Boosted by investments in AI, a revitalized aerospace industry and a growing U.S. defense budget, California's economic growth is expected to continue outpacing the nation, according to a forecast from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

However, tariffs, deportations and high energy prices are likely to somewhat slow growth, though it ...Read more

If Silicon Valley has perfected any business model, it's the one in which it cooks up a new technology and then persuades people they can't live without it. The newest example is Meta Platforms' personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse.

Something in Meta's pitch for Muse, which is represented as a furry version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow ...Read more

David Ellison said the merged Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be called Skydance — the moniker he picked nearly two decades ago when the tech scion began building his Hollywood empire.

Ellison, currently the chairman and chief executive of Paramount, is aiming to finalize the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Tuesday. Then ...Read more

Subaru has spent 50 years selling cars to people who own at least one kayak and a dog that sheds more than the national debt accrues interest.

Now, Subaru has built those people another electric car, and the results are fairly good. The 2026 Subaru Trailseeker shares the Solterra’s Toyota-derived underpinnings, but stretches them into ...Read more

The ride-hailing company Lyft will pay $272.5 million to settle a California wage-and-hour lawsuit, marking the largest such settlement in the state's history.

The settlement will resolve allegations that Lyft misclassified its workers as independent contractors between 2016 and 2020 and denied them wage and workplace protections that were ...Read more

A bipartisan bill in Congress could add a new tax for electric vehicles just as there is a renewed push to move away from gas-powered cars.

The proposed EV fee would start at $130 annually and is considered an attempt to make sure all drivers pay their fair share. The federal government collects 18.4 cents per gallon on every U.S. gasoline ...Read more

NAPA VALLEY, California — Before it ditched cars for a lineup of engaging SUVs and trucks like F-150 Raptors, Bronco Sport Sasquatches and Maverick Lobos, Ford made affordable hellions like the Focus RS that you could take big game-hunting with 300-plus turbo-4 horsepower, nimble handling, and drift mode. The Focus RS exited the market in 2018...Read more

After the 10-year Treasury yield rose as high as 5.34% for the first time since 2002, stock traders are fiercely debating when the selloff in bonds will start to trigger pain for a resilient U.S. stock market.

Under the surface, however, the spike in rates is already wreaking havoc.

While the S&P 500 Index is less than 2% from a record, ...Read more

Year-over-year U.S. sales for Stellantis NV dipped slightly in the third quarter of 2026, according to company data released Oct. 1, as the struggling transatlantic automaker continues to chase an elusive turnaround.

The Jeep and Chrysler parent company sold 324,277 vehicles in the quarter spanning July through September. That was a decline of ...Read more

When Brandon Hurst first decided to sell his plants on TikTok Live in 2023, the 32-year-old Los Angeles resident didn't know what to expect. He said he thought he could sell at least 30 plants, but instead sold 250.

Now, three years later, the internet creator, who goes by Brandon the Plant Guy, sells up to 5,000 plants a week, works out of a 3...Read more

MIAMI — When South Florida billionaires Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross gathered with business leaders in February, they made a powerful pitch for a different kind of South Florida.

Through a statewide initiative powered by the advisory group Florida Council of 100, Griffin and Ross called on CEOs, billionaires and entrepreneurs to bring and ...Read more

Mortgage rates surged to the highest level since November 2023, further straining a U.S. housing market already hampered by high borrowing costs.

The average for a 30-year, fixed loan jumped 25 basis points from a week earlier to 7.28%, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday. The weekly increase was the biggest since October 2022. A year ago,...Read more

U.S. companies announced the fewest number of job cuts for any September since 2022, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Employers last month announced 43,281 job cuts, a near 20% decrease from a year earlier. So far this year, planned staffing reductions are down almost 40% from the same nine months in ...Read more

Toyota Motor Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. are pulling closer to Detroit’s marquee automakers in the U.S. auto market, boosted by demand for gas-electric hybrids and affordable vehicles as average car payments rise well above $800 a month.

Toyota’s sales rose slightly to more than 633,000 vehicle in the third quarter, including its Lexus ...Read more

DETROIT — Martha Firestone Ford, 101, isn't looking for much more than an AM radio in her vehicle, her son Bill Ford said during a panel Tuesday with executives from Google, Time magazine and United Airlines.

"I don't have a lot of 101-year-old customers," said Ford Motor Co.'s executive chair, joking during the panel at Michigan Central in ...Read more

For the second year in a row, Ford Motor Co. is sounding the alarm on a growing shortage of skilled trades workers in the United States.

"Here's the reality: We need to fill 1.7 million job openings in the trades every year over the next 10 years. Every year, 1.7 million," Ford CEO Jim Farley said on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at the company's ...Read more