AP National Business

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks are higher in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday as investors head into a holiday-shortened week with reassurance about leadership at the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq fell 0.2%. President Joe Biden

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press Climate change isn’t what’s driving some U.S. coal-fired power plants to shut down — instead it’s the expense of stricter pollution controls on their wastewater. Dozens of power plants nationwide plan to shut down later this decade to comply with stricter federal wastewater guidelines. The power plant industry has been

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ticked higher in October, marking their strongest pace since January, even as resilient demand and competition for relatively few properties on the market kept prices climbing. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that existing homes sales rose 0.8% last month from September

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer First, the good news: There is no shortage of whole turkeys in the U.S. this Thanksgiving. But those turkeys — along with other holiday staples like cranberry sauce and pie filling — could cost more. The American Farm Bureau estimates a Thanksgiving feast for 10 will cost $53.31 this

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italian customs police say they have cracked a Nigerian organized crime syndicate that forced dozens of young women into prostitution and street-begging in Italy. The police said 40 suspects were arrested in raids in several Italian cities on Monday, including on the island of Sardinia. The investigation

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Stocks are moving solidly higher in early trading on Wall Street at the beginning of a holiday-shortened week. Markets were reassured after President Joe Biden said he would nominate Jerome Powell for a second four-year term at the helm of the Federal Reserve, a vote of confidence in Powell’s

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Synchrony may not be a household name, but it’s the largest issuer of retail-branded store credit cards in the country. Retailers from Amazon, Sam’s Club, Pep-Boys and hundreds of others use Synchrony as the issuer for their store cards. Brian Doubles, CEO of Synchrony Financial

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Medicines Agency says it is evaluating whether to authorize booster doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. In a statement Monday, the EU drug regulator said it was considering an application from J&J to recommend booster doses of the J&J vaccine for adults 18 and over, at least two

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced he’s nominating Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chair, endorsing Powell’s stewardship of the economy through a brutal pandemic recession in which the Fed’s ultra-low rate policies helped bolster confidence and revitalize the job market. Biden also said he

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Target will no longer open its stores on Thanksgiving Day, making permanent a shift to the unofficial start of the holiday season that was suspended during the pandemic. To limit crowds in stores, retailers last year were forced to turn what had become a weekend

By DAN PARKS of The Chronicle of Philanthropy Chronicle of Philanthropy After years of declines, Americans’ trust in civil-rights and community-action charities increased in 2020, according to a new study, which also found that trust in charities overall held steady as millions more Americans came to rely on nonprofits amid the pandemic. The share of

By ELODIE SOUPAMA Associated Press LE GOSIER, Guadeloupe (AP) — Schools have closed across the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and the French president has warned of a “very explosive” situation in the overseas department. Protests against COVID-19 rules and vaccinations descended into days of rioting and looting. France’s central government sent in police special

LONDON (AP) — Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson says it’s buying U.S. cloud communications company Vonage in a $6.2 billion deal that will help it expand wireless services for business customers. Ericsson said Monday that the acquisition would also give it access to software developers who it can tap to build new applications that advantage

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Target says having its stores closed on Thanksgiving will be the new normal, permanently ending a tradition   that it embraced for years. The move, announced Monday, comes as the Minneapolis-based discounter and other retailers including Walmart and Macy’s will be closed for the second

By LIZ WESTON of NerdWallet You likely lean on a variety of apps and websites to manage your professional life, your social life and even your financial life. Technology can do a lot for you, but sometimes taking an old-fashioned approach is actually better. In some circumstances, talking to a real person — either over

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Environmental activists are welcoming the end of electricity generation from coal in Portugal. But they said Monday the possible conversion of the country’s last coal-fired power plant into one that burns wood pellets would be a step in the wrong direction. The last Portuguese coal plant stopped generating over the weekend.

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press VIENNA (AP) — Austrians savored one last mulled wine in packed Christmas markets before the curtain came down on the holiday season that was just getting underway, plunging the country that gave the world “Silent Night” into its fourth lockdown of this pandemic on Monday.  The capital, Vienna, awoke groggily

The Associated Press Thailand’s DTAC and True Corp. plan a merger that they say will create an “equal partnership” for pursuing opportunities in the tech sector. Regulators reportedly asked the companies for clarification about the plan, which was announced Monday by Norway’s Telenor Group, parent company of DTAC, and Charoen Pokphand (CP) Holding, the parent

ROME (AP) — The Italian telecommunications company TIM says it is assessing a non-binding “indication of interest” by the U.S. investment fund KKR. TIM in a statement issued on Sunday evening says its board of directors met and “acknowledged” the fund’s interest in launching a possible public tender for the entire capital share of the

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Markets have opened higher in Europe after a mixed day of trading in Asia. A resurgence of coronavirus outbreaks has prompted some countries to look to stricter precautions to curb yet another wave of the pandemic. Shares rose in London, Paris, Tokyo, South Korea and Shanghai but fell in