Business News

China rolls out new measures to fix its property crisis, spur growth

China has announced fresh measures to revive its ailing property industry after the latest data showed housing prices slumped further in April. Other figures reported Friday showed factory output rose but consumer spending remained lackluster. China’s housing market has slumped after a crackdown on excessive borrowing by property developers, dragging on a wide range of other businesses and slowing growth in the world’s No. 2 economy. The government has cut interest rates and freed up billions of dollars of financing to help financially struggling developers deliver housing already promised and paid for. Local governments are being encouraged to buy apartments that are going unsold due to weak demand to use as affordable housing.

Bike shops boomed early in the pandemic. It’s been a bumpy ride for most ever since

For the nation’s bicycle shops, the past few years have probably felt like the business version of the Tour de France. Early in the pandemic, a surge of interest in cycling pushed sales up 64% to $5.4 billion in 2020, according to the retail tracking service Circana. The boom didn’t last. Hobbled by pandemic-related supply chain issues, the shops sold all their bikes and had trouble restocking. Now, inventory has caught up, but fewer people need new bikes. It all adds up to a tough environment for retailers, although there are a few bright spots like gravel and e-bikes.

OpenAI, Reddit teaming in deal that will bring Reddit’s content to ChatGPT

OpenAI and Reddit are teaming up in a deal that will bring the social media platform’s content to ChatGPT. Reddit said in a blog post that the agreement will give OpenAI access to its data application programming interface, which provides real-time, structured, and unique content from the platform.

Stock market today: Wall Street hangs near its records as it closes another winning week

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting near their records as Wall Street heads for the finish of another winning week. The S&P 500 was flat Friday and on track for a fourth straight week of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 59 points a day after briefly topping the 40,000 level for the first time. The Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged. The bond market was also quiet after reports this week raised hopes that inflation is back on the way down and could convince the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. Chinese stocks jumped after its central bank made moves to help the property industry.

Taiwan is selling more to the US than China in major shift away from Beijing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan is reducing its reliance on the Chinese mainland as it seeks to insulate itself from pressure from Beijing and forge closer economic and trade ties with the United States. In a stark illustration of the shift, the U.S. displaced mainland China as the top destination for Taiwan’s exports in the first quarter of the year for the first time since the start of 2016. That’s when comparable data became available. The world’s biggest maker of computer chips, TSMC, is among the companies shifting manufacturing to the U.S., Japan and other countries as a part of that trend. Meanwhile, the island’s investments in the Chinese mainland fell to the lowest level in more than 20 years last year.

Putin concludes a trip to China by emphasizing its strategic and personal ties to Russia

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is concluding a two-day visit to China by emphasizing the countries’ strategic ties as well as his own personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they seek to present an alternative to U.S. global influence. Putin made a back-handed rebuke for the U.S., and others who oppose the Moscow-Beijing relationship, saying an “emerging multipolar world … is now taking shape before our eyes.” Putin praised their bilateral trade as he toured a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin and met students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, which is said to work closely with the People’s Liberation Army. Harbin was once home to many Russian expatriates and retains some of that history.

Federal judge hearing arguments on challenges to NYC’s fee for drivers into Manhattan

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s first-in-the-nation plan to levy a hefty toll on drivers entering Manhattan is the focus of a legal battle playing out in federal court. A Manhattan judge will hear arguments Friday in lawsuits brought by unionized public school teachers and other irate New Yorkers seeking to halt the $15 “congestion fee.” The lawsuits claim federal transportation officials approved the plan without proper scrutiny of its negative impacts. New York transit officials maintain they conducted extensive environmental reviews and have proposed mitigation plans to address any impacts. They plan to roll the fee out June 30.

UAW’s push to unionize factories in South faces latest test in vote at 2 Mercedes plants in Alabama

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union faces the latest test of its ambitious plan to unionize auto plants in the historically nonunion South when a vote ends at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The voting Friday at an assembly plant and a battery-making facility comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the union, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits. The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South.

NRA kicks off annual meeting as board considers successor to longtime leader Wayne LaPierre

DALLAS (AP) — The National Rifle Association is kicking off its annual meeting in downtown Dallas, gathering for the first time in decades without Wayne LaPierre at the helm as board members prepare to elect his replacement. Though beset by financial troubles in recent years and following a trial in which a jury found LaPierre misspent millions of the NRA’s money, the group remains a political force. The three-day meeting starting Friday will feature a speech by former President Donald Trump, seminars, receptions and acres of guns and gear. LaPierre’s replacement and other officers will be elected at a board of directors meeting on Monday.

German council approves a revised plan by Tesla to expand its plant near Berlin

BERLIN (AP) — A local council in Germany has approved a plan by electric carmaker Tesla to expand the grounds of its first plant in Europe, a proposal which has drawn persistent protests this year. Councilors in the Gruenheide municipality, just outside Berlin, voted 11-6 with two abstentions on Thursday evening in favor of the plan. It had been scaled down to require the felling of fewer trees than originally planned. Tesla wants to add a freight depot and logistical space to its factory, which opened in 2022. Protesters vowed to keep up their demonstrations against the plan.