For Thursday, December 11th, 2025
>>Stocks Close Higher After Fed Rate Cut
(New York, NY) -- Wall Street closed Wednesday with stocks higher. It comes after the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by a quarter-percentage point. It marks the third straight interest rate cut. The benchmark rate is now in a range of three-and-a-half-to-three-and-three-quarters-percent. The Fed appeared to indicate there will be just one rate cut in 2026 and one in 2027. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 497 points to 48-057. The S&P 500 gained 46 points to 68-86. The Nasdaq jumped 77 points to 23-654.
>>Fed Cuts Interest Rates For Third Straight Time
(Washington, DC) -- Mortgages and car loans are expected to get less expensive. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates by a quarter-percentage point. It marks the third straight interest rate cut. The benchmark rate is now in a range of three-and-a-half-to-three-and-three-quarters-percent. The Fed appeared to indicate there will be just one rate cut in 2026 and one in 2027.
>>Small Business Owners Cite Inflation As Big Challenge
(Undated) -- Small business owners are citing inflation as one of the biggest challenges they currently face. New polling shows 45-percent of small business owners say inflation presents a challenge for them. The Chamber of Commerce's quarterly Small Business Index also found 58-percent of respondents expect to raise prices this holiday season. Despite inflation woes, nearly 70-percent of respondents reported their business as being in "somewhat" or "very" good health. The findings come as the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the third straight meeting which will lower borrowing costs for small business owners nationwide.
>>Investigation Shows Instacart is Using AI to Hike Prices
(San Francisco, CA) -- An investigation shows online grocery service Instacart's use of AI led to item prices being hiked by as much as 20-percent. The report from Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative says AI is helping Instacart gauge how much it can charge for a particular item before shoppers decide not to purchase it. It found the grocery service displayed different prices on the same household items at stores like Albertsons, Costco, Kroger and Target. The report said the price hikes could cost shoppers more than one-thousand dollars per year. More than 250-million orders were placed through Instacart in the first three quarters of 2025.
>>YouTube TV To Offer Genre-Specific Plans
(San Bruno, CA) -- YouTube TV will offer cheaper, genre-specific plans next year. There will be ten different packages offered, including ones focused on sports, entertainment, kids and family and news. The sports plan will offer channels like NBC Sports Network, Fox Sports One and all ESPN networks including the ESPN Unlimited app. Specific pricing hasn't been announced, but the plans will cost less than the current 83-dollar monthly subscription for the base package. YouTube said its goal is to allow people to tailor their subscription with more options.
>>Eli Lilly Announces Huntsville, Alabama Plans
(Huntsville, AL) -- Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has unveiled plans to invest more than six-billion dollars in a new manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama. Officials say the facility will produce small-molecule synthetic and peptide medicines, including Eli Lilly's GLP-1 weight-loss pill. The project represents the largest capital investment in Alabama's history. Once operational, the site is expected to employ about 450 people, including engineers, scientists, lab technicians, and operations staff. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 and conclude in 2032, with the project projected to create around three-thousand construction jobs during the build-out.
