By Helen Coster and Eva Mathews (Reuters) – Comcast Corp is ramping up spending on its Peacock streaming service, executives said on Thursday, aiming to catch up to big media rivals in the global battle for viewers. Unlike the majority of its rivals, Peacock offers a free, ad-supported version and two paid options: a $5-per-month…
LONDON (AP) — Most coronavirus restrictions, including mandatory face masks, were lifted in England on Thursday after Britain’s government said its vaccine booster rollout successfully reduced serious illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations. From Thursday, face coverings are no longer required by law anywhere in England, and a legal requirement for COVID-19 passes for entry into nightclubs…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marlboro-maker Altria said Thursday that its heat-not-burn cigarette, iQOS, probably won’t be back in U.S. stores for at least a year, while sales of its traditional cigarettes continued to slide. The Richmond, Virginia-based company updated investors on iQOS after being forced to pull it from the U.S. market late last year due…
(Reuters) -Apple Inc is planning a new service that will allow small businesses to accept payments directly on their iPhones without any extra hardware such as Square’s payment terminals, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. Currently, retailers can accept payments on an iPhone by using payment terminals connected to their iOS devices through Bluetooth, a method…
ROME (AP) — Lawmakers and regional representatives failed for a fourth day Thursday to find consensus on a new Italian president, even after the threshold for victory passed to a simple majority for the first time. The center-right abstained outright in the voting, a tactic to maintain the bloc’s unity that drew swift rebukes from…
TOKYO (AP) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have signed an agreement to participate in a next-generation nuclear energy project with TerraPower, a company started by Bill Gates. The memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday calls for cooperation in developing advanced nuclear technologies, Mitsubishi Heavy said. Located in Kemmerer, in western Wyoming’s…
(Reuters) -Mastercard Inc beat quarterly profit expectations on Thursday as domestic spending through its cards rose and cross-border volumes grew following an uptick in international travel. While increased vaccination and easing of pandemic-related curbs powered the recovery in spending, it was slightly dented by a surge in infections from the Omicron variant toward the end…
Markets were having their best day of 2022. Then Jerome Powell happened. What did the Fed Chair say that had investors concerned? The first thing we need to understand is that we have been operating in a bearish environment this year. That sets up for bear market-type moves. For instance, we saw the markets on…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week following three straight increases amid a surge in cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19. Jobless claims fell by 30,000 to 260,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, fewer than the 265,000 analysts were expecting. The four-week average of claims, which compensates for…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020’s brief but devastating coronavirus recession. The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year growth since a 7.2%…
