Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week, highlighting the seasonal swings in the data at this time of year.

Initial claims decreased by 10,000 to 214,000 in the week ended Dec. 20, according to Labor Department data released Wednesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 224,000 applications.

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China is still restricting the rare earth elements that the U.S. needs to produce its own permanent magnets and other products even after President Donald Trump reached a deal with his Chinese counterpart in October to lift restrictions on the supplies, according to market participants.

More than a dozen consumers, producers, government ...Read more

Stuffed animals that talk back. Chessboards with pieces that move on their own. And a chatty holographic fairy in a crystal ball.

Your next toy purchase might be powered by artificial intelligence and able to converse with your kids.

Chatbots and AI-powered assistants that can quickly answer questions and generate texts have become more common...Read more

Four years ago, California startup Theta Labs' cryptocurrency was soaring, and its future appeared bright when it landed a partnership with pop star Katy Perry.

The Bay Area company had built a marketplace for digital collectibles known as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and had teamed up with Perry to launch NFTs tied to her Las Vegas concert ...Read more

Downtown L.A. is doing better than you think it is, but the government needs to do more to energize the city, said one of the region's longest and most successful real estate leaders.

Bill Witte is retiring after running Related California, a large-scale developer of both luxury and low-income apartments, for more than three decades.

Among the...Read more

DETROIT — Downtown bustled this week with shoppers like Bill Atwood, 55, who stopped by GW Home to buy his wife a lamp for Christmas. The Detroiter has lived in Brush Park for 26 years and remembers the scarce retail offerings back then.

“I always dreamed of being able to Christmas shop here,” he said. “Back in 1999 there was almost ...Read more

After business consultant Len Kendall lost his Pacific Palisades home in the January firestorms, he sought to put a temporary stop on his mortgage payments but set aside the effort after realizing the paperwork involved.

So he was pleased to learn in September about a new state law that required mortgage servicers to offer up to 12 months of ...Read more

C.H. Robinson, one of the world’s largest logistics providers, has gone from disrupted to disruptor.

Five to 10 years ago, the Eden Prairie-based company was facing an existential threat from digital startups in the logistics space.

Firms like Uber Freight and Conroy Logistics believed they could digitize the processes of connecting shippers...Read more

If you’re buying a home, refinancing your mortgage, or just want to know how much your home is worth, you’re probably going to need a property appraisal.

At its most basic, “an appraisal is an opinion of value for a home,” said Matthew Sestito, a Philadelphia-based appraiser who works throughout the five-county area for the national ...Read more

A federal judge said the Trump administration can move ahead with a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications, providing a setback for U.S. technology companies that rely on hiring skilled foreign workers.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said in a ruling Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s move to radically increase the cost of the ...Read more

Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo said it would strengthen its automated software to better handle power outages after its self-driving taxis froze and caused traffic jams during a major electricity failure last weekend in San Francisco.

The Waymo Driver system is programmed to handle dark traffic signals in the same manner as four-way stops, but a car ...Read more

Nearly six weeks after thousands of Starbucks union workers began to strike over contract negotiations, the standoff with the Seattle-based coffee giant hasn't budged.

Now, the majority of striking baristas are set to return to work, according to the company and Starbucks Workers United, the union representing thousands of baristas.

Sara Kelly...Read more

"South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who this summer landed one of the richest TV deals ever, are being called Scrooges by performers at their Casa Bonita restaurant near Denver.

In late October, the performers, including the famed cliff divers, went on a three-day strike, citing unsafe working conditions and stalled negotiations ...Read more

My first computer was a Macintosh Plus, which was an all-in-one computer with a built-in black and white monitor.

Then I moved up to an actual desktop PC, with a separate color monitor.

Back then, laptops were expensive and not very small, and they used slower components and were not very expandable.

In the last decade, laptops pulled even ...Read more

U.S. Steel failed to provide necessary accommodations to a heavy equipment operator with a high-risk pregnancy working at an Iron Range mine, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The commission filed a lawsuit against U.S. Steel on Dec. 19, saying the company put her in roles inconsistent with her medical restrictions. The ...Read more

Netflix and Paramount are locked in an epic tug-of-war for HBO and Warner Bros. — the historic film factory behind Batman, Harry Potter, Scooby-Doo, "Casablanca" and "The Matrix."

Warner Bros. Discovery awarded the prize to Netflix, prompting Paramount to mount a hostile takeover bid valued at $108 billion for all of the Warner assets, which...Read more

Big Tech companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and ServiceNow, have warned employees on visas to avoid leaving the country amid uncertainty about changing immigration policy and procedures.

Following an attack on National Guard members in Washington, the Trump administration expanded travel bans earlier this month, and beefed up ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Crowds of last-minute shoppers, customers looking for seasonal ingredients, sappy hands from tying Christmas trees to cars, and of course, hours and hours of cheery holiday music playing on a loop.

Such is the life of a grocery worker during the holidays.

"Everyone wants to get, like, the biggest tree on, like, the smallest ...Read more