US Business

Don’t wonder why U.S. retail sales missed expectations in April. Wonder how strong they will be in coming months as the Covid-19 pandemic fades.

Retail sales were unchanged in April as shoppers pulled back on goods purchases while increasing spending on services.The moderation in spending came as the recovery continued to build strength, though with signs of unevenness.

Jobless claims continued a steady decline last week, dropping to 473,000, in a sign hiring is primed to strengthen as workers return to the labor market.

Higher commodity prices are delivering economic windfalls to countries that supply metals vital to the global recovery from the pandemic, though the boom could still mask problems.

Food prices are sky high, restaurants don’t have enough workers and shoppers are sending clothes back too fast for apparel makers to keep up. Labor shortages and production bottlenecks are weighing down companies just as the economy begins to surge again.

The prominent advertising-technology engineer let go by Apple amid an uproar over sexist passages in his memoir fired back, calling the company’s statements around his dismissal “defamatory and categorically false.”

Companies including Walmart and Costco began to rethink their requirements for face masks after federal health regulators relaxed their guidelines this week.

Experts differed on whether smartphones are interchangeable with other videogame platforms and the definition of a market in the digital age.

In his first year running WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar fired the streaming service’s top brass, blew up the movie business and angered Hollywood royalty. It’s been a crash course in entertainment-industry politics. He says it’s also a recipe for success.

The company lost a bid to block a European Union privacy decision that could suspend its ability to send information about Europeans to the U.S., opening a pathway toward a precedent-setting interruption of its data flows.