Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg tries on a pair of Orion augmented reality glasses during a conference Wednesday in Menlo Park, Calif.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
Wall Street edges back from its record highs
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks mostly edged back Sept. 25 as financial markets around the world took a pause following big recent moves.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent Wednesday, a day after setting its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7 percent, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1 percent.
Treasury yields ticked higher in the bond market after sinking the day before on a surprisingly weak update on consumer confidence.
Chinese stocks rose again after soaring Tuesday on excitement about new stimulus measures, but they pared their gains through the day.
Meta unveils headset, AI updates, glasses
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Meta unveiled updates to the company’s virtual reality headset and Ray Ban smart glasses at a conference on Sept. 25 along with AI advances as it tries demonstrate its artificial intelligence prowess and the next generation of computing platforms.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg also showed off Orion, a holographic augmented reality prototype product that he called “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.”
“The technical challenges to make them are insane,” he said.
No release date was announced for the glasses, which can interact with voices, typing commands and hand gestures. They also have a “neural interface” that enables signals to be sent from the brain to the device.
Zuckerberg called Orion a “glimpse of the future.”
Workers lose bid to halt US Steel sale
NEW YORK — An arbitration board has ruled that U.S. Steel can proceed with its proposed acquisition by Nippon Steel, a deal that faces strong opposition from its workforce.
The panel, which was jointly chosen by U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers to decide disputes between them, said Sept. 25 that U.S. Steel has satisfied each of the conditions of its basic labor agreement with the union and that no further action under the agreement was necessary.
USW had filed a series of grievances in January alleging a clause in the pact had not been satisfied. The union has previously stated that it doesn’t believe Nippon fully understands its commitment to steelworkers, retirees and its communities.
USW has expressed concern about the enforcement of its labor agreements, having transparency into Nippon’s finances, as well as national defense, infrastructure and supply chain issues.
The arbitration board heard evidence and arguments from U.S. Steel and USW last month.
Southwest to cut flights in Atlanta
DALLAS — — Southwest Airlines plans to eliminate about one-third of its flights to Atlanta next year to save money as it comes under pressure from a hedge fund to increase profits and boost the airline’s stock price.
The retreat in Atlanta, where Southwest is far smaller than Delta Air Lines, will eliminate more than 300 jobs for pilots and flight attendants, although they will have a chance to relocate, according to the company.
Southwest executives are expected to detail other changes that it plans to make when it holds an investor meeting Sept. 26. The session is in response to Elliott Investment Management’s campaign to shake up the leadership and reverse a decline in profits over the past three years.
Southwest will cut 58 flights per day and reduce its presence at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from 18 to 11 gates, according to the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.
While retreating in Atlanta, Southwest’s schedule through June includes new routes between Nashville and six other cities along with five new red-eye flights from Hawaii to Las Vegas and Phoenix. Those additions start in April.
Coke Spiced is put on ice, for good
NEW YORK — Coca-Cola Co. is discontinuing its newest “permanent” flavor a little more than seven months after putting the product on the market.
The beverage giant said Sept. 25 that Coca-Cola Spiced and Coca-Cola Spiced Zero Sugar will be phased out and replaced with a new flavor that will be introduced next year.
Coca-Cola Spiced went on sale in the U.S. and Canada on Feb. 19. At the time, the company said it would be the first new permanent addition to its North American portfolio in three years.
Coke didn’t say Wednesday what went wrong, but the product’s name might have confused buyers, since it didn’t taste spicy.
Workers at big Hawaii hotel go on strike
HONOLULU — About 2,000 workers went on strike Tuesday at Hawaii’s largest resort, joining thousands of others striking at hotels in other U.S. cities.
Unionized workers at Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach — the largest Hilton in the world — began an open-ended strike Sept. 24. They are calling for conditions including higher wages, more manageable workloads and a reversal of cuts implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic such as limited daily room cleaning.
Hilton representatives didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the strike.
With the start of Tuesday’s strike, more than 4,000 workers are now on strike at Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels in Honolulu, San Diego and San Francisco, according to the UNITE HERE union. They will strike until they win new contracts, the union said, warning that more strikes could begin soon.
More than 10,000 hotels workers across the U.S. went on strike on Labor Day weekend, with most ending after two or three days.
CrowdStrike exec sorry over tech outage
WASHINGTON — An executive at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike apologized in testimony to Congress for sparking a global technology outage over the summer.
“We let our customers down,” said Adam Meyers, who leads CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence division, in a hearing before a U.S. House cybersecurity subcommittee.
CrowdStrike has blamed a bug in an update that allowed its cybersecurity systems to push bad data out to millions of customer computers, setting off a global tech outage in July that grounded flights, took TV broadcasts off air and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers.
OpenAI exec, ex-interim CEO, is leaving
SAN FRANCISCO — A high-ranking executive at OpenAI who served a few days as its interim CEO during a period of turmoil last year said that she’s leaving the artificial intelligence company. Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, said in a written statement Sept. 25that after much reflection she has “made the difficult decision” to resign.
Murati was suddenly catapulted to be the company’s interim CEO late last year after the board fired Sam Altman, sparking upheaval in the AI industry. The company later brought in another interim CEO before restoring Altman to his leadership role and replacing most of the board members who ousted him.
Associated Press
