The daily business briefing: November 30, 2016

1. Trump vows to leave business 'in total'

In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump announced that "legal documents are being crafted" to take him "completely out of business operations" in his sprawling, multi-billion-dollar empire. Trump said he will hold a press conference with his children on Dec. 15 to address his decision to leave his "great business in total" to focus on the "far more important task" of being president. He noted he was not "mandated" by law to do this, but that he wanted to eliminate any perceived conflicts of interest. Already, Trump has raised eyebrows for his Washington, D.C., hotel on government-leased property, and reports of his post-election push against a British wind farm that would mar the view from his Scottish golf course.

Bloomberg The New York Times

2. Carrier reaches deal with Trump to keep 1,000 jobs in Indiana

Carrier Corp. said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with President-elect Donald Trump to keep "close to 1,000 jobs" in Indianapolis instead of moving all of the jobs in the city to Mexico. Trump tweeted that it was a "great deal for workers!" Carrier officials, Trump, and Mike Pence, the vice president-elect and governor of Indiana, are expected to announce the agreement officially in an event on Thursday. The company has 1,400 workers at its Indianapolis plant, meaning layoffs are still possible. "If they're saying they're going to retain 1,000 jobs, that would mean 400 are going away," said Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents Carrier workers.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Indianapolis Star The Associated Press

3. Oil prices surge on rising expectations of an OPEC output cut

Crude futures jumped by nearly 6 percent on Wednesday after Iran's oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, said he expected Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers to reach a deal on production cuts later in the day in Vienna. OPEC is trying to trim output to ease a global oil glut that has been depressing prices since 2014. Iran has been one of the countries balking at cuts, saying it needs to ramp up production to get back to where it was before it was hit with now-lifted sanctions over its nuclear program. Zanganeh said an immediate freeze of Iran's production would not be on the table Wednesday. European energy stocks also surged on the growing optimism. Russia said it would consider cuts, too, if OPEC reached a deal.

The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch

4. U.S. economic growth beats expectations

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, stronger than the 2.9 percent pace initially reported, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The latest figure beat the expectations of economists, who had forecast the rate to increase to 3.0 percent. Strong consumer spending and a surge in soybean exports contributed to the improvement, which marked the economy's strongest performance in two years. Separate data showed that home prices jumped by 5.5 percent ‌in September, completing their recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Reuters

5. Dozens arrested in latest demonstrations for $15-an-hour minimum wage

Dozens of people were arrested for blocking traffic Tuesday in the first "Fight for 15" demonstrations since Donald Trump was elected president. Thousands of people, including fast-food and airport workers, participated in the latest demonstrations in favor of raising low wages to $15 an hour, the minimum protesters say workers need to get by. The activists, led by the Service Employees International Union, vowed to keep pushing for higher wages after Trump takes office in January. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the leading candidate to become the next Democratic National Committee chairman, released a statement supporting the protests. "In the wealthiest country in the world," he said, "nobody working full time should be living in poverty." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the SEIU was being hypocritical, because it pays its own campaign workers less than $15 an hour.

Reuters Politico