U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley are questioning six insurers, including State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp., over concerns about a growing number of claims that are closed without payment to policyholders.

Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Hawley, a Missouri Republican, wrote letters to State Farm, ...Read more

A rally in giant technology companies drove stocks higher, overshadowing concerns about still-elevated oil prices and bond yields.

The S&P 500 rose to a striking distance of a record while the Nasdaq 100 reached a fresh peak. Political upheaval in Europe and fiscal worries drove the euro to its weakest since May 2025. Longer-dated Treasury ...Read more

Cargill Inc.’s fiscal first-quarter earnings fell by more than half as the largest private company in the U.S. was pressured by higher costs for cattle and cocoa despite also benefiting from stronger results in soybeans.

For the quarter ended Aug. 31, Cargill had net income of $927 million, down from $1.94 billion a year ago, according to ...Read more

Mortgage rates surged in September, and they’ve reached their highest point since May 2024. The run-up in rates has left many consumers feeling less than eager to dive into the housing market.

The war in Iran sent oil prices soaring in recent months. Higher energy prices translate to both higher inflation and rising 10-year Treasury yields. ...Read more

As tech giants navigate the backlash over massive data-center expansions, Amazon is responding with a financial commitment of $1 billion for communities where the facilities are located.

The company is also pushing back against data-center critics and arguing the build-out must continue or the U.S. will risk falling behind in the AI race.

...Read more

Take a deep breath in Hollywood's Kimpton Everly Hotel and you may catch a whiff of sandalwood, leather, fennel, cardamom, violet and cedar.

And if you sniff the lobby of downtown Los Angeles' Ritz-Carlton, you may detect "bright effervescent notes ... layered with soft florals," a custom fragrance known as Champagne & Shimmer.

For years now, ...Read more

Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison has rolled out his Skydance executive team, which includes several senior Warner Bros. executives who will segue into new roles at the soon-to-be merged Skydance media company.

HBO Chairman Casey Bloys, CNN Chairman Mark Thompson, Discovery streaming executive J.B. Perrette and DC Comics managers...Read more

Look to the fine print of Treasury futures for the next big jump in bond yields.

As U.S. 30-year securities head ever closer toward 6%, the move threatens a shakeup in futures, which are widely used by investors to hedge government bond positions, and by leveraged funds in strategies such as the popular “basis trade.”

It has to do with ...Read more

The auto industry is weathering the economic headwinds of inflation and high gas prices, but the best performance is coming from outside Detroit.

Foreign brands with more hybrid-heavy lineups made gains, according to sales reports from across the U.S. auto sector detailed this week. Meanwhile, each of the Detroit Three automakers saw sales ...Read more

A software glitch that impacts automated flight controls on some Boeing 737 Max aircraft does not present a safety risk, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

The regulator convened a group of safety experts, known as a Corrective Action Review Board, this week to determine if the software issue created an unsafe workload for pilots ...Read more

The U.S. Justice Department isn’t reopening a criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for cost overruns related to the central bank’s building renovation project.

Attorney General Todd Blanche didn’t rule out continuing to look into the project’s oversight and potentially take action if evidence of ...Read more

Qualcomm had a lot to talk about last week.

Beyond debuting new silicon designed to run AI processing on smartphones, glasses and earbuds, the San Diego semiconductor giant ended the event on Sept. 24 with a major update: a one-line statement confirming it extended its licensing agreement with Apple starting April 1, 2027 — the same day the ...Read more

Ford Motor Co. sales totaled 509,764 in the third quarter, a year-over-year decrease of 6.6% and a continuation of declines from the first half of 2026.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker again projected confidence despite the decrease, noting that total vehicle sales volume was "essentially unchanged" for the quarter when adjusting for the...Read more

Boosted by investments in AI, a revitalized aerospace industry and a growing U.S. defense budget, California's economic growth is expected to continue outpacing the nation, according to a forecast from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

However, tariffs, deportations and high energy prices are likely to somewhat slow growth, though it ...Read more

If Silicon Valley has perfected any business model, it's the one in which it cooks up a new technology and then persuades people they can't live without it. The newest example is Meta Platforms' personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse.

Something in Meta's pitch for Muse, which is represented as a furry version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow ...Read more

David Ellison said the merged Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be called Skydance — the moniker he picked nearly two decades ago when the tech scion began building his Hollywood empire.

Ellison, currently the chairman and chief executive of Paramount, is aiming to finalize the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Tuesday. Then ...Read more

Subaru has spent 50 years selling cars to people who own at least one kayak and a dog that sheds more than the national debt accrues interest.

Now, Subaru has built those people another electric car, and the results are fairly good. The 2026 Subaru Trailseeker shares the Solterra’s Toyota-derived underpinnings, but stretches them into ...Read more

The ride-hailing company Lyft will pay $272.5 million to settle a California wage-and-hour lawsuit, marking the largest such settlement in the state's history.

The settlement will resolve allegations that Lyft misclassified its workers as independent contractors between 2016 and 2020 and denied them wage and workplace protections that were ...Read more

A bipartisan bill in Congress could add a new tax for electric vehicles just as there is a renewed push to move away from gas-powered cars.

The proposed EV fee would start at $130 annually and is considered an attempt to make sure all drivers pay their fair share. The federal government collects 18.4 cents per gallon on every U.S. gasoline ...Read more