Industry News

Starbucks is planning a big push behind its loyalty program, with plans to double membership by the end of the year.Starting in May, the world's biggest coffee company says members will be able to earn points when they buy bags of Starbucks coffee at supermarkets. Customers would have to go online and enter a code on the bag to get their point.Starbucks Corp. had announced the move last year bu...

Stocks shot higher Wednesday, adding to their initial gains, shortly after the Federal Reserve's statement that showed the central bank plans to press forward with its aggressive efforts to stimulate the economy and ahead of Chairman Ben Bernanke's news conference.Earlier in the session, the Dow briefly hit a fresh record and the S&P 500 within earshot of its 2007 closing high, as investors sh...

Andreas Pavlidis owns a small ice cream and frozen yogurt store just off the main shopping street in Nicosia, Cyprus. He opened the store a year ago, but said he is earning enough to make a living."Sales have dropped somewhat over the last few months because of the uncertainty around the economy," Pavlidis said. "People may not be going on holidays or buying clothes, but at least they are still bu...

Cheapism.com set out to find the best cheap alternatives to restaurant, delivery, and pricey cook-at-home pies by conducting a blind taste test of 10 frozen cheese and pepperoni pizzas.

PITTSBURGH -- In an unlikely partnership between longtime adversaries, some of the nation's biggest energy companies and environmental groups have agreed on a voluntary set of standards for gas and oil fracking in the Northeast that appear to go further than existing state and federal pollution regulations. The program announced Wednesday will work a lot like Underwriters Laboratories, which puts ...

WASHINGTON — America's lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession — but few are bragging.As a workforce sector, those earning $35,000 or less annually are generally pessimistic about their finances and career prospects. Many see themselves as worse off now than during the recession, a two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research...

Likely one of the most closely watched introductions of the 2014 model-year, Mercedes-Benz is already stirring interest with the release of the first teaser images of the next-generation S-Class sedan.Known inside the company as the W222, the new model will have some big tire tracks to fill. The S-Class has traditionally been the benchmark for the premium-luxury segment that makers like BMW, Audi...

Fear of a Chinese economic slowdown and fiscal worries out of Europe have had more downward influence on crude prices in recent days than instability in the Middle East has had toward the upside. But for several reasons, analysts argue that China has less pull on market prices than it did even a few short years ago. "The relationship between the Chinese economy and oil demand have long ago ce...

West Coast — best coast? Not so, says the thriving New York City startup scene.During the past decade, the Big Apple has emerged as a top tech center for new companies and a hotbed for both angel and venture capital funding.In the last year, 127 startups were founded in the city, nearly equal to the combined 131 that launched in San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif., according to data from SeedTable...

West Coast — best coast? Not so, says the thriving New York City startup scene.During the past decade, the Big Apple has emerged as a top tech center for new companies and a hotbed for both angel and venture capital funding.In the last year, 127 startups were founded in the city, nearly equal to the combined 131 that launched in San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif., according to data from SeedTable...

CVS Caremark has put its employees on notice that they need to reveal their weight or pay a monthly $50 penalty. “Avoid the $600 annual surcharge,” CVS warns its employees who use the company’s health insurance plan. They’ve been told they are required by May 1 to show up to a doctor for an annual WebMD Wellness Review and submit to tests for blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass ...

Stocks jumped at the open Wednesday, with the Dow hitting a fresh record and the S&P 500 resuming the march to its all-time high, as investors shifted their attention from worries over Cyprus and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting announcement later this afternoon. Model N surged nearly 30 percent in its market debut on the NYSE after the software maker priced 6.7 mi...

2627 Banks St., New Orleans, La.For sale: $159,000Shipping containers are the mainstay of the import business. Sturdy enough to crate cargo thousands of miles and handle the squalls of crossing the ocean, shipping containers are now getting second lives as the building blocks for homes.Several containers can be combined for a larger residence or business, or one or two work just as well for a star...

As teenagers demand independence and eventually move out, they’re not always quick to cut the cord when it comes paying their own cell phone bill.Often they’re perfectly OK staying on their parents’ cell phone plan and online subscriptions that allow more than one user, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive for The Wall Street Journal. Harris surveyed 620 parents with adult chi...

As college acceptance letters go out in the next few weeks, prospective students and their parents are in for another round of sticker shock. And while tuition costs keep rising, the roughly three out of every four students headed to state colleges and universities in the fall may not find all of the courses and services they sampled on their college tour. Faced with continued budget cuts at the s...

SEOUL -- South Korean police were investigating a hacking attack on an Internet provider that brought down the servers of three broadcasters and two major banks on Wednesday, and the army raised its alert level due to concerns of North Korean involvement.The network provided by LG UPlus Corp. showed a page that said it had been hacked by a group calling itself the "Whois Team," an unknown group. I...

SEOUL - South Korean police are investigating network outages at major broadcasters and a large bank on Wednesday, with a major network services provider alleging that its system was hacked.Servers at television networks YTN, MBC and KBS were affected as well as Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup, two major banks, the police and government said. They did not comment on the possible causes of the outages.A ...

Updated 6 p.m. ET: Well, that could have been embarrassing.Rather than allow women to leave too little to the imagination, Lululemon Athletica pulled some of its popular black yoga pants from its stores and website last weekend.Although the materials used in the pants were the same, the coverage was not, “resulting in a level of sheerness in some of our women’s black luon bottoms that fall short o...

Rather than allow women to leave too little to the imagination, Lululemon Athletica pulled some of its popular black yoga pants from its stores and website last weekend.

Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, said Tuesday that it bought its first coffee farm, where it will research the leaf rust that is devastating Central American crops as well as harvest its own beans.Starbucks, known for its coffee shops around the world, has purchased an active farm on roughly 600 acres in Costa Rica, which it will convert to a global agronomy research and developmen...