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Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times

In the early 2000s, after a severe slump, McDonald’s orchestrated a major turnaround, with the introduction of its Dollar Menu.

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The menu, whose items all cost $1, illustrated just how important it was to market to low-income consumers — who value getting the most bang for their buck.

Coming at a time of flagging growth, tumbling stock and the company’s first report of a quarterly loss, the Dollar Menu reversed the fast-food giant’s bad fortune. It paved the way for three years of sales growth at stores open at least a year and ballooned revenue by 33%, news outlets reported at the time. read more

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nvidia’s sales of the computing chips powering the artificial intelligence craze surged beyond the lofty bar set by stock market analysts in a performance that may ease recent jitters about a Big Tech boom turning into a bust that topples the world’s most valuable company.

The results announced late Wednesday provided a pulse check on the frenzied spending on AI technology that has been fueling both the stock market and much of the overall economy since OpenAI released its ChatGPT three years ago.

Nvidia has been by far the biggest beneficiary of the run-up because its processors have become indispensable for building the AI factories that are needed to enable what’s supposed to be the most dramatic shift in technology since Apple released the iPhone in 2007.

But in the past few weeks, there has been a rising tide of sentiment that the high expectations for AI may have become far too frothy, setting the stage for a jarring comedown that could be just as dramatic as the ascent that transformed Nvidia from a company worth less than $400 billion three years ago to one worth $4.5 trillion today. read more

By KEN SWEET, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — President Trump nominated Stuart Levenbach as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using a legal maneuver to keep his budget director Russell Vought as acting director of the bureau while the Trump administration continues on its plan to shut down the consumer financial protection agency.

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Levenbach is currently an associate director inside the Office of Management and Budget, handling issues related to natural resources, energy, science and water issues. Levenbach’s resume shows significant experience dealing with science and natural resources issues, acting as chief of staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during Trump’s first term. read more

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) — Target’s third-quarter profit tumbled as the retailer struggles to lure shoppers that are being pressed by stubbornly high inflation.

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The Minneapolis company said Wednesday that it expects its sales slump to extend through the critical holiday shopping season. The company also announced that it’s planning to invest another billion dollars next year to remodel stores, build new ones, increasing the total cost for the makeover to $5 billion.

Investors have punished Target’s stock recently, sending it down 43% over the past year. Shares were essentially flat in early trading Wednesday. read more

By nearly every metric, it’s getting harder to buy a home in the United States.

In Tampa Bay, the median home price shot up about 14% to $398,000 in just the past four years, according to data from Florida Realtors. Wages have not kept up, leaving more would-be buyers trapped renting.

Across the country, the median age of first-time buyers is now 40, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. That’s a far cry from 1980s, when most first-time buyers were in their late 20s.

This month, President Donald Trump voiced his support for a potential fix: a 50-year mortgage.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump compared the idea to the creation of the 30-year mortgage under President Franklin Roosevelt. That innovation helped make homeownership the norm in the United States.

The logic is simple — if you lengthen the life of the loan from 30 years to 50, then the monthly payment will drop, lowering the barrier to entry for prospective home buyers.

But the longer it takes to pay down the interest, the higher the total costs will be at the end of the loan period. Plus, these loans would likely come with higher interest rates. read more