WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historic lows. Jobless claims rose by 14,000 to 202,000 for the week ending March 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s tally of 188,000 claims was the fewest since 1969. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans’ finances. The figure reported Thursday by the Commerce Department was the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982. Excluding volatile prices…
A surge in demand for COVID-19 tests and vaccines helped Walgreens deliver a better second quarter than Wall Street expected. But that boost from the ongoing pandemic isn’t expected to last, and the drugstore chain stuck to a 2022 outlook issued earlier. Company leaders also told analysts that Walgreens’ big shift into delivering more care…
LONDON (AP) — OPEC and allied oil producers including Russia decided Thursday to stick to a modest increase in the amount of crude they pump to the world, a step that supports higher prices even as the Biden administration plans to try to lower them by releasing oil from strategic reserves. The group, known as…
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s hiring boom of the past year has narrowed racial disparities in unemployment. Yet the Federal Reserve’s ongoing interest rate hikes — shaping up to be the steepest in 15 years — threaten to reverse that progress. The Fed’s rate hikes will mean higher borrowing rates that could hobble the job market…
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower Friday as a resurgence of Russian attacks dashed hopes for any quick end to the war in Ukraine. The retreat followed a broad decline on Wall Street, which closed out its worst quarter since the pandemic broke out two years ago. A closely watched quarterly gauge of…
BEIJING (AP) — China’s manufacturing activity fell to a five-month low in March after most of Shanghai and two other industrial centers were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, a survey showed Thursday. The monthly purchasing managers’ index of the Chinese statistics agency and an industry group, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, fell…
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results on Thursday. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome. In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning. Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted…
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials on Wednesday announced approval of a conservation group’s proposal to expand bison grazing on prairies in north-central Montana as part of a vast nature reserve over objections from some ranchers and elected officials. The decision allows the American Prairie group to graze bison on U.S. Bureau of Land Management…
Federal health officials are dropping the warning they have attached to cruising since the beginning of the pandemic, leaving it up to vacationers to decide whether they feel safe getting on a ship. Cruise-ship operators welcomed Wednesday’s announcement, which came as many people thought about summer vacation plans. An industry trade group said the move…
