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By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Activists planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores around the United States on Wednesday to pressure the discount retailer into taking a public stand against the 5-week-old immigration crackdown in its home state of Minnesota.

ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, labor unions and other critics of the federal operation, called for sit-ins and other demonstrations to continue at Target locations for a full week. Target’s headquarters are located in Minneapolis, where federal officers last month killed two residents who had participated in anti-ICE protests, and its name adorns the city’s major league baseball stadium and an arena where its basketball teams plays.

“They claim to be part of the community, but they are not standing up to ICE,” said Elan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a revolutionary political group. He organized a Wednesday protest outside a Target store in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown commercial district. read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Business Writer

Kraft Heinz said Wednesday it’s pausing its plans to split into two companies.

Steve Cahillane, a former Kellogg Co. chief who became CEO of Kraft Heinz on Jan. 1, said he wants to ensure that all of the company’s resources are focused on profitable growth.

“I have seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control,” Cahillane said in a statement.

The company’s shares were flat in morning trading Wednesday as Kraft Heinz reported lower quarterly and annual results. Investors are likely concerned that Kraft Heinz believes its businesses aren’t strong enough to stand on their own, said Robert Moskow, an analyst with TD Cowen, in a research note.

Kraft Heinz announced in September it was splitting into two companies a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food manufacturers on the planet.

One of the companies would include stronger-selling brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other would include slower-selling brands like Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are feeling both the upside and downside Wednesday of a surprisingly strong report that said the nation’s unemployment rate improved last month.

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  Surge of 130,000 US hires last month is a stark contrast to the weak hiring of 2025

After initially rising toward its all-time high, the S&P 500 began flipping between gains and losses. By 12:28 p.m. Eastern time, it was up 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 19 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%.

Treasury yields, meanwhile, remained higher in the bond market after the Labor Department said U.S. employers added 130,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, more than the 75,000 that economists expected. That helped calm worries from a day earlier, when a discouraging report suggested spending by U.S. households, the main engine of the economy, may be stalling. read more

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s 10-year outlook projects worsening long-term federal deficits and rising debt, driven largely by increased spending, notably on Social Security, Medicare, and debt service payments.

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Compared with the CBO’s analysis this time last year, the fiscal outlook has deteriorated modestly.

Major developments over the last year are factored into the latest report, released Wednesday, including Republicans’ tax and spending measure known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” higher tariffs, and the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, which includes deporting millions of immigrants from mainland U.S. read more

By Sara Rathner, NerdWallet

Last year was kind of a lot. Once-secure federal government jobs were slashed, and that was before the longest government shutdown in history. The labor market cooled. Economically speaking, 2025 was a tough year for many.

And though interest rates were reduced three times, credit card interest rates remained high, hovering around an average of 22% all year.

Let’s briefly look back at some of the other big credit card headlines from 2025:

• A major consumer watchdog was neutered. Beginning in February, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s power — and staff — was cut way back. Some of its actions from the end of the Biden administration got reversed, including a planned cap on credit card late fees and the removal of medical debt from credit reports. A massive merger was completed. Capital One officially acquired Discover in May, making it the largest credit card issuer in the U.S. While a change of this magnitude will continue to roll out slowly, so far Capital One has moved its debit cards to the Discover payment network. Credit cards upped fees and embraced “coupon book” rewards. Last year saw the trend really take off, beginning in March with Chase’s co-branded United Airlines cards. Then, in June, Chase unveiled major changes and a big annual fee bump to its highest-end Sapphire card. American Express soon followed with changes to its Platinum card. Triple-digit annual fees were once rare, but now even some “midtier” options charge $150, while many premium cards are around $500 and up.

  We’re a few weeks into 2026, and it’s not looking any less dramatic compared to 2025. Here’s what we may see coming up in the world of credit cards. read more