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 to give consumers an easier gift-buying experience and themselves an augmented share of online spending. Although AI-powered purchases are in early stages, the shopping assistants and agents rolled out by [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers turned out in big numbers for Black Friday last week — spending a record amount of money both in stores and online. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-person and online spending, reported that overall Black Friday sales, excluding automotive, rose 4.1 percent from a year ago. The retail sales indicator, which [...]
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years. That boom, however, looks set [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — For many children, the experience of getting their first pair of glasses is an inevitable milestone, the first in a lifetime of visits to the eye doctor. A new type of lens, however, could help preserve the child’s vision and reduce the chances for more serious eye problems in adulthood. The lens, [...]
Ohio drillers produced 22.2 percent more oil last year than in 2023, but coal production fell 9.7 percent, according to a new report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Overall, the state’s mineral resources produced $1.7 billion worth of geologic commodities, which also include products such as sand and gravel, in 2024. It’s the [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Pharmaceutical companies have agreed to slash the Medicare prices for 15 prescription drugs after months of negotiations, reductions that are expected to produce billions in savings for taxpayers and older adults, the Trump administration said. The net prices it unveiled for a 30-day supply of each drug, however, are not what [...]
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 month delivered his 2026 housing outlook during the Residential Economic Issues and Trends Forum at NAR NXT, The Realtor Experience in Houston. He said he expects sales to increase due [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Park Service last week said it is going to start charging the millions of international tourists who visit United States parks each year an extra $100 to enter some of the most popular sites, while leaving them out of fee-free days that will be reserved for American residents. The announcement [...]
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 mortgage rate last week fell to 6.23 percent from 6.26 percent the previous week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.81 percent. Five weeks ago, [...]