WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans stepped up their spending at retailers, restaurants, and auto dealers last month, a sign of consumer resilience as the holiday shopping season begins amid painfully high inflation and rising interest rates. The government said Wednesday that retail sales rose 1.3% in October from September, up from a flat reading in September…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The orders came from on high, from Ukraine’s president and one of his ministers: Get trains running again to the latest city newly retaken by our troops. “So literally: tanks, then trains,” said Ukrainian rail network boss Oleksandr Kamyshin, recalling the presidential instructions he received as the southern city of Kherson…
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s inflation rate rose to a 41-year high in October, fueling demands for the government to do more to ease the nation’s cost-of-living crisis when it releases new tax and spending plans Thursday. Consumer prices jumped 11.1% in the 12 months through October, compared with 10.1% in September, the Office for National…
NEW YORK (AP) — An unexpected and potentially ominous pullback in customer spending ahead of the holiday shopping season pushed third-quarter profits at Target down 52% after it was forced to slash prices with Americans feeling the squeeze of inflation. The Minneapolis retailer voiced caution about its sales and profit during the fourth quarter because…
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — Members of the Group of 20 leading economies ended their summit Wednesday with a declaration of firm condemnation of the war in Ukraine and a warning that the conflict is making an already delicate world economy worse. The summit’s closing statement was noteworthy because world leaders managed to highlight a…
TOKYO (AP) — The new Toyota gas-electric Prius hybrid not only comes with more power, acceleration and driving range. It’s also more stylish, scrapping the rather stodgy angular body for a sleekly futuristic look. Simon Humphries, senior general manager of Global Toyota design who unveiled the car in Tokyo on Wednesday, stressed that the company…
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly declined Thursday amid concerns about the impact of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy mixed with hopes for economic activity and tourism returning to normal. Benchmarks fell in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai, while gaining in Sydney. Oil prices fell. Market watchers noted worries about how the Federal Reserve might not…
Ben & Jerry’s board of directors on Tuesday rebuked the sale of products bearing any of the ice cream maker’s insignia in West Bank settlements, the latest salvo in the Vermont-based company’s feud with its corporate parent over ice cream sales in the territories. Last year Ben & Jerry’s board said it was going to…
NEW YORK (AP) — Just days after cryptocurrency’s third-largest exchange collapsed, the public is starting to get an idea of how messy FTX’s bankruptcy case could be. Other crypto firms are failing as a result of FTX’s unraveling, events reminiscent of the domino-like meltdowns of the 2008 financial crisis. Users remained frustratingly in the dark…
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The head of Tesla’s board of directors testified Tuesday in a shareholder lawsuit challenging a 2018 compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk potentially worth more than $55 billion that she was less concerned about how much time Musk would commit to the company than in the results he could bring. “We…
