Author: starbpo

IN DETROIT — The United Auto Workers backed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Wednesday. This gives her union more power in the likely election against Republican Donald Trump in November. In a statement, UAW President Shawn Fain said that defeating Trump was the union’s “job” in this year’s race. There are over a million current and retired members of the union. It has a strong base in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which Democrats call the “blue wall” states. Fain said, “We can elect Kamala Harris, who will fight with us in our fight against corporate greed, or we…

A $78 billion tax bill is likely to fail an important vote in the Senate this afternoon. This could mean that a lot of business and family-friendly provisions won’t be dealt with until next year. The package was put forward by Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. It would increase the child tax credit and the low-income housing tax credit, bring back tax breaks for businesses that invest in research and development, stop tax fraud, improve relations between the U.S. and Taiwan, and help people…

WW International Inc. (also known as WeightWatchers) shares fell even more to a record low after the weight management company announced disappointing results for the second quarter and lowered its outlook for the full year. The company also said it was going to restructure, which will mean “the elimination of certain positions and the termination of employment for certain employees worldwide.” In the second part of the year, the company plans to pay between $12 million and $15 million to restructure. CEO Sima Sistani said, “The world is changing quickly, and we are taking decisive actions to navigate through this…

Pros Cons What’s new? The all-electric 2025 Volvo EX30 is a great new subcompact SUV that has a long range, great speed, a great price, and a design that goes on and on. The price starts at $34,950. There aren’t many electric cars that cost less than $35,000 to buy, and even fewer that are luxury. Welcome to the new Volvo EX30. It has a range of up to 275 miles, and even the fast two-motor units are only rated for 265 miles. It also charges pretty quickly. This car is a Volvo all the way through. It looks good…

Prices are going down at stores like McDonald’s Corp., in commodity markets, and for durable goods, which is a sign of downward trends, according to Yardeni Research. The number of Big Macs bought at McDonald’s has dropped around the world, according to a note from July 29 from Yardeni, a financial and economic research company. The big fast-food chain MCD -0.63% just reported “its first worldwide sales decline in 13 quarters.” At the same time, the note says, it is expanding its “$5 meal deal.” After a big rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation has slowed down a lot. This…

NEW YORK — On Monday, Donald Trump seemed to back out of his earlier promise to debate Vice President Kamala Harris. He said that he “probably” would debate but that he “can also make a case for not doing it.” In an interview with Fox News Channel that ran Monday night, Trump was asked several times if he was going to debate Harris. He finally gave a weaker answer than he had in recent days. The former Republican president was excited to face Vice President Joe Biden when Biden was the Democratic nominee. For months, he had been saying that…

The odds on the race to be Kamala Harris’s running mate have changed since it was announced that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has dropped out. One political betting site, Polymarket, says that Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona is now the favorite to be the Democratic candidate for vice president. His odds are 38 cents on the dollar. The price of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is 34 cents on the dollar, putting Kelly just ahead of him. Kelly, who was an astronaut and a Navy pilot, is one of the Democrats who supports stricter border control. He would help Harris’s…

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that Tesla Inc. is recalling more than 1.8 million cars in the U.S. because software may not be able to tell when the hood is not locked. The NHTSA said in a warning that the hood latch assembly might not notice that the hood is not up when it is opened. “A hood that isn’t locked can open all the way, blocking the driver’s view and raising the risk of a crash.” The NHTSA said that Tesla TSLA -4.08% is recalling Model 3, Model S, Model X, and 2020–2024 Model Y cars because…

In the past two months, Meta Platforms Inc. shares have stayed pretty much the same. Will the earnings report on Wednesday afternoon start a new trend? Investors may not be just thinking about the current quarter or even the most recent one. UBS expert Stephen Ju said that Meta META -0.47% will have a lot of positive factors going for it the rest of the year. These include Reels continuing to make money and the effect of AI tools for advertisers. But Ju and his team believe that investors’ “sentiment is beginning to weaken” as they think about how big…

PayPal Holdings Inc. surprised investors on Tuesday by reporting strong growth in transaction-margin dollars for the June quarter. This is a measure of the company’s ability to make money as it grows. Transaction-margin dollars, which show how profitable the payment processing business is, have become more important to PayPal PYPL 8.34% investors lately because they are worried about how growth will be affected by lower-margin income streams. But PayPal made progress in the second quarter. The amount of money made from transactions rose 8% to $3.6 billion, which was the best growth for the company since 2021. Before the report,…