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The day’s business news at a glance

Kraft Heinz reports fourth quarter losses

Kraft Heinz Co. on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $12.61 billion, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the Pittsburgh-based company said it had a loss of $10.34. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs and restructuring costs, were 84 cents per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations.

The maker of Oscar Mayer meats, Jell-O

pudding and Velveeta cheese posted revenue of $6.89 billion in the period, which also fell short of Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $6.95 billion.

Nestle, AT&T pull YouTube ads for pedophile concerns

Several companies, including AT&T and Nestle, are pulling advertisements from YouTube over concerns about inappropriate comments on videos of children.

A video from a popular YouTuber and a report from Wired showed that pedophiles have made unseemly comments on innocuous videos of kids. The comments reportedly included timestamps that showed where kids innocently bared body parts.

YouTube said it disabled comments on tens of millions of videos and deleted offending accounts and channels.

Select Medical posts earnings of $23.9 million

Select Medical Holdings Corp. on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $23.9 million.

The Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based company said it had net income of 18 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted to extinguish debt, were

20 cents per share.

The hospital and rehabilitation center operator posted revenue of $1.26 billion in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of

$133.3 million, or $1.02 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.08 billion.

Google to end forced arbitration for all disputes

Google said it will no longer require that its workers settle disputes with the company through arbitration, responding to months of pressure from employees.

The company said Thursday that the change will take effect March 21 and will apply to current and future employees. Google said last year it would end forced arbitration for sexual harassment and assault cases.

Mandatory arbitration requires that employees settle their disputes privately and outside of court. The practice lent itself to secrecy and is widespread in U.S. employment contracts.

Google workers staged a walk out late last year and continued to press the tech giant to drop forced arbitration.

US: Airfares hit new lows after factoring inflation

The average fare for airline travel within the United States has hit the lowest level since the government started keeping track in 1995, after adjusting for inflation.

However, that doesn’t count fees that airlines add for things like checking a bag, getting a better seat, or moving up in the boarding line.

Airlines get an increasing share of their revenue from those fees and from deals with credit-card providers, helping them remain profitable.

The Bureau of Trans­portation Statistics said Thursday that the average domestic itinerary was $343 in the third quarter of last year. The average round trip was $417, and the average one-way ticket was $249.

The overall figure of $343 is down $2 from the third quarter of 2017 and $7 lower than the second quarter of 2018.

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