By Nathalie Voit On Wednesday, Dec. 15, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hosted a hearing titled "Oversight of the U.S. Airline Industry." Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) chaired the event. In her opening statement, Sen. Cantwell outlined the "immediate question" before the committee: whether the Payroll Support Program (PSP) created to protect the [...]
By Nathalie Voit Higher interest rates are affecting the home refinance market. Following a short drop in rates due to initial news of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, mortgage rates resumed their upward climb this week, settling at 3.30% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan limit of $548,250 or less, the Mortgage Bankers [...]
By Nathalie Voit Toyota is on course to produce 3.5 million electric vehicles a year by the end of the decade, a statement released by the company on Dec. 14 revealed. The world’s largest automaker said on Tuesday it aimed to have battery-powered cars account for all sales of its prestigious Lexus brand in Europe, [...]
By Nathalie Voit Wholesale prices surged to their highest levels since November 2010, advancing 9.6% for the 12 months ending in November, according to data from the Labor Department released Dec. 14. The Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand goods rose 0.8% in November after moving up 0.6% in August, September, and October. The index for [...]
By Nathalie Voit The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is expected to slow global demand for oil by 100,000 barrels per day for the remainder of the year and 2022, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) released Dec. 14 said. Global oil demand is predicted to grow by 5.4 million barrels per day in [...]
By Nathalie Voit Major U.S. carriers, including the United Parcel Service (UPS), FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service, have stepped up on-time deliveries this holiday season as greater in-store shopping and earlier online orders have helped delivery networks meet shipment deadlines, industry data revealed. According to a press release from ShipMatrix, a developer of shipment visibility software [...]
By Nathalie Voit Google executives told employees pay won’t be raised to counter inflation at an all-hands virtual meeting held on Dec. 7. “We don’t have any plans to do any type of across-the-board type adjustment,” said Frank Wagner, the company’s vice president of compensation, in response to a question related to rising costs and worker pay [...]
By Nathalie Voit E-commerce giant Amazon settled a false advertising lawsuit filed on behalf of the cashmere industry over the company's widespread marketing and sale of counterfeit cashmere products. In November, the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute (CCMI) accused Amazon and U.S. seller CS Accessories LLC of falsely advertising and selling fake cashmere merchandise [...]
By Nathalie Voit Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee Maria Cantwell (D-WA) urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate claims that Facebook deceived advertisers and the public about “core aspects” of its business model in a letter sent to the agency on Dec. 8. According to Cantwell, Facebook, now Meta Platforms, misled businesses in its claims [...]
By Nathalie Voit Consumer prices in November jumped to their highest levels since 1982, according to Labor Department data released on Friday. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks changes in the "weighted-average price of a basket of common goods and services," rose 6.8% over twelve months in November. This marked the biggest year-on-year (YoY) advance [...]
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