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Inflation looms over Black Friday deal-seeking shoppers
NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers eager to start their holiday shopping but weighed down by inflation are looking for the best deals in stores and online this Black Friday. Retailers that offered mostly lackluster discounts earlier in the season responded this week with new specials. Rising food, rent, gas and other household costs took a toll on shoppers. As a result, many people are reluctant to spend unless there’s a big sale, and they’re more picky about what they buy – in many cases, they’ll buy less expensive stuff and cheaper stores. Shoppers are also dipping into their savings more, increasingly turning to “buy now, pay later” services that allow users to pay in installments. They’re also running out of credit cards.
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Musk plans to restart Twitter’s premium service again
LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk said Twitter plans to relaunch its premium service next week that will give accounts different colored checkmarks. Friday’s announcement is the latest change to the social media platform the billionaire Tesla CEO acquired last month for $44 billion, and comes just a day after Musk said he would grant “amnesty” to suspended accounts. Twitter previously suspended its premium service, which under Musk’s leadership awarded a Blue Check label to anyone who paid $8 a month due to a wave of imposter accounts. In the latest version, Musk said corporations would get a golden check, governments would get a gray check, and individuals, whether they’re celebrities or not, would get a blue check.
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Netflix nights still wrapped in red and white envelopes
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Netflix’s pioneering DVD-by-mail rental service has been relegated to a relic in the streaming age, but there’s still a steady — albeit dwindling — diehard audience willing to pay to receive them. The iconic red and white envelope for discs The service has shipped more than 5 billion discs in the US since its inception nearly a quarter of a century ago, and it probably won’t be around much longer. When Netflix spun it off from the video streaming business in 2011, its customer base had shrunk from 11 million to an estimated 1.5 million. Co-CEO Reed Hastings has previously said it could close in 2023.
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The EU and the US are headed for a trade spat when both sides want unity and not
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and the United States are edging precariously closer to a major transatlantic trade dispute at a time when the two Western giants want to show unity in the face of challenges from Russia and China. EU trade ministers insist they will be forced to respond if Washington sticks to all terms of its inflation-cutting bill, which favors local companies through subsidies. The EU says it will unfairly discriminate against domestic companies that want to compete for contracts.
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Walmart shooting sparks need to prevent violence at work
NEW YORK (AP) — Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Virginia Walmart was just the latest example of an employee being shot in the workplace. Many companies have aggressive shooter training. But experts say far less attention has been paid to how to prevent workplace violence. Workers often don’t know how to recognize warning signs and co-workers. What’s more, according to workplace safety and human resources experts, they often don’t know how to report suspicious behavior or feel empowered to do so. Attention tends to focus on “red flags” and workers should look for “yellow signals” – subtle changes in behavior such as increased anger or not coming to work, one expert said.
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Explainer: What is the impact of Russian oil price caps, bans?
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The deadline for Western allies to agree on a price cap for Russian oil is looming. The cap, proposed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is aimed at reducing oil revenues that Russia receives to support its military and invade Ukraine. But there are questions about the effectiveness of the cap. December. 5 The start date also coincides with the EU imposing an embargo on most Russian oil shipments. There is uncertainty about how all of this will affect the oil market, which has vacillated between concerns about dwindling supply from Russia and weak demand due to a lagging global economy. The biggest disruption may not come until February. 5. When Europe stops importing Russian oil products, including diesel.
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EU scrutiny says Twitter and others erred in removing hate speech
LONDON (AP) — Twitter will take longer to censor hateful content and remove less content in 2022 than it did the previous year, European Union data show. The figures were released on Thursday as part of an annual assessment of online platforms’ compliance with the EU’s disinformation code. Twitter isn’t alone — most of the other tech companies that signed up to the voluntary code also scored worse. But the numbers could herald Twitter’s troubles complying with the European Union’s tough new online rules, as owner Elon Musk fired many of the platform’s 7,500 full-time employees and countless contractors responsible for content moderation and other critical tasks. business.
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Musk says he will ‘amnesty’ suspended Twitter accounts
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — New Twitter owner Elon Musk said he would grant “amnesty” to suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur an increase in harassment, hate speech and misinformation. The billionaire made the announcement on Thursday after he posted a poll on his timeline calling for votes on reinstating accounts that did not “break the law or engage in egregious spam.” The vote in favor was 72%. After running a similar, highly unscientific poll last weekend, Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account for encouraging the Jan-June 2021 Capitol uprising. Trump has said he will not return to Twitter, but has not deleted his account.
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German economy grows strongly in third quarter
BERLIN (AP) — The German economy grew stronger than expected in the third quarter as consumer spending picked up after pandemic restrictions were lifted. Gross domestic product in Europe’s largest economy expanded 0.4% from July to September, 0.1 percentage point higher than previously forecast, official data showed on Friday. GDP is a widely used measure of a country’s production of goods and services, but critics say it tells only one part of how the economy is doing. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development acknowledges that gross domestic product is “an insufficient measure of people’s material well-being and that alternative indicators may be more appropriate”.
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Wall Street stocks mixed; S&P up for week
Stocks on Wall Street were mixed on Friday, but the major indexes all posted weekly gains. The S&P 500 was slightly lower on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose and the Nasdaq fell. Technology stocks were the biggest drag on the broader market. Markets are closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and 1 p.m. Eastern Friday. Long-dated bond yields edged higher. Crude oil prices remained steady. Global stock markets were mixed on concerns over China’s lockdowns and restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.
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The S&P 500 fell 1.14 points, or less than 0.1%, to 4,026.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.97 points, or 0.4%, to 34,347.03. The Nasdaq fell 58.96 points, or 0.5%, to 11,226.36. The Russell 2000 index of small companies rose 5.67 points, or 0.3%, to 1,869.19.
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