service disruptions

An unfinished Endurance pickup on an electric-vehicle assembly line in Lordstown, Ohio. Photo: QUINN GLABICKI/REUTERS…

An overheated bearing on a railcar carrying polypropylene was the likely cause of a Norfolk Southern Corp. train derailment earlier this month, federal transportation officials said Thursday, an incident that subsequently created an environmental mess in a small Ohio town that the railroad as well as state and federal officials are still trying to clean up. Monitoring equipment along the tracks alerted the train crew to the overheated bearing, which was 253 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient…

Supply-chain snarls are fading from among the top challenges facing some U.S. companies as freight congestion eases, shipping costs fall and factories in Asia are freed from Covid-19 lockdowns. The benefits are being felt most among importers of finished goods, such as game company Hasbro Inc., Sharpie pen maker Newell Brands Inc. and sportswear manufacturer Under Armour Inc., whose executives on…

The world’s biggest passenger airliners—many of which had been earmarked for the scrapyard—are being brought back into service as carriers rush to restore long-haul air travel.Aircraft lessors said airlines are clamoring for their once-parked fleets of big jets, which typically each ferry hundreds of passengers on long-distance routes. The demand is limiting availability and pushing up the prices of rentals.  The wait for new aircraft, meanwhile, stretches for years. Sought-after wide-body planes, which contain seats…

Apple Inc. AAPL 2.44% reported disappointing quarterly results that ended its three-year streak of sales and profit records, capping an earnings season in which the world’s biggest technology companies mostly struggled to shake off a postpandemic hangover. The iPhone maker announced its first quarterly revenue decline in nearly four years as manufacturing disruptions in China curbed its ability to deliver premium iPhones. Its results came the same day that Amazon.com…

Apple Inc.’s AAPL 0.79% three-year streak of pandemic-induced sales and profit records might be coming to an end.The iPhone maker, which is scheduled to report its December quarter after markets close on Thursday, is expected to announce its first revenue decline in nearly four years as manufacturing disruptions in China curbed its ability to deliver premium iPhones. Apple’s sales are expected to fall 2% to $121.42 billion, according to FactSet. For the…

Streaming service Spotify had an outage on Thursday. Photo: Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg News…

Microsoft blamed a routing change for the outages. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg News…

Hotel owners are lamenting a drop-off in corporate travel during the pandemic as finance, tech and other professionals spend less time on the road. But hoteliers are cheering the boom in travel by blue-collar workers.  Construction crews, travel nurses, truckers and sales teams from small and medium-size businesses have packed hotels for much of the past three years. Leisure travel has been thriving since Covid-19 pandemic restrictions eased. Pent-up demand exploded over the past two years and lifted resort rates to a…

Chaos. Bedlam. A nightmare. Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian, speaking on his airline’s earnings call last week, described 2022 as “the most difficult operational year in our history.” This from the airline that gave travelers the fewest fits in 2022. Delta ranked first among nine U.S. carriers in The Wall Street Journal’s 15th annual airline scorecard for the second consecutive year and fifth of the past six. Alaska Airlines, a unit…