Business Highlights
Some retailers say they have seen a surge in feel-good items such as spa treatments, candles and comfort food, while executives at some major retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Macy's have said there's no discernable shift in consumer behavior since the presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump.
The divide in the outlook may reflect the rift in the election, as Americans split along geographic lines as well as by income.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An experimental treatment for Alzheimer's failed again in a widely anticipated study, disappointing many who had hoped drugmaker Eli Lilly had finally found a way to slow the progression of the mind-robbing disease.
The drug did not work better than a placebo treatment in a study of more than 2,100 people with mild Alzheimer's, the company announced Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes again set records Wednesday in a quiet day of pre-holiday trading.
Companies that make hardware and network devices skidded after printer and PC maker HP gave a weak profit forecast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials earlier this month believed it would be appropriate to raise a key interest rate "relatively soon," with some arguing for a hike at the Fed's next meeting in December in order to preserve the Fed's credibility.
Some officials argued that if the Fed did not raise rates at its December meeting, it ran the risk of harming the central bank's credibility given the many signals it had sent about an impending hike.
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Wednesday that the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan shot up to 4.03 percent, the highest since July 2015 and up from 3.94 percent a week earlier.
[...] while they look forward to eating turkey and watching football, many are ready to abandon another, more recent, American pastime: rehashing the rancorous election between Republican Donald Trump and D