U.S. jobless claims jumped unexpectedly last week to their highest level since October, suggesting the labor market is still in a rut despite signs of improvement in the economy.
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose to 445,000 from an upwardly revised reading of 410,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months, confounding analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000. Get the full story »
U.S. producer prices rose more than expected in December as energy and food costs surged while underlying inflation remained subdued, highlighting a divergence that complicates the outlook for monetary policy. Get the full story »
Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs are expected unveil "The Daily" together. (Getty)
Stop the presses — completely. The world’s first iPad newspaper, The Daily, is prepping for launch. Journalists have been hired and are in place at multiple U.S. bureaus, including Los Angeles and New York.
The formal announcement of the digital publication owned by News Corp. will be made at an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Jan. 19, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people said the event will be attended by Steve Jobs, chief executive of iPad-maker Apple Inc., and Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp. Get the full story »
Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. (Getty)
As online encyclopedia Wikipedia nears its 10th birthday on Saturday, its leaders are seeking a more diverse group of editors — specifically, women, people in developing countries and people with expertise in assorted disciplines.
Wikipedia is about to open an office in India and wants to expand further in Brazil, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. Today, 20 percent of the site’s pages are written in English, but the organization expects that to change over the next 10 years. Get the full story »
Banks repossessed more than 1 million homes in 2010, marked the highest annual tally of properties lost to foreclosure on records dating back to 2005, RealtyTrac said.
And this year is expected to be even bleaker. “2011 is going to be the peak,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc.
Lenders are poised to take back more homes this year than any other since the U.S. housing meltdown began in 2006. Get the full story »
Conrad Black enters a Chicago court room in 2007. (Tribune file)
Will former media mogul Conrad Black eventually head back to prison? Or will the flamboyant, 66-year-old’s long-running legal saga end with a judge setting him free for good? A status hearing Thursday in Chicago isn’t likely to answer those questions definitively, though it could provide clues about what U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve is inclined to do.
Two years into a 6 1/2-year sentence, Black was released last year from a Florida prison while he appealed his conviction for defrauding Hollinger International Inc. investors. Black, whose media empire once included the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London and community papers in the U.S. and Canada, was expected to attend Thursday’s hearing. Get the full story »
Reports: Weekly jobless claims, 7:30 a.m.; Producer Price Index for December, 7:30 a.m.; International trade for November, 7:30 a.m.; Weekly mortgage rates at 9 a.m.
Major earnings: Intel Corp. releases quarterly financial results.
Provident Hospital. (Tribune file)
Ambulance runs to cash-strapped Provident Hospital’s emergency room are about to be halted as part of an effort by Cook County officials to cut the facility’s budget.
Beginning Saturday, the hospital at 500 E. 51st St. will no longer accept ambulance runs to the emergency room. Instead, patients will be taken to any of the six hospitals within a 5-mile radius of Provident, county health system spokesman Lucio Guerrero said. But the hospital will continue to treat people who walk into the emergency room, he said. Get the full story »
FeeFighters, a local startup that helps small businesses compare credit-card processors, has raised $1.6 million in a new round of funding. Get the full story »
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley tours a Walgreens store at 1533 67th Place in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Walgreen Co. plans to expand its fresh food offerings in several hundred stores in coming years, company chief executive officer Greg Wasson told shareholders this afternoon.
Addressing 2,500 shareholders at the company’s annual meeting at Navy Pier on Chicago’s lakefront, Wasson said such stores fit the company’s strategy to evolve from a “retail drugstore to a retail ‘health and daily living store.’”
Walgreen Co., which offers more and more health and wellness needs, began to test out fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables last year, particularly in poor urban markets where access to healthy food choices is a problem. Get the full story »
Shares of North American agricultural companies, from fertilizer makers to grain handlers, will likely surge this year as weather-related crop damage causes global food price inflation.
Potash Corp. shares in New York have shot up more than 20 percent since mid-December to about $168, far exceeding the $130 per share offer it rejected last year in a hostile takeover bid by BHP Billiton. Get the full story »
Carl Icahn in 2007. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Activist investor Carl Icahn owns 11.4 percent of the newly formed Motorola Mobility, according to regulatory documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Icahn had been steadily building his stake in the old Motorola Inc. prior to the company’s separation into two independent, publicly traded companies on Jan. 4. Motorola Mobility, which makes mobile phones and TV set-top boxes, was spun off from Motorola. The remaining company, which makes communications equipment for government and business customers, was renamed Motorola Solutions.
According to regulatory filings, Icahn has 33.5 million shares in Motorola Mobility. His stake in the new company is roughly on par with his stake in the old Motorola. Get the full story »
