Business

The Washington Post reports: Advisers to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz have been exploring the possibility of launching an independent bid for the White House in 2020, according to two people who have been informed of the discussions. The entry of a high-profile billionaire Democrat outside the traditional party structure would add an unpredictable dynamic to the increasingly sprawling campaign …

The New Jersey Advance reports: New Jersey’s Democratic governor and legislative leaders have reached a highly anticipated agreement to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour for most workers by 2024. Under the deal, many workers would see their wages rise gradually to a $15 an hour, though some, including those employed by small businesses with five or …

The Wall Street Journal reports: China’s trade surplus with the U.S. hit a record last year, as robust American demand for Chinese goods undercut the Trump administration’s tariff offensive aimed at narrowing the countries’ lopsided trade gap. China recorded $323.32 billion in surplus with the U.S. in 2018, representing a 17% jump from the figure in the previous year, according …

Business Insider reports: Gillette is calling on men to step it up. A new ad, called “We Believe” and lasting a minute and a half, encourages men to to change their behavior. It directly invokes the #MeToo movement in order to directly confront America’s culture of “toxic masculinity.” “Gillette believes in the best in men; that by holding each other …

The Wall Street Journal reports: PG&E Corp. said it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a day after the company’s CEO stepped down over the financial fallout spurred by the utility’s role in helping spark the California wildfires. The company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said they plan to file a petition on or around …

The Wrap reports: Tucker Carlson has lost another advertiser: seafood chain Red Lobster confirmed to The Wrap that it will drop the prime time Fox News program. “Red Lobster’s advertising buying guidelines reflect our core values and commitment to supporting programming that represents the highest standards of good taste, fair practice and objectivity. We reserve the right to make changes …

CNBC reports: Sears has rejected Chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid to save the company, setting the storied retailer on a path to liquidation, people familiar with the situation tell CNBC. Sears plans to announce its liquidation plans this morning, the people said. Lampert had put forward a $4.4 billion bid to save Sears and 50,000 jobs by buying it out of …

CNBC reports: Amazon is now the largest company by market value, overtaking Microsoft’s hold on the title. Amazon’s ended trading Monday with a market value of about $797 billion, compared with Microsoft’s $783 billion. Apple, which had been part of a close three-way race for the seat, is now down to about $702 billion in market value after plunging last …

Reuters reports: California utility company PG&E Corp is exploring filing some or all of its business for bankruptcy protection as it faces billions of dollars in liabilities related to fatal wildfires in 2018 and 2017, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The company is considering the move as a contingency, in part because it could soon take a …

Investors Business Daily reports: A big haircut in the quarterly revenue outlook for Apple sent U.S. shares tail-spinning in what has become a common refrain in stocks today for the past few months. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite acted as co-leaders of the sell-off, each falling 2.8% to 3% and ending practically at the session’s low. …

Business Insider reports: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday warned investors that the company expects to fall as much as $9 billion short of its earlier revenue target for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. In a rare guidance revision, Cook pointed to a struggling market in China as the biggest factor for the change. Cook added that “rising trade …

The Wall Street Journal reports: More than three dozen drugmakers raised the prices on hundreds of medicines in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to an analysis from Rx Savings Solutions, which sells software to help employers and health plans choose the least-expensive medicines. The average increase was 6.3%, according to the analysis, including increases on different doses for the same …

The New York Post reports: The stock market ended a miserable year on a positive note but still closed out 2018 with its worst showing in a decade. After setting a series of records through the late summer and early fall, major US indexes fell sharply after early October, leaving them all in the red for the year on Monday. …

The Wall Street Journal today looks at the growing number of retailers, some of them chain restaurants, that no longer accept cash. Lawmakers are starting to react. Massachusetts is the only state that currently requires retailers to accept cash. Some New Jersey legislators are working to make their state next. New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres of the Bronx recently …

Reuters reports: Sears Holdings Corp Chairman Eddie Lampert has submitted a roughly $4.6 billion takeover bid for the bankrupt U.S. retailer, representing its only chance of escaping liquidation and laying off tens of thousands of workers, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The offer came after Sears’ existing lenders Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc, as well …

Bloomberg reports: Wells Fargo will pay $575 million to settle claims made by U.S. states that the bank created phony accounts and committed other customer abuses, according to a statement by the Iowa attorney general’s office. Two years ago, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $190 million to settle federal government claims that the bank created phony customer account, and improperly …

CNBC reports: Sears, the 125-year-old icon, has 24 hours to survive. The employer of more than 68,000 filed for bankruptcy in October. Its last shot at survival is a $4.6 billion proposal put forward by its chairman, Eddie Lampert, to buy the company out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund, ESL Investments. ESL is the only party offering to buy …

Bloomberg reports: U.S. stocks staged one of the biggest rallies of the 9 1/2 year bull market after coming withing points of seeing it end, with major indexes surging at least 4.9 percent. Crude jumped almost 10 percent. All but one member of the S&P 500 advanced, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 1,050 points and the Nasdaq …

San Francisco’s NBC affiliate reports: Customers have been lining up and packing into Bay Area cannabis dispensaries to buy holiday gifts including gummies, chocolates, cartridges and flowers. “From the moment we were open at 9 o’clock we had a line,” Magnolia assistant general manager Kysa Butler said. “We’ve been knocking the lines out quickly but they’ve been steady, too.” Pot …

CNN reports: Markets took a wild ride on Monday after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s attempts to calm investors backfired. Stocks had recovered late morning, but then fell to their lowest level for the day after President Donald Trump tweeted mid-morning, “The only problem our economy has is the Fed.” Investors are concerned that Trump may fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome …