Business news

• National Debt Tracker: American taxpayers (you) are now on the hook for $35,677,760,608,035.45 as of 10/3/24

  03-10-2024 23:09 via foxbusiness.com
  
  The U.S. national debt is climbing at a rapid pace and has shown no signs of slowing down, despite the growing criticism of massive levels of government spending.The national debt — which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — rose to $35,677,760,608,035.45 as of October 3rd, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department. That is up about $8.8 billion from the figure reported the previous day.By comparison, just four decades ago, the national debt hovered
  
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• Bill Gates no longer among 10 wealthiest billionaires in the world

  03-10-2024 22:39 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates can no longer count himself among the 10 wealthiest billionaires in the world.That development came after Forbes pegged his net worth at $107 billion as part of the outlet’s latest rankings of the wealthiest Americans released this week. Gates’ estimated personal fortune was the ninth largest out of all American billionaires and the 12th largest in the world, Forbes reported Tuesday.The latest valuation ended a 30-year stint of Gates placing
  
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• DeSantis deploys resources to Florida ports to keep goods flowing amid 'unacceptable' strike

  03-10-2024 22:10 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he will deploy the National Guard and the State Guard to seaports in the state to ensure goods continue to flow as the state and the Southeast recover from the impact of Hurricane Helene amid the ongoing dockworkers strike, calling the Biden-Harris administration's stance "unacceptable."Hurricane Helene made landfall last week in Florida's Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane and carved a path of destruction through the state and into Georgia, Sout
  
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• Port strike union boss rails against EZPass, self-checkout: 'Machines got to stop'

  03-10-2024 20:57 via foxbusiness.com
  
  The union leader behind the ongoing dockworkers' strike in the U.S. is not just against automation technology at America's ports.International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) President Harold Daggett warned in a recent interview that machines are taking too many people's jobs, and pointed to automated toll booths and self-checkout machines as examples.In an interview posted on ILA's YouTube channel a month ago, Daggett said he has been fighting automation for years because machines replace work
  
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• Competition Bureau gets court order for probe into potential anti-competitive conduct by CREA

  03-10-2024 20:56 via cbc.ca
  
  The Competition Bureau says it's obtained a court order as part of an investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
  
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• Competition Bureau gets court orders against Air Canada, WestJet for market info

  03-10-2024 20:46 via cbc.ca
  
  The Competition Bureau has obtained court orders requiring Air Canada and WestJet to hand over information for the watchdog's market study into airline competition.
  
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• Helene forces closure of quartz plants critical to tech sector

  03-10-2024 20:31 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Officials continue to assess the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in the southeastern U.S., and the damage to one small North Carolina town could have a major impact on the tech industry.Spruce Pine, North Carolina, is one of the few places in the world for mining high-purity quartz, a key component needed for making microchips, solar panels and fiber-optic cables. But destruction from the hurricane forced mining operations in the town to end, with no reopening in sight.The Quartz Corp. an
  
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• Fortnite adds new parental controls to help keep your kids' gaming in check

  03-10-2024 20:25 via cbc.ca
  
  Video game maker Epic Games is introducing two new parental controls for its popular games Fortnite and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to help parents and guardians monitor how much time their child spends gaming.
  
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• Strike grinds coffee shipments to a halt at East and Gulf Coast ports

  03-10-2024 20:24 via foxbusiness.com
  
  The ongoing strike by unionized dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports has ground to a halt the unloading of imported coffee shipments, setting up a supply squeeze for coffee drinkers in the U.S. — the world's largest coffee-drinking nation.For the first time since 1977, the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and its 45,000 dockworkers went on strike at dozens of ports that collectively handle about half of the country's seaborne imports. The union is demanding better wa
  
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• Dick's Sporting Goods to hire 8,000 seasonal workers for holiday shopping season

  03-10-2024 20:09 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to hire nearly 8,000 seasonal employees to its workforce as part of a hiring push to prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season.The workers will be brought on board to work at its Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dick’s House of Sports, Public Lands and Going, Going, Gone locations, according to the retailer.Dick’s Sporting Goods said seasonal jobseekers "should first apply online" ahead of attending their local "National Signing Day" recruiting ev
  
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• Crypto asset manager Bitwise files for first XRP exchange-traded fund

  03-10-2024 19:26 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Crypto asset manager Bitwise has submitted an initial registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, signaling its intent to launch an XRP exchange-traded fund, FOX Business has learned.Bitwise, which manages over $4.5 billion in assets, submitted a Form S-1 registration statement to the SEC on Wednesday morning, making it the first firm to officially seek approval for a so-called spot ETF that would track the daily price of XRP, the seventh largest cryptocurrency with a marke
  
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• East Coast port strike workers silent when asked if they support Kamala Harris

  03-10-2024 18:55 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Vice President Kamala Harris has thrown her support behind the striking port workers, but the approval may not be reciprocated when it comes to her bid for the White House.During the third day of strikes at a port in Newark, New Jersey, FOX Business’ Jeff Flock was met with silence when he asked the group of dockworkers if they supported Harris."I have no hands," Flock told "Mornings with Maria" on Thursday as he panned through the crowd.One man said it was "nobody’s business," yet t
  
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• McDonald's swapping protein in 'highly anticipated' sandwich dropping next week

  03-10-2024 18:48 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Look out, Chick-fil-A and Burger King — McDonald's is putting its chicken where its mouth is. Or, hoping its customers will put its chicken in their mouths, at least. On Thursday, the fast-food giant announced its "highly anticipated" Chicken Big Mac is dropping at U.S. restaurants on Oct. 10. The "reimagined take on a classic menu item was secretly introduced at the McDonnell's pop-up by Chain," McDonald's said in a press release. "By tapping into some of our fans’ bi
  
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• Port strike could affect holiday shopping: How consumers can prepare

  03-10-2024 18:12 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Amid the threat of product shortages and rising costs, consumers should begin their holiday shopping now or set aside extra cash reserves, an expert says. Stephen Schwartz, managing director of Wells Fargo Global Supply Chain, Trade & Channel Finance, said consumers will begin to face a ripple effect of financial and logistical challenges stemming from the port strike. This would lead to potential price increases, shortages and inflation. The "impact may not be immediate, but the i
  
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• Port strike to create a 'snowball' effect hitting 'critical' US production, chemical industry warns

  03-10-2024 18:11 via foxbusiness.com
  
  The components that make up the smartphone in your hand, the car you drive and nearly all manufactured goods — and the American companies that make them — are facing a combined multibillion-dollar risk under the ongoing port strike."A big concern is that the longer this goes on, it is going to start impacting production here in the U.S. There's only so much mitigation you can do, stockpiling supplies or storing products that are waiting to be exported," American Chemistry Council (AC
  
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• Mortgage rates inch higher

  03-10-2024 18:07 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Mortgage rates are up slightly, with long-term notes lifting off a two-year low from last week.Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage inched up to 6.12% from last week's reading of 6.08%. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 7.49% a year ago."The decline in mortgage rates has stalled due to a mix of escalating geopolitical tensions and a rebound in short-term rates that indicate the marke
  
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• Stuart Varney: Biden's refusal to end the port strike is a 'political mistake'

  03-10-2024 17:48 via foxbusiness.com
  
  During his "My Take" on Thursday, "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney argued President Biden's refusal to intervene in the port strike and Vice President Kamala Harris' decision to side with a wealthy union leader who threatened to "cripple" the economy could cost Democrats the election.STUART VARNEY: With the port strike, it's a question of time. The longer it lasts, the worse it gets for consumers. The longer it lasts, the worse it gets for the Biden-Harris administration. They have ref
  
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• Montreal port strike ends, but tensions linger over prolonged strike in U.S.

  03-10-2024 17:00 via cbc.ca
  
  The union representing Montreal dockworkers has ended a three-day strike at two terminals as scheduled, but there's potential for more job action in the coming weeks.
  
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• Stunning stat shows how few Helene victims had flood insurance in Appalachia

  03-10-2024 16:46 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Less than 1% of family homes in the areas most heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene have flood insurance, according to a new report from Reuters.Flood insurance in the U.S. is primarily provided through the National Flood Insurance Program, not by private companies. The program was designed to cover coastal flooding, however, and it does not apply to most areas in Appalachia that were devastated by Helene. As a result, just 1 in 200 affected homes are covered by the program.The NFIP was designed
  
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• US port strike: GM, Walmart, LG top importers at impacted ports

  03-10-2024 12:00 via foxbusiness.com
  
  The ongoing union dockworkers' strike has left several U.S. ports on the East and Gulf coasts at a standstill for days, halting trade at the hubs that collectively handle about half of U.S. imports.Major retail and business associations are sounding the alarm over the impact the work stoppage could have on the broader economy, and new data shows which companies have shipped the most goods into the affected ports over the past year.According to the latest data from ImportGenius shared with FOX Bu
  
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• Port strike: distilled spirits exports and imports at risk says trade group

  03-10-2024 12:00 via foxbusiness.com
  
  A trade association said the distilled spirits industry and its consumers are facing impacts from the dockworker strike at East and Gulf Coast ports — and could experience even more if it continues.Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) CEO Chris Swonger on Wednesday told FOX Business that the industry is "very dependent on the vitality of the U.S. port system" and that even a day of work stoppage was "sending repercussions through the supply chain."His comments came ahead
  
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• Musk blasts FCC for 'illegally' pulling Starlink award, says it would've helped victims of Hurricane Helene

  03-10-2024 12:00 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Wednesday said that the Federal Communications Commission's decision to not move forward with an award for SpaceX's Starlink to provide rural broadband may have cost lives in North Carolina when it was hit by Hurricane Helene.Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, responded to a post on X from a user who noted that "North Carolina would have 19,522 working Starlink kits available today after Hurricane Helene had the FCC not revoked in bad faith the grant that was awa
  
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• Inside Dave Ramsey's chat with Trump on the US economy: 'Very direct and very knowledgeable'

  03-10-2024 12:00 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Finance guru and mentor Dave Ramsey has interviewed presidents in the past, but his latest one-on-one with former President Trump was completely different. "I tried to just sit back and listen. I wanted to talk about ideas on a pretty low, even keel instead of getting into stump hyperbole and all of that. And by and large, if you watch the interview, we were able to do that," Ramsey said Wednesday on "Varney & Co.," the same day as the interview’s release."He was very direct and v
  
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• Costco reportedly selling new precious metal: platinum

  03-10-2024 11:18 via foxbusiness.com
  
  Costco has reportedly jumped into selling a new precious metal.The warehouse retailer’s website has a 1-ounce PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna Veriscan platinum bar listed as a product, Fortune reported Wednesday.It reportedly marks the latest precious metal that Costco has offered after gold bars and silver coins. FOX Business reached out to Costco for comment about the platinum bars.COSTCO CEO SAYS 1 ITEM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERYTHING ELSE SOLD IN THE STOREThe product listing said
  
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• Credit card debt is growing among Canadian renters. What are the solutions?

  03-10-2024 10:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Toronto renter Jennifer Smith had to dip into her line of credit to get a house for her family, but often has to prioritize paying rent or feeding her kids over repaying that debt. We look at why Canadian renters are carrying more personal debt — and what can be done to help.
  
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