AP National Business

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, marking their third losing week in the last four. Banks, technology companies and industrials all helped pull major indexes lower Friday. The S&P 500 gave up 1%. The Nasdaq sliped 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%.

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell told the judge at her sex trafficking trial Friday that she would not testify in her own defense. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges stemming from her interactions with four teenage girls from 1994 to 2004. Her defense

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s unemployment rate has fallen below 7% for the fist time since March of last year at the start of the pandemic. Data made public Friday shows hiring in California slowed significantly in November compared to October. But the state still added 45,700 new jobs in

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leading California cannabis companies are warning Gov. Gavin Newsom that the state’s legal marijuana industry is on the verge of collapse. A letter signed by more than two dozen executives, industry officials and advocates follows years of complaints about heavy taxes and regulation that they

By IAN PHILLIPS and SYLVIE CORBET NEW YORK (AP) — French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says President Emmanuel Macron’s potential reelection next year is “very important” to further boost growth — in a clear endorsement of a candidacy that’s not yet been formally announced. The presidential vote is scheduled in April. Macron is widely

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer Pfizer is testing an extra dose of its COVID-19 vaccine for babies and preschoolers after preliminary research hinted the usual two doses wouldn’t be enough. Pfizer had been testing very low-dose shots in children under age 5, with some data expected by year’s end. But Pfizer and its partner

BY KELVIN CHAN and DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Christmas revelers across Europe are lying low, and U.S. officials are intensifying calls for unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated in the face of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus. Omicron now threatens to wipe out a second holiday season that many people hoped

MATT OTT AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Former first lady Melania Trump launched a venture this week selling non-fungible tokens that must be paid for with Solan cryptocurrency, currently valued around $180 each. Trump said she will release NFTs “in regular intervals” on her website, with a portion of the proceeds going to

By EMILY HAYNES of The Chronicle of Philanthropy Chronicle of Philanthropy At the State Correctional Institute—Coal Township, about 250 men participate in the Lifeline Association, a giving circle that contributes to charities in the surrounding Pennsylvania coal region. Many of its members are incarcerated for life; the rest will have spent at least 10 years

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Alibaba this week revealed an ambitious vision to quintuple its Southeast Asian e-commerce business to $100 billion in transacted sales, as well as a pledge to reach carbon neutrality in its operations by 2030. The plan to quintuple Lazada’s total transacted sales came as Alibaba looked

By SAM METZ AP / Report for America CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — An attorney running to be governor of Nevada who cites his legal work as a qualification is fighting efforts by the state bar to reprimand him. A disciplinary panel sent Republican Joey Gilbert a draft letter of reprimand alleging he had harmed

By KANTELE FRANKO and MATT O’BRIEN Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Some parents kept their children home, police stepped up patrols and educators tightened security protocols Friday in response to viral TikTok posts alluding to unconfirmed threats of violence that raised anxiety levels at schools nationwide. With stress levels already soaring from the effects

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The union vying to represent Starbucks employees is objecting to the results of elections at two Buffalo-area stores. The union says the coffee retailer waged a “shock and awe” campaign meant to dissuade workers from voting to unionize. The claims are made in objections filed with

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer Pfizer is testing an extra dose of its COVID-19 vaccine for babies and preschoolers enrolled in a study of the shots. Pfizer had been testing two very low-dose shots in children under age 5, with some data expected by year’s end. But Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced Friday

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time since the pandemic began, the box office is booming. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” grossed $50 million in Thursday previews alone, a stunning start for a movie set to break pandemic records. Sony Pictures’ “No Way Home” scored the third-largest preview total

CLEVELAND (AP) — McDonald’s will pay $33.5 million to a former baseball player who owns multiple franchises to end a lawsuit he brought against the company accusing it of racial discrimination. Herb Washington, who’s Black, owned more than a dozen restaurants in Ohio and Pennsylvania when he filed a lawsuit in February saying the company

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Banks and big technology stocks are leading another decline on Wall Street in afternoon trading Friday and every major index is on track for a weekly loss. Retailers and industrial companies also fell. The S&P 500 fell 0.9%, while the Nasdaq slid 0.2%. Both are

NEW YORK (AP) — The editor of Forbes magazine says he testified Thursday before a grand jury hearing evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business practices, answering questions about a magazine article examining whether the former president inflated his wealth. Forbes editor Randall Lane wrote in a post on

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top financial regulators told Congress Friday that threats to financial stability remain elevated even though the country has recovered from the worst economic shocks stemming from the COVID pandemic. In its annual report on financial system threats, the Financial Stability Oversight Council listed climate