Smithfields Inc., the largest pork packer in the United States, is leaving California due to high operational costs and red tape. “Smithfield Foods, Inc. today announced that it will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023 and, at the same time, align its hog production system by reducing its sow…

Walmart Inc. reported a 25 percent drop in quarterly earnings and cut its full-year profit outlook on Tuesday as rising costs of fuel and labor hurt its bottom line while shoppers squeezed by decades-high inflation moved to buy lower-margin basics. Shares of the retailer fell nearly 10 percent in morning trading, its biggest one day…

In response to inflation, the prizes at Bingo have changed in recent weeks at the Millersville Senior Center in Millersville, Pennsylvania. Instead of fun little trinkets, winning bingo players now choose between cleaning supplies, laundry items or snacks, depending on the theme of the week, Senior Center Director Starr Brubaker told The Epoch Times. Dryer…

A working paper that examined how U.S. states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic found that states with strict lockdowns and other COVID-19 policies did little to prevent COVID-19 deaths, but those economic restrictions and school closures proved costly in other ways. “School closures may ultimately prove to be the most costly policy decision of the…

U.S. carriers on Tuesday said travel demand has roared back after a blip caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant and would remain strong enough to help them offset a run-up in fuel costs with higher fares. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. said it was seeing an “unparalleled” increase in demand, resulting in the highest ticket…

VIENNA—Housing costs may be adding more to euro zone inflation than once thought, European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann said on Friday, weighing in on a key issue that has been a focus of policymakers this year. When asked how much owner-occupied housing costs could increase headline inflation, Holzmann, Austria’s central bank chief, said it…

The relentless rise in natural gas prices continued on Wednesday, highlighting the looming threat to American households bracing for higher heating costs in the event of a harsh winter. U.S. natural gas futures were up 1.11 percent at $6.382 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in early trading on Oct. 6 after jumping around 9 percent…

BEIJING—China’s factory gate inflation hit a 13-year high in August driven by roaring raw materials prices despite Beijing’s attempts to cool them, putting more pressure on manufacturers in the world’s second-largest economy. The producer price index (PPI) rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday,…

MUNICH—Volkswagen may have to spend more to deliver its planned transformation, the German carmaker’s supervisory board chairman said, particularly a shift towards autonomous driving. The world’s second-largest automaker, which plans to invest 150 billion euros ($178 billion) in its business by 2025, has repeatedly said that it can fund the transition towards electric vehicles and…

BERLIN—Daimler Truck, the world’s largest truck and bus maker, expects only a moderate market ramp-up of its first electric truck model, eActros, due to its high price, the sales head of Daimler’s brand Mercedes-Benz Trucks said. The cost of an electric truck is three times as much as one with a combustion engine, Andreas von…