4.75 billion to $7.8 billion. The details of the settlement emerged in a court filing Monday, more than three months after Google and the attorneys handling the class-action case disclosed they had resolved June 2020 lawsuit targeting Chrome’s privacy controls.

Trump Media stock falls more than 21% after company discloses $58 million loss for 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — Less than a week after a flashy stock market debut, Donald Trump’s social media company has disclosed that it lost nearly $58.2 million last year, sending its stock tumbling more than 21%. Losses in 2023 for Trump Media & Technology Group — whose flagship product is Truth Social repo — mark a stark decline compared to a profit of $50.5 million that the former president’s company reported for 2022. That’s according to a company filing with securities regulators. Revenues for Trump Media topped just over $4.13 million in 2023, although that’s up from $1.47 million seen in 2022. After merging with a blank-check company called Digital World Acquisition Corp., Trump Media began trading on the Nasdaq last week under ticker symbol DJT. It’s been a volatile ride since.

Millions of recalled Hyundai and Kia vehicles with a dangerous defect remain on the road

DETROIT (AP) — In September, Hyundai and Kia issued a recall of 3.4 million of its vehicles in the United States with an ominous warning: The vehicles should be parked outdoors and away from buildings because they risked catching fire, whether the engines were on or off. Six months later, most of those autos remain on the road — unrepaired — putting their owners, their families and potentially other people in danger of fires that could spread to garages, houses or other vehicles. Hyundai and Kia have acknowledged that there’s little hope of repairing most of the affected vehicles until June or later, roughly nine months after they announced the recalls.