Business

Cars are parked in the parking lot of a Chevrolet dealership in Chicago, Illinois, on June 20, 2024. A cyberattack on CDK Global, a software provider that helps dealers manage sales and service, disrupted operations at approximately 15,000 dealerships in the United States and Canada. DETROIT – U.S. auto sales are expected to rise 2.9% in the first half of this year from a year earlier. However, there are concerns that the auto industry may struggle to maintain its momentum in the final six months of the year. Cox Automotive reports that vehicle inventory levels are rising, incentives are increasing, and uncertainties regarding the economy, interest rates and the U.S. presidential election are growing in the second half of the year. The automotive data and research firm expects sa...

General view of the Bank of England building in London. LONDON – The Bank of England announced its decision to keep interest rates stable at its June meeting, but described the choice as "finely balanced" following the UK reaching its inflation target of 2 %. Money market prices had been pointing to a roughly 50% chance of a rate cut in August, as investors had interpreted a subtly dovish message. The central bank's reference rate is 5.25%, the highest level in the last 16 years, maintained since August. Seven members of the monetary policy committee voted in favor of maintaining the rate, while two favored a 25 basis point cut, mirroring the outcome of the May meeting. One basis point represents one hundredth of a percentage point. In its statement, the MPC stressed that inflat...

A recent survey conducted by a Chinese business group in the United States shows that Chinese companies are still interested in doing business in the United States, even if things are difficult. Most companies surveyed (nearly 60%) want to continue investing the same amount of money in the United States, and some (30%) even want to invest more. The survey also found that many Chinese companies are concerned about the US-China relationship and the overall health of the US economy. More than 60% of respondents said the business environment in the United States is getting worse. There is also much more concern (93% compared to 81% last year) that the United States and China will not be able to work well together. The US government has recently made it more difficult for Chinese companies ...

A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 lands at JFK Airport as Delta and United compete for luxury fliers A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 passenger jet from Dublin arrives at New York's JFK International Airport, with the iconic Manhattan skyline in the background on February 7, 2024. Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images Delta Air Lines, the country's most profitable airline, faces the challenge of maintaining its top position. The airline's unit revenue, the amount earned per seat flown one mile, surpassed that of its competitors last year. In 2024, Delta's stock price increased nearly 23%, outperforming other airlines in the volatile sector and outperforming the S&P 500 Index. It expects a potential 50% increase in free cash flow this year, reaching between 3 and 4 billion dollars. D...

Associated media - Related media TikTok takes its fight to court TikTok fired the latest broadside in its battle with Washington, suing to block a law that could force the company to split from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, or face a ban in the U.S. The company argues that the law violates the First Amendment by effectively killing an app in the U.S. that millions of Americans use to share their views. Another problem: a divestiture within 270 days is practically impossible, Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe report for The Times. DealBook spoke with Maheshwari about the lawsuit filed yesterday and what happens next. Do legal experts think TikTok has a chance at winning? It could go either way. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, says t...

Linked media - Connected media When Disney reported robust earnings in February, the activist investors then circling the company essentially called it a stunt — a temporary, heat-of-battle effort to fend them off and not, as Robert A. Iger maintained, proof that a struggling Disney had finally “turned the corner.” The Disney chief’s argument just got a lot stronger. Disney blew past Wall Street’s expectations for a second consecutive quarter on Tuesday, in part because its flagship streaming service made money — a first. Disney+ had been expected to lose more than $100 million in the most recent quarter, widening losses since its 2019 arrival to roughly $12 billion. Instead, it swung to a $47 million profit. “Two quarters earlier than expected,” Hugh Johnston, Disney’s chief financ...

Associated media - Connected media Mr. Nedohin raised his arms in celebration. A few minutes later, he cut to a video of a rocket blasting into the sky, with Mr. Trump photoshopped onto it. “We are holding Trump stocks,” he declared. “We are now financial investors in him.” Mr. Nedohin is one of hundreds of thousands of amateur investors who own shares of Trump Media, convinced that its sole platform, Truth Social, will become one of the world’s most popular and profitable social media sites. In recent months, tens of thousands of Trump fans have tuned into Mr. Nedohin’s webcasts, where he exhorts viewers to invest in the company, arguing that “Trump always wins in the long run.” The enthusiasm from Mr. Nedohin and other Trump supporters has turned Trump Media into the latest “meme s...

Related media - Related media A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Ohtani, referred to the player’s detailed explanation he gave to the media two weeks ago, when Ohtani said Mizuhara had stolen from him and he promised to cooperate fully with the federal and Major League Baseball investigations. “I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do that on my behalf,” Ohtani said. “And I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple days ago, I didn’t know this was happening.” The allegations about the theft surfaced when the Dodgers were in Seoul to open the season with games against the San Diego Padres. Interest in the team has been intense since it signed Ohtani to a 10...

Connected media - Related media A trained accountant, Mr. Leibner was described in a 1989 profile by Ben Yagoda in The New York Times Magazine as an idiosyncratic character with a “remarkable emotional range.” “He can be plaintive, cajoling, jocular, terse, profane, sentimental, jovial, respectful, dismissive, analytical or expansive: The one constant is the strain of his native Brooklyn in his voice,” Mr. Yagoda wrote. He was also known for telling incredibly dirty jokes. Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News, said in a phone interview: “It would have been easy to dismiss him as a Damon Runyonesque showman, but when it came to actual negotiations, he’d come in, sit on the couch with a legal pad and pen, and we’d go through the details together. He was scrupulously detailed ...

Associated media - Connected media Roberto Cavalli, the Italian-born fashion designer who celebrated glamour and excess, sending models down the runway and actresses onto red carpets wearing leopard-print dresses, bejeweled distressed jeans, satin corsets and other unapologetically flashy clothes, has died. He was 83. His company announced the death on Instagram but provided no details. Mr. Cavalli’s signature style — “molto sexy, molto animal print and molto, molto Italiano,” as the British newspaper The Independent once described it — remained essentially unchanged throughout his long career. But he skillfully reinvented his clothes for different eras, enjoying several renaissances and building a global lifestyle brand in the process. In the 1970s, Mr. Cavalli designed jackets, jea...