Business digest
Stocks end mixed
in half-day session
Stocks drifted to a mixed finish after a half-day trading session capped a holiday shortened week that left the major indexes with their fourth straight winning week. The S&P 500 inched up 0.1% Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 117 points, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. Gains in health care, financial, energy and other sectors helped temper losses in technology and communication services stocks. Bond yields rose. Trading was muted as markets reopened following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Shares mostly rose in Europe, while Asian markets ended mixed.
Retailers offer bigger
Black Friday discounts
NEW YORK — Shoppers hunting for big deals packed malls on Black Friday as retailers stepped up discounts and other perks to lure customers weighed down by inflation and sticking to tighter budgets. Consumers are coming under pressure as their savings dwindle and their credit card debt grows. And although they have gotten some relief from easing inflation, many goods and services like meat and rent are still far higher than they were just three years ago.
Malls including Macy's at Herald Square in Manhattan were packed with Black Friday discount hunters. The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, forecast that U.S. holiday sales will rise 3% to 4% for November through December, compared with 5.4% growth a year ago.
Nissan to make EV
versions of popular cars
LONDON — Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars. It's a boost for the British government as it tries to revive the country’s ailing economy. The Japanese automaker manufactures the gasoline-powered Qashqai and smaller Juke crossover vehicles at the factory in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers. The company said Friday that it’s directly investing up to 1.12 billion pounds to produce electric successors to the two models. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calls it “a massive vote of confidence in the U.K.’s automotive industry."
Russian consumers
squeezed by inflation
MOSCOW — The shelves at Moscow supermarkets are full of fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat. But many of the shoppers look at the selection with dismay as inflation makes their wallets feel empty. Russia’s Central Bank has raised its key lending rate four times this year to try to get inflation under control and stabilize the ruble’s exchange rate as the economy weathers the effects of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions imposed as a consequence. The Central bank now forecasts inflation for the full year, as well as next year, to be about 7.5%. Although that rate is high, it may be an understatement.
Union Pacific's hazmat
shipping questioned
OMAHA, Neb. — Federal inspectors have twice found hundreds of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world’s largest railyard in Nebraska, but none of those seem to explain why a shipping container filled with toxic acid exploded there this fall. The Sept. 14 blast fortunately happened in a remote corner of the railyard and the resulting fire didn't spread widely. Investigators appear focused on the questionable decision to load dozens of plastic barrels of perchloric acid inside a shipping container with a wood floor even though that acid is known to react with wood. But officials say the way the acid was loaded might not have violated any rules.
From Gazette news services
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