Breaking News

Local Business

Prices of existing US homes hit all-time high

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in June, but a key measure of home prices climbed to an all-time high, adding to affordability challenges for prospective homebuyers. Existing home sales fell 2.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales rose 2.8% compared with June last year. The latest sales tally fell short of the roughly 4.21 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Home sales have been mostly hovering close to a 4-million annual pace going back to ...

New York sues chemical companies

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s attorney general sued several large chemical and agricultural companies on Thursday, alleging they knowingly sold harmful so-called forever chemicals used in cosmetics, non-stick cookware and other products. The lawsuit against 3M, DuPont de Nemours, The Chemours Company and Corteva and other manufacturers is the latest legal action over PFAS, which have been linked to an increased risk of certain cancers and developmental delays in children. “Big companies like 3M and DuPont knowingly sold toxic products that threatened New Yorkers’ health and ...

Ticker: Oil prices rise after Trump says ceasefire is ‘over’

Oil prices rose, and stock markets dropped in shaky trading worldwide after President Donald Trump raised doubts about the temporary truce in the war with Iran. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% Wednesday after sinking as much as 1.1% earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.1% after Trump said the agreement to pause fighting with Iran was over. The Nasdaq composite erased an early slump and rose 0.2% after Trump said in the afternoon that the most recent fighting did not mean a return to full-scale war. Brent crude oil’s price climbed 5% above $78 per barrel. John Deere ...

Ticker: Fed unveils members of new task forces

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, economist Raj Chetty and former Bank of England governor Mervyn King are among a slate of names released by the Federal Reserve Thursday that will help develop recommended changes to the central bank’s operations. Warsh called for “regime change” at the Fed last year while he was under consideration by the Trump administration to replace former chair Jerome Powell. Yet it’s not yet clear how transformative the task forces will be. News outlets urge judge to sanction OpenAI The New York Times, the Daily News and other media outlets are ...

Fed officials deeply divided over future of US inflation

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee is split over whether inflation is likely to stay elevated or whether it will cool once the Iran war winds down, according to minutes released Wednesday. In the first set of minutes released under new chair Kevin Warsh, “many” ...

Meta plans for data center in Canada

EDMONTON, Alberta — Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said Wednesday it will invest more than US$9.1 billion to build its first artificial intelligence data center in Canada and its largest outside the United States. The facility will be built in Sturgeon County, Alberta, and powered by a natural gas-fired plant being developed by a consortium that includes Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Ltd. Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish called the project “a big deal for Alberta,” saying the province had created a regulatory framework to attract data center ...