Business

A collection of 1673 posts

Business

U.S. Hiring Starts the Year at a Strong Pace

The U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent, in a report delayed by a short government shutdown. The peppier-than-expected reading suggests the labor market may be emerging from a period of very slow growth tied

Business

Wildlight lays off developers weeks after Highguard launch

Highguard studio Wildlight has been hit with layoffs just weeks after the game's launch. The title struggled from the start: after being announced at the end of The Game Awards 2025, reactions to the announcement trailer ranged from mild confusion and apathy to straight-up rejection of yet another

Business

OpenAI’s Biggest Challenge: Turning Its A.I. Into a Cash Machine

OpenAI has begun showing ads inside ChatGPT even though its chief executive once called ads a last resort. The company is spending tens of billions of dollars on the computing power needed to build and deploy its models, and it hopes to triple revenue this year while preparing for far

Business

McDonald’s Sales Rise After Value Meals and Promos

McDonald’s bet on value meal deals appears to be working. Sales at U.S. stores open for a year or more were up 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter from year-earlier levels, and global same-store sales rose 5.7 percent. The company ran high-profile promotions during the quarter,

Business

Wizards of the Coast says no Harry Potter crossover for Magic

Starting next year, Hasbro will begin making most Harry Potter-related toys available on shelves around the globe, and a February 10 agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery designates the company as the de facto manufacturer of Harry Potter merchandise in 2027. Hasbro plans on making and selling “dolls, role play, action

Business

McDonald’s sales rise after value promotions, Monopoly and Grinch deals

McDonald’s said sales at U.S. restaurants open for a year or more rose 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, and global same-store sales increased 5.7 percent. The quarter included the return of its popular Monopoly game and a limited-time Grinch meal deal

Business

Salesforce execs rebuke Marc Benioff's ICE jokes

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made jokes about Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a company event, including one about ICE surveilling employees' travel, prompting anger among some staff. Slack general manager Rob Seaman said in internal messages that he could not defend or explain the remarks, that they do not

Business

Metal Gear series passes 65 million sales after Delta: Snake Eater remake

Konami has been slowly reviving the Metal Gear series since the departure of creator Hideo Kojima, after a five-year hiatus (eight years if you discount Metal Gear Survive). 2023 brought the Master Collection Vol. 1, which launched with a few issues but is now regarded as an excellent package, and

Business

The El Paso airspace closure cost me $100 and a night's sleep

Kiva Lucero saw on Instagram that the airspace over El Paso would close for 10 days. He had a flight booked from El Paso to Dallas for Thursday, then Dallas to Paris, and needed to be in Paris by the weekend for work, so the news immediately made him anxious.

Business

America, it's time to think beyond leather for luxury car seats

Rekha Meena, head of colors, materials, and finishes at Volvo Cars, says good design, quality, and sustainability are inherently connected. “Recycled and renewable materials aren’t just an option for us, they’re essential to shape a better future,” she adds, and the company aims to blend those elements to

Business

Robinhood (HOOD) Faces 40% Downside Risk as Crypto Revenue Falls

Robinhood has rebounded about 23% since its February 5 low near $71, and the company posted its strongest financial year on record with full-year revenue near $4.5 billion (up more than 50% year over year) and net income close to $1.9 billion. Q4 revenue rose 27% and EPS

Business

Amazon Pharmacy to expand same-day delivery to nearly 4,500 US cities

Amazon Pharmacy plans to offer same-day prescription delivery to almost 4,500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of this year, adding nearly 2,000 new communities and expanding into states such as Idaho and Massachusetts. The online pharmacy launched in 2020, two years after Amazon’s $753

Business

How Did Pat McGrath Cosmetics Go From Billion-Dollar Brand to Bankruptcy?

Taylor Swift’s bright red lip during the Eras Tour sparked online speculation that she was wearing Pat McGrath Labs LiquiLust in Elson 4. The chatter intensified after Pat McGrath appeared in Swift’s “Bejeweled” video, and yet the lipstick was out of stock for much of the nearly two-year

Business

Ford Says Electric Vehicle Losses Will Continue for 3 More Years

Ford Motor reported a big loss for 2025 tied to its electric vehicle division, which it has significantly scaled back. Including the 2025 loss, the EV business has lost more than $16 billion since 2022. The company said the EV unit lost $4.8 billion in 2025 and is expected

Business

What Executives Are Saying About the ‘K-Shaped’ Economy

The U.S. economy is growing, but not evenly. What began as an uneven rebound from the Covid pandemic has hardened into a “K-shaped” pattern, in which higher-income households pull ahead while lower-income households fall further behind. High interest rates, rising costs and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence could

Business

U.S. hiring starts the year at a strong pace

The U.S. economy opened 2026 with stronger hiring: employers added 130,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent. The Labor Department released the report on Wednesday after a short government shutdown delayed its publication, and annual benchmark revisions sharply lowered 2025’s job

Business

How the Ultra-Rich Travel

Today’s super-rich travelers want luxury, personalized attention and experiences that aren’t cookie-cutter. They demand private villas with butlers, hotels with impeccable service and, above all, never having to wait or be shephered with other people. Carlo Nocella said they want “to feel that they have something that other

Business

Trump Wants to Revive Shipping. Investors Are Slow to Back Him.

President Trump welcomed Rodolphe Saadé’s announcement that CMA CGM would invest $20 billion in the United States, but a year into his second term only a fraction of those funds has arrived. CMA CGM, a family-owned company based in Marseille and the world’s third-largest shipping line, said it

Business

Fed Policy in Focus With 70,000 Nonfarm Payrolls Increase Expected

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the delayed January Nonfarm Payrolls on Wednesday at 13:30 GMT. Economists expect payrolls to rise by 70K, the Unemployment Rate to remain at 4.4%, and Average Hourly Earnings to slow to 3.6% year-on-year from 3.8%. The release was

Business

Governments are hoarding commodities beyond gold — fueling price swings

Gold's rally is part of a broader shift in how governments and investors treat commodities, Goldman Sachs says. Central-bank buying has helped drive gold's surge as governments seek to hedge geopolitical and financial risks, and similar "insurance"-style strategies are now appearing across other

Business

Britney Spears Sells Her Song Catalog

Britney Spears has sold her music catalog. The rights were acquired by Primary Wave, a New York-based music and marketing company that specializes in catalog deals, a person familiar with the matter said. Spokespersons for Spears and Primary Wave declined to comment, and TMZ reported the news earlier. Details of

Business

Britney Spears sells her iconic music catalog in 'landmark' 9-figure deal

Britney Spears has sold the rights to her music catalog, releasing her shares to Primary Wave, a private New York City music publisher, on Dec. 30, documents show. The transaction has been described as a "landmark" nine-figure deal. The sale was estimated to be around $200 million, and

Business

Lyft stock falls 16% after disappointing Q4 earnings

Lyft's stock fell 16% in after-hours trading after the company missed expectations with its fourth-quarter results and a weak 2026 outlook. Revenue rose 3% to $1.59 billion, below the $1.76 billion analysts expected, and the company forecast first-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $120 million to $140 million.

Business

Uncle Nearest Faces Deep Debt as Founder Seeks to End Receivership

In August a federal judge in Tennessee placed Uncle Nearest into receivership after the company defaulted on $108 million in loans. The receiver, Philip Young, wrote in a recent court filing that many records before 2024 were deleted, the company owed an additional $50 million to vendors and other creditors,

Business

Presidents' Day sales: Everything you need to know

Presidents' Day falls on Feb. 16 this year and the long weekend runs Feb. 14-16, closely following Valentine's Day. The holiday has become one of the first major sales events of the year, with retailers offering discounts across tech, home goods and larger items like mattresses and