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Oil prices drop 9% and Wall Street rallies

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices dropped back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced to another record Friday after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. The S&P 500 leaped 1.2% to an all-time high and closed out a third straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween. A freer flow of oil could take pressure off prices not only for gasoline but also for groceries and all kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately ...

Ford recalls 1.4 million F-150 pickup trucks to fix a gearshift issue

Ford is recalling almost 1.4 million of its F-150 pickup trucks in the U.S. because of a gearshift issue that may lead to the loss of control of vehicles and increasing the risk of a crash. The automaker is aware of two injuries and one accident possibly related to the issue. The recall includes F-150 light trucks with a six-speed automatic transmission that were produced between March 12, 2014 an Aug 18, 2017. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s safety recall report says that some of the pickup trucks may experience an intermittent selection signal of the ...

Europe has ‘maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left,’ energy agency head warns

PARIS (AP) — Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel supplies, the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview, warning of possible flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” stemming from the pinch-off of oil, gas and other vital supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. “In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits.’ ...

PepsiCo’s sales jump after it cuts prices

PepsiCo’s decision to lower prices and cut artificial ingredients paid off in the first quarter, boosting demand for its snacks and drinks. Revenue jumped 8.5% to $19.44 billion in the January-March period compared to the same period a year ago, the Purchase, New York, company said Thursday. That handily beat Wall Street’s forecast of $18.95 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. “The consumer is coming back multiple times to our brands, responding to our holistic value plus execution, plus advertising, plus innovation strategy,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said ...

Jury finds Ticketmaster, Live Nation had an anticompetitive monopoly

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury has found that concert giant Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues, dealing the company a loss in a lawsuit over claims brought by dozens of U.S. states and the District of Columbia. A Manhattan federal jury deliberated for four days before reaching its decision Wednesday in the closely watched case, which gave fans the equivalent of a backstage pass to a business that dominates live entertainment in the U.S. and beyond. “It’s a great day for antitrust law,” a jubilant attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, said ...

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announces it has found a buyer to keep newspaper open

NEW YORK (AP) — Barely two weeks before it was due to shut down, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Tuesday it had found a last-minute buyer — a successful nonprofit journalism operation that has agreed to keep the struggling newspaper open. The resolution to a months-long worry in western Pennsylvania about the paper’s shutdown comes at a difficult moment for the American newspaper industry, which has shed jobs, resources and sometimes entire companies due to the upending of the traditional revenue model by the internet at the beginning of this century. The Post-Gazette dates ...