Finance

The Federal Reserve is set to cut its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for a third time this year to help sustain the U.S. economic expansion in the face of widespread trade tensions and slower global growth. But the Fed’s policymakers will likely frustrate anyone who is hoping for a clear signal about what they may […]

Shares fell in Asia on Wednesday after weak earnings for technology and media companies led stocks lower on Wall Street. The modest pullback came a day after the S&P 500 hit an all-time high. Reports that China and the U.S. may not reach a trade agreement in time to sign a deal next month at

Opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada said the Trump administration is understating the potential for the line to break and spill into water bodies such as Montana’s Missouri River, as the U.S. State Department held the sole public meeting Tuesday on a new environmental review of the long-stalled proposal. Backers say the

AT&T said Tuesday that its HBO Max streaming service will launch in May for $15 a month, joining a crowded field. The company has said HBO Max will become the “workhorse” for its video business as cord-cutting of traditional TV expands. It hopes to migrate people who pay for HBO in different ways today to

Brian Sweeney has a long list of complaints about Amazon, from the way it treats warehouse workers to the low taxes it pays and its effort to win concessions from cities to bring in jobs. So when he learned the online retail giant had poured $1 million into remaking the Seattle City Council with more

Fans in Washington and Houston may be excited, but the rest of the country is reacting to the World Series with a collective yawn. Through the first five games, the World Series has been averaging 11.6 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. That puts it on pace to be the least-watched Fall Classic ever, although

Sony is shutting down its pioneering online-cable alternative, PlayStation Vue, citing the high cost of content and the difficulty of reaching deals with networks. It launched Vue in early 2015 as a skinnier, cheaper version of cable or satellite TV delivered via the internet. It was a test case for a TV alternative alongside Dish’s

A major U.S. coal mining company, whose former CEO became a big supporter of President Donald Trump in his effort to save coal jobs, is seeking bankruptcy protection. Ohio-based Murray Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Tuesday, joining a growing list of struggling coal operations as communities switch away from fossil fuel to less-polluting

Economists and investors who are trying to get a fix on what the Federal Reserve may do in the months ahead have zeroed in on a single phrase in the statement it has issued after its most recent policy meetings. The phrase seems innocuous enough. The Fed’s policymakers, it states, “will act as appropriate to

Only two weeks of a lengthy strike against General Motors happened in the third quarter, but that was enough to dent the company’s net profit by about $1 billion. GM reported Tuesday that its third-quarter net profit fell 7% as a strike by the United Auto Workers union brought its U.S. factories to a standstill.