Today’s News
Macy’s posts another quarterly sales increase
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s posted a surprise third-quarter profit and its strongest comparable sales in more than three years as an extensive overhaul of the 167-year-old New York department store begins to resonate with shoppers. After posting its back-to-back quarterly jumps in comparable sales, Macy’s earlier this week raised its financial guidance for the year. Even the elevated sales guidance issued this week, however, was below last year’s annual sales numbers. Macy’s said that [...]
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim ‘Trump Accounts’
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell have pledged $6.25 billion to provide 25 million American children 10 and under an incentive to claim the new investment accounts for children created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation. The historic gift has little precedent, with few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years exceeding $1 billion. Announced on GivingTuesday, the Dells said they believe it’s the largest single private [...]
Trump administration pauses immigration applications for people from 19 countries
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pausing all immigration applications, such as requests for green cards, for people from 19 countries banned from travel earlier this year, as part of immigration changes in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard troops last week. The changes were outlined in a policy memo posted this week on the website of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency tasked with processing and approving all requests [...]
Legal News
Meta prevails in historic FTC antitrust case
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Meta has prevailed over an existential challenge to its business that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram [...]
Judge approves opioid settlement for Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members
A federal bankruptcy court judge earlier this week formally approved OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the harms of opioids. [...]
Judge set to OK Purdue Pharma settlement deal
A judge last week said that he planned to approve a deal for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family who own [...]
Business News
Cyber Monday spending rises 4.5 percent
NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers scoured for deals online on Cyber Monday, delivering strong sales for retailers and capping a five-day spending spree that kicked [...]
OECD predicts U.S. economy to grow 2 percent this year
WASHINGTON (AP) — The world economy has proven surprisingly durable in the face of President Donald Trump’s trade policies, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and [...]
Retailers offering new or updated artificial intelligence-assisted shopping tools
NEW YORK (AP) — Major retail chains and tech companies are offering new or updated artificial-intelligence tools in time for the holiday shopping season, hoping [...]
Real Estate
National Association of Realtors economist forecasts home sales to increase 14% in 2026
Existing-home sales are projected to rise by around 14 percent in 2026, according to National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. Yun earlier this [...]
Mortgage rate falls to 6.23 percent
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage ended a three-week streak of increases, reflecting a pullback in long-term U.S. Treasury bond yields. The average long-term [...]
New limits set for RealPage rent algorithm
Landlords no longer could rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other’s moves and push rents higher using confidential data under a settlement between [...]
Politics
Growing exotic pet trade drives illegal online sales and a push for tighter rules
A growing exotic pet trade has conservationists calling for stronger regulations to protect the reptiles, birds and other animals in the wild that are increasingly [...]
National Park Service to raise fees for international tourists starting on Jan. 1
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Park Service last week said it is going to start charging the millions of international tourists who visit United States [...]
Future of the federal government’s health-care plan remains unsettled
WASHINGTON (AP) — A health-care proposal circulated by the White House last week is running into the reality of Republican divisions on the issue — [...]