Signs of strength in the world’s largest economy fueled investor optimism about the outlook for Corporate America’s earnings, driving stocks to their best month since late 2020.

Equities hit fresh highs, with the S&P 500 extending its April surge to 10% as data showed US growth accelerated amid an AI-driven upswing in business investment. A...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs in February, companies swiftly lined up to demand a refund.

And Ikea shoppers want their money back too.

A proposed class-action lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Philadelphia asks a judge to order the furniture company to pay back ...Read more

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Consumers hungry for protein are still buying beef, but the meat’s producers from the farm to the butcher shop know it’s too expensive.

At Everett’s Foods in southeastern Minnesota, some customers are starting to pick the store’s signature sausages over pricier cuts of beef, employees said. Cannon Falls rancher ...Read more

U.S. economic growth accelerated at the start of the year, fueled by a massive upswing in business investment and solid consumer demand.

Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increased an annualized 2% in the first quarter after the longest-ever federal government shutdown limited growth in the closing months of 2025, according to an ...Read more

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits plunged to the lowest level in decades, a sign that job-cut announcements have not yet meaningfully translated into layoffs.

Initial claims fell by 26,000 to 189,000 in the week ended April 25. according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Direct foreign investment in California rose last year despite the trade disruptions caused by President Donald Trump's tariffs, according to an annual tally released this week.

The number of foreign-owned enterprises rose 4% to 19,717, as did the number of jobs they supported, to 847,245, stated the report by the Los Angeles ...Read more

Kevin Warsh, the prospective chair of the Federal Reserve, keeps coming up with new reasons to lower short-term interest rates, an outcome that President Donald Trump has long demanded.

His latest rationale — that inflationary pressures are subsiding — is no more convincing than its predecessors.

Reason number one was artificial ...Read more

Emily Pearson looked like everyone else in her T-shirt and shorts last fall when she crossed the finish line of a sun-drenched Twin Cities Marathon.

Which made her extraordinary.

Four-plus hours in daylight used to cause “insufferable” pain because of a rare genetic skin disorder, forcing her to do training runs in darkness at 3 a.m. or ...Read more

Owners of second homes — and Airbnb — stand to reap a windfall under an initiative in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' new city budget proposal.

Tucked away in the more than 500 pages of city budget expenditures, the mayor calls for creating a new revenue stream by allowing people who own a second home to rent it out on a short-term basis, ...Read more

Real estate developer Caruso is partnering with the electric vehicle company Rivian to add more than 150 public EV chargers to Caruso's properties, including malls and apartment buildings.

Caruso owns several iconic Southern California destinations, such as the Grove and Palisades Village, which is scheduled to reopen this summer after last ...Read more

A living wage is becoming less attainable for Philadelphia-area residents, even those who work full-time.

In 2025, 44.3% of full-time workers made a living wage in the 11-county region, which includes Wilmington and Camden, according to a new report from Dayforce, a company that provides payroll and workforce-management software.

That’s a ...Read more

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized Jerome Powell for his decision to stay on the Federal Reserve Board after he steps down as the U.S. central bank’s chair, saying it amounts to a break with Fed tradition.

“It’s highly unusual for someone who says he’s an institutionalist and cares about norms at the Fed,” Bessent said on Fox...Read more

WASHINGTON — Two emerging leaders on Capitol Hill are teaming up for a bipartisan push to keep Chinese cars and trucks out of the United States.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio introduced a bill Wednesday to solidify barriers to China building its U.S. automotive presence. Their ...Read more

As an IT guy, my workday alternates between tasks like going out and fixing people’s computer issues or setting up new computers and sitting at my desk waiting for the next call.

I’d like my boss to think I spend 80% of my day away from my desk, but in reality I spend a lot of my time sitting at my desk working on my computer.

A lot of ...Read more

Ford Motor Co. raised its annual guidance by $500 million after it predicted it'll receive $1.3 billion from the U.S. federal government in tariff reimbursements, as it reported first-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations.

The Dearborn automaker reflected the refund in its $2.5 billion net income in the first three months of 2026. ...Read more

Amazon’s investment in artificial intelligence company Anthropic drove profits in the first three months of this year, even as Amazon continued to shell out billions of dollars for AI infrastructure.

Amazon’s profit grew 76% year over year, from $17.1 billion in the first three months of 2025 to $30.3 billion in the first three months of ...Read more

Building on its growing Chicago quantum footprint, IBM is planning to open a FutureNow delivery center at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, with a commitment to create 750 new full-time technology jobs on the city’s South Side.

The center, one of a handful scattered across North America, will serve as an IBM innovation hub to ...Read more