Category: costs

Record Number of Travelers to Hit US Roads for July 4 Weekend: AAA

A record 42 million people around the United States are expected to hit the road for trips over the July 4 Independence Day weekend, AAA said Tuesday, absorbing historically high fuel costs to crowd the highways. The average U.S. retail price of gasoline recently broke through $5 per gallon for the first time in history….


Domino’s Cuts Back on Promotional Offers as Costs Bite

Higher food costs due to record levels of inflation have forced Domino’s Pizza Inc. to scale back some of its promotional offers for 2022 in the United States, the company said on Tuesday. The pizza chain said it will cut the number of chicken wings in its $7.99 carryout offer to eight pieces from 10…


German Wholesale Prices See Record Jump as Raw Material Costs Soar

BERLIN—German wholesale prices rose by 16.6 percent on the year in November, official data showed on Monday, recording their biggest annual rise since data collection for the measure began in 1962 and suggesting higher consumer prices may follow. The price measure is widely considered an indicator of future inflationary tendencies as wholesale trade is the…


Analyst: Inflation Crisis One of the ‘Worst’ in Modern History

The managing director of a retail consultant firm said the soaring inflation crisis is one of the “worst” in modern history because it escalated quickly. Strategic Resource Group managing director Burt Flickinger told Fox Business on Thursday that the current inflation crisis “was not a crisis 12 months ago.” “This is the biggest emerging economic…


US Labor Costs Surge in the Third Quarter; Productivity Falls Sharply

WASHINGTON—U.S. unit labor costs surged in the third quarter, while productivity declined at its sharpest pace since 1981, adding to signs that high inflation could last for a while. The Labor Department said on Thursday that unit labor costs, the price of labor per single unit of output, increased at an 8.3 percent annualized rate…


IKEA Owner Sees Cost Pressures Rising After Hit to Profits

STOCKHOLM—The owner of the IKEA furniture brand said on Wednesday it would raise prices due to supply chain challenges far into 2022, after it reported a drop in full-year profit due to higher transport and raw material costs. Despite record demand as people spend more time at home due to the pandemic, pretax profit at…


Colleges Learning Costly Woke Math in the Courtroom School of Hard Knocks

As they reel from revenue losses connected to the pandemic, many colleges and universities are racking up other costs not likely to turn up in their glossy brochures or as line items on staggering tuition bills: untold millions of dollars in legal fees and settlements for allegedly violating the rights of students, professors, and applicants…


Credit Suisse Looks to Recoup Supply Chain Finance Fund Recovery Costs

ZURICH—Credit Suisse is looking to recoup the external costs it is incurring to recover money for investors in its insolvent supply chain finance funds linked to Greensill, the Swiss bank said on Thursday. “The recovery work that (Credit Suisse Asset Management) CSAM is doing on behalf of fund investors inevitably incurs external expenses, which are…


Analysis: Energy Costs Add to Emerging Central Banks’ Inflation Headache

LONDON―Higher energy prices are fanning inflation in several emerging markets, testing the resolve of their central banks and risking stymieing growth in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic and more currency weakness in Turkey, analysts say. In a bold response to the price pressures, the Czech National Bank (CNB) on Thursday raised its main interest…


Investors Watch US Companies’ Record Profit Margins as Costs Rise Further

NEW YORK—U.S. companies have retained strong profit margins through the pandemic because they have cut costs and passed along high prices to customers. The question is: How long can this go on? With inflation still strong, the ability for companies to keep margins at record levels is being closely watched by some investors and strategists…