Amazon to buy Ring for home security
Amazon is expanding its home-security business by buying Ring, which makes Wi-Fi-connected cameras and doorbells.
The deal comes months after the online retailer started selling its own Wi-Fi-connected indoor security cameras, which work with its voice-assistant Alexa. The Ring acquisition helps Amazon better compete with Google’s Nest, which also makes cameras.
Ring’s doorbells and cameras capture video that can be streamed on smartphones and other devices.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. declined to say how much it was paying for Ring or when the deal will close.
Talks on biofuels standard continue
The White House says talks will continue on a dispute over the future of the renewable fuel standard, which has pitted lawmakers from corn-producing states against those representing refineries.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says President Donald Trump had a productive meeting Tuesday with four Republican senators: Ted Cruz of Texas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
The White House says Trump has made clear his commitment to the RFS and support for farmers and energy workers.
The standard requires biofuels from corn and soybeans to be blended into gasoline and diesel. Midwest states have sought to maintain the standards while oil companies have pushed to ease the mandates.
Consumer confidence up to highest level since 2000
American consumers are the most confident they’ve been since 2000.
The Conference Board says its consumer confidence index rose to 130.8 in February, highest since November 2000 and up from 124.3 in January.
The business research group’s index measures consumers’ assessment of current conditions and their outlook for the next six months. They feel better about today’s economy than they have since March 2001. Their outlook also improved.
Tax cuts passed into law last year are starting to show up in workers’ paychecks. “As people slowly absorb the details of the tax reform package, opinion polls suggest that it is becoming significantly more popular,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, wrote in a research note.
A strong job market is also boosting confidence. The unemployment rate has stayed at a 17-year low 4.1 percent.
Consumers shrugged off volatility in the stock market.
“Overall, consumers remain quite confident that the economy will continue expanding at a strong pace in the months ahead,” says Lynn Franco, the Conference Board’s director of economic indicators.
Economists watch the Conference Board report closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic output.
The overall index hit bottom at 25.3 in February 2009 at the depths of the Great Recession before rebounding as the U.S. economy recovered.