Headline News from The Associated Press
AP Headline News - Feb 27 2024 19:00 (EST)
AP News, Sam Benton, congressional leaders emerged from an Oval Office meeting with President Biden speaking optimistically about the prospects for avoiding a partial government shutdown. However, things remain at a crossroads on aid for Ukraine. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described the meeting as intense. "The five of us, the president, the vice president, Leader McConnell, Speaker, Leader Jeff Rees and myself, made it so clear how vital this was to the United States. This was so, so important, and that we couldn't afford to wait a month or two months or three months because we would, in a little likelihood, lose the war. NATO would be fractured at best, allies would turn away from the United States." House Speaker Mike Johnson, "I was very clear with the president and all those in the room that the House is actively pursuing and investigating all the various options on that, and we will address that in a timely manner. But again, the first priority of the country is our border in making sure it's secure." A new survey from American Express finds small business owners optimistic as 2024 gets underway, 85 percent satisfied with the success of their businesses, 86 percent achieved last year's goals. But Hia Banjoani reports consumer confidence has slipped. "Consumers in the United States aren't feeling as confident this month. The conference board, which is a business research group, said its consumer confidence index is down over four points this month, since January. It went from 110.9 to 106.7. The index is a way to measure Americans' assessment of economic conditions and its outlook for the next six months. Economists pay close attention to consumer confidence, since consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of American economic activity. The index was improving for three straight months before this decline. The drop comes as a bit of a surprise, since the economy has shown resilience at higher interest rates and inflation. Hia Banjoani, Washington. This is AP News. Stocks held near their record levels today. Cessotel has numbers. "The S&P 500 managed to gain of two-tenths per cent Tuesday. The Dow fell 96 points. It's also about two-tenths per cent. The Nasdaq composite rose four-tenths per cent." And Wendy's is looking to modernize its menu. And that goes beyond the Baconator. At Donahue has todails. Wendy says it's going to test surge pricing at restaurants as early as next year. Surge pricing is a strategy being used by ticket sellers and ride-sharing companies. It's relatively new in the world of fast food. Wendy's will test fluctuating menu prices throughout the day, based on demand. Demand for a Baconator or a Frosty goes up, so does the price. Wendy CEO says they also plan to add AI-enabled menu changes, suggestive selling, and invest about $20 million to launch digital menu boards at all of its company-run restaurants by the end of next year. I'm Ed Donahue. And I'm Ben Thomas, CP News. Thanks for listening.