Business Highlights: Retailers offer Black Friday discounts; markets end mixed in half-day session
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Retailers offer bigger Black Friday discounts to lure hesitant shoppers hunting for the best deals
NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers hunting for big deals packed malls on Black Friday as retailers stepped up discounts and other perks to lure customers weighed down by inflation and sticking to tighter budgets. Consumers are coming under pressure as their savings dwindle and their credit card debt grows. And although they have gotten some relief from easing inflation, many goods and services like meat and rent are still far higher than they were just three years ago. Malls including Macy’s at Herald Square in Manhattan were packed with Black Friday discount hunters. The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, forecast that U.S. holiday sales will rise 3% to 4% for November through December, compared with 5.4% growth a year ago.
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Germany’s leader vows to fix a spending crisis that’s worsening gloom in the struggling economy
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised quick action to fix a budget crisis after a court decision blew a large hole in the almost-finished plan for next year. It also threatens to disrupt spending on efforts to fight climate change and cushion the impact of high energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Scholz said in a video Friday that the government is “firm” in its push to modernize Germany so there’s strong industry and good-paying jobs when the economy is climate neutral. But the budget crisis threatens to exacerbate problems in the world’s worst-performing major developed economy. New figures show that Germany’s economy shrank in recent months, and business confidence is still in the dumps.
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Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to make EV versions of its best-selling cars at its UK factory
LONDON (AP) — Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars. It’s a boost for the British government as it tries to revive the country’s ailing economy. The Japanese automaker manufactures the gasoline-powered Qashqai and smaller Juke crossover vehicles at the factory in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers. The company said Friday that it’s directly investing up to 1.12 billion pounds to produce electric successors to the two models. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calls it “a massive vote of confidence in the U.K.‘s automotive industry.”
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Russian consumers feel themselves in a tight spot as high inflation persists
MOSCOW (AP) — The shelves at Moscow supermarkets are full of fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat. But many of the shoppers look at the selection with dismay as inflation makes their wallets feel empty. Russia’s Central Bank has raised its key lending rate four times this year to try to get inflation under control and stabilize the ruble’s exchange rate as the economy weathers the effects of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions imposed as a consequence. The Central bank now forecasts inflation for the full year, as well as next year, to be about 7.5%. Although that rate is high, it may be an understatement.
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Putin to boost AI work in Russia to fight a Western monopoly he says is ‘unacceptable and dangerous’
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that he will endorse a national strategy for the development of artificial intelligence. Putin emphasized that it’s essential to prevent a Western monopoly. He spoke at an AI conference in Moscow on Friday. He noted that “it’s imperative to use Russian solutions in the field of creating reliable and transparent artificial intelligence systems that are also safe for humans.” Putin also said that “monopolistic dominance of such foreign technology in Russia is unacceptable, dangerous and inadmissible.” He added that Western AI systems “reflect that part of Western ethics, norms of behavior, public policy to which we object.” Putin warned that algorithms developed by Western platforms could lead to a digital “cancellation” of Russia and its culture.
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Stock market today: Wall Street ends mixed in half-day session, marks fourth straight winning week
Stocks drifted to a mixed finish after a half-day trading session capped a holiday shortened week that left the major indexes with their fourth straight winning week. The S&P 500 inched up 0.1% Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 117 points, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. Gains in health care, financial, energy and other sectors helped temper losses in technology and communication services stocks. Bond yields rose. Trading was muted as markets reopened following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Shares mostly rose in Europe, while Asian markets ended mixed.
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Railyard explosion, inspections raise safety questions about Union Pacific’s hazmat shipping
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal inspectors have twice found hundreds of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world’s largest railyard in Nebraska, but none of those seem to explain why a shipping container filled with toxic acid exploded there this fall. The Sept. 14 blast fortunately happened in a remote corner of the railyard and the resulting fire didn’t spread widely. Investigators appear focused on the questionable decision to load dozens of plastic barrels of perchloric acid inside a shipping container with a wood floor even though that acid is known to react with wood. But officials say the way the acid was loaded might not have violated any rules.
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Argentina’s labor leaders warn of resistance to President-elect Milei’s radical reforms
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Right-wing populist Javier Milei has been president-elect just four days and already Argentina’s unions and social organizations are vowing pushback and even protests if he makes good on his promises to slash the size of the state and privatize companies. Milei says radical measures are needed to get the South American country’s moribund economy back to life and reduce annual inflation of 140%. The day after winning the election by a wide margin, the libertarian said that “everything that can be in the hands of the private sector will be in the hands of the private sector.” Union leaders said what they are hearing from Milie is in opposition to their interests.
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Amazon and NFL hoping to establish a tradition with the first Black Friday game
It is not a stretch to say that the Black Friday game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets is Amazon’s Super Bowl. Not only does it get an additional game on Prime Video that it hopes to make into a yearly tradition, but it comes on the busiest shopping day of the year. Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media, said the league had been exploring the possibility of adding a game on Black Friday for a while. The Thanksgiving Day tripleheader has been among the most-watched games during the regular season for the past two years. Adding a Black Friday game gives the NFL another day to take over. Combine it with it airing on Amazon, and it was a match made in football and commerce heaven.
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Black Friday is here. What to know about the holiday sales event’s history and evolution
NEW YORK (AP) — If you didn’t already guess it from a barrage of sales ads in your inbox, the holiday shopping season is upon us. And Black Friday is here. While Black Friday may no longer look like the crowd-filled, in-person mayhem that it was just decades ago — in large part due to the rising dependence on online shopping that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic — the holiday sales event is still slated to attract millions of consumers. The extension of Black Friday sales and growing strength of other shopping events (hello Cyber Monday) is also changing what holiday spending looks like today.
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The S&P 500 rose 2.72 points, or 0.1%, to 4,559.34. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.12 points, or 0.3%, to 35,390.15. The Nasdaq composite fell 15 points, or 0.1%, to 14,250.85. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 11.96 points, or 0.7% to 1,807.50.