ECONOMY NEWS THIS WEEK

Ag Department acts on lunch fees

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that students eligible for free or reduced price school meals cannot be charged processing fees beginning in 2027. School districts currently work with processing companies to offer cashless payment systems for families. But the companies can charge "processing fees" for each transaction. By law, students who are eligible for reduced price meals cannot be charged more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. With processing fees, however, families can end up paying 10 times that amount.

Fed drops interest rate again

The Federal Reserve cut its key rate by a quarter-point in response to the steady decline in the once-high inflation that had angered Americans and helped drive Donald Trump's presidential election victory this week. The rate cut follows a larger half-point reduction in September, and it reflects the Fed's renewed focus on supporting the job market as well as fighting inflation.

Settlement ends Boeing strike

Factory workers at Boeing have voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks. That clears the way for the company to restart idled Pacific Northwest assembly lines. The strike started in mid-September and deprived the company of much-needed cash by shutting down production at its factories in the Pacific Northwest.

Stellantis to layoff about 1,100

About 1,100 workers at the Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, are facing layoffs early next year as the company takes further steps to cut high inventory at dealers. The Toledo South plant makes the Jeep Gladiator midsize pickup truck. Stellantis says it will go from two daily shifts to one as early as Jan. 5. Gladiator sales are down nearly 21% so far this year.

Nissan making many cuts

Nissan is reporting a loss for the latest fiscal quarter as its vehicle sales sank while costs and inventory ballooned. The Japanese automaker announced it is cutting 9,000 jobs globally, or about 6% of its more than 133,000 employees. Nissan is also slashing global production capacity by 20%. Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said Thursday he was taking a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the dismal results.

Number of jobless claims up slightly

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid ticked up last week, but layoffs remain at historically low levels. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claim applications rose by 3,000 to 221,000 for the week of Nov. 2. That's fewer than the 227,000 analysts forecast.

Meta fined in South Korea

South Korea's privacy watchdog fined Meta 21.6 billion won for illegally collecting Facebook users' sensitive personal information, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers for targeted advertisements. South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information of around 980,000 Facebook users and shared the data with 4,000 advertisers.

Quarterly reports

Nintendo

, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario franchise, says its profit fell 60% in the first half of the fiscal year, as demand waned for its Switch console, now in its eighth year since going on sale. Kyoto-based Nintendo reported Tuesday a 108.7 billion yen, or $715 million, profit for April-September, as sales slipped 34% from the previous year.Saudi Arabian oil giant

Aramco

has reported third-quarter profits of $27.5 billion, down about 15% from last year as low oil prices ate into its revenues. Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., had revenues of $111.1 billion over the quarter. That's according to a company filing Tuesday on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange. It made $113 billion the same quarter last year. Profit for the first nine months of 2024 was $83.9 billion, down from $94.5 billion the year before.

Honda

said its profits slipped nearly 20% in the first half of the fiscal year from the same period the previous year, as sales suffered in China, the Japanese automaker. Honda Motor Co.'s April-September profits totaled 494.68 billion yen ($3.2 billion), declining from 616 billion yen for the same period the previous year, on 10.8 trillion yen ($70.5 billion) in sales, up from 9.6 trillion yen.

Beyond Meat

reversed a sales slide in its third quarter, growing revenue for the first time since 2022 as it charged higher prices for its plant-based meat. The El Segundo, California-based company said its revenue rose 7.6% to $81 million in the July-September period. That was higher than the $80.1 million Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Beyond Meat said it saw a 7% decrease in the volume of products sold but a 15.8% increase in net revenue per pound.

International economy

The Czechcentral bank has cut its key interest rate for the eighth time in a row as inflation remains low and the economy is making a slow recovery. The quarter of a percentage point cut, which had been predicted by analysts, brings the rate to 4%.Chinahas moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organization that alleges the European Union has improperly set anti-subsidy tariffs on new Chinese-made electric vehicles.TheBank of Englandhas cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point after inflation across the U.K. fell below its target rate of 2%. The bank said Thursday its rate-setting panel lowered the benchmark rate to 4.75%.Sweden'scentral bank has cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 2.75% in what was described as the largest reduction in over a decade.Chinareported its exports rose 12.7% in October from a year earlier, the fastest monthly growth in more than two years. Official customs data released Thursday also showed imports fell 2.3% from a year earlier.— Associated Press