Toys R Us is bringing its iconic toy aisles back to another American shopping mall as the once-dominant retailer continues a brick-and-mortar comeback that has nostalgic fans buzzing.

A new location is coming to Northridge Fashion Center in California’s San Fernando Valley, joining a growing roster of Toys R Us stores opening across the country, years after the chain shuttered its U.S. locations.

The mall’s website lists Toys R Us as “Coming Soon,” while the retailer’s website now shows more than 30 standalone and flagship locations nationwide.

An opening date for the Northridge store has not yet been announced.

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Toys R Us and Babies R Us signage is displayed outside a retail location as shoppers walk through the parking lot. Toys R Us has continued rebuilding its brick-and-mortar presence since its 2017 bankruptcy and 2018 U.S. store closures. (RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images / Getty Images)

News of the latest location quickly caught the attention of longtime Toys R Us fans, with some calling for the retailer to lean into its nostalgic appeal and bring back toys from decades past.

“They should do retro toy section for us grown ups who were a kid so we can relive our childhood memories back in the day,” one person commented on a post from What’s New SFV, a local social media page dedicated to happenings around the San Fernando Valley.

Another commenter appeared ready for even more familiar retailers to make a comeback, writing, “Now bring back JoAnn’s and Payless.”

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A view of Macy’s Toys R Us July 11, 2022, in Jersey City, N.J.  (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Macy’s, Inc / Getty Images)

The Northridge opening marks the latest chapter in a yearslong effort to rebuild a brand that was once a fixture of American childhood.

Toys R Us, which once dominated toy sales in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017 after years of declining sales and under the weight of $5 billion in debt.

The retailer shuttered its U.S. stores in 2018 before the brand reemerged under new parent company Tru Kids Brands the following year.

In November 2019, Toys R Us opened a nearly 6,000-square-foot, smaller-format store at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, marking its return to brick-and-mortar retail in the U.S. A second location followed at The Galleria in Houston, Texas.

Both stores later closed in January 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Closing signs outside the Toys R Us store in Coventry, Britain, March 13, 2018. (Reuters/Hannah McKay / Reuters)

Brand management firm WHP Global acquired a controlling stake in Toys R Us in March 2021 and has since worked to rebuild the retailer’s physical footprint.

Later that year, Toys R Us opened a 20,000-square-foot flagship at American Dream in New Jersey.

The comeback expanded further in 2022 with the launch of hundreds of Toys R Us shops inside Macy’s stores nationwide.

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“Macy’s cannot wait to bring the Toys R Us experience to life in our stores,” Macy’s Chief Merchandising Officer Nata Dvir said at the time. “We hope Toys R Us kids of all ages discover the joy of exploration and play within our shops and families create special memories together.”

The partnership also delivered a significant boost to Macy’s toy business. The retailer said its toy sales during the first quarter of fiscal 2022 were 15 times higher than during the comparable period before the Toys R Us partnership.

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A classic Toys R Us store displays the iconic multicolored logo above its entrance. The toy retailer is expanding its brick-and-mortar presence in the U.S. years after shuttering its stores nationwide. (Bauer-Griffin/GC Images / Getty Images)

Toys R Us then set its sights on an even broader return.

WHP Global announced in 2023 that it was partnering with Go! Retail Group to roll out additional Toys R Us flagship stores across the U.S. beginning in 2024, part of an expansion strategy the company dubbed “air, land and sea.”

“The Toys R Us brand is growing fast and our expansion into air, land and sea is a testament to the brand’s strength,” WHP Global Chairman and CEO Yehuda Shmidman said when the plans were announced.

Shmidman said the company had increased the brand’s global retail footprint by more than 50% since acquiring Toys R Us, with more than 1,400 stores and e-commerce sites across 31 countries at the time.

The company also expanded beyond traditional shopping centers, opening its first airport store at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and announcing plans to bring the brand aboard cruise ships.

The U.S. expansion has continued.

The Toys R Us website now lists more than 30 standalone and flagship locations nationwide, in addition to the brand’s presence inside Macy’s stores.

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The planned Northridge location is the latest sign that the retailer synonymous with generations of childhood wish lists is continuing to rebuild its brick-and-mortar presence across the country.

Fox News Digital reached out to Toys R Us and Northridge Fashion Center for comment.

KKR says it’s set to reap $3.3 billion in after-tax proceeds from its $17 billion sale of insurance brokerage USI to Aon. That’s a gain of about 3.4 times the investment the private-equity giant has made in the company. The companies unveiled the agreement Monday, after The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday the deal was imminent:

The discussions are at an early stage and may not result in a transaction, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. One option under consideration is to list the business separately, with Capital IQ Pro potentially fetching a valuation in the high single-digit billions of dollars, the people said.

Investors appeared to welcome the possibility of a separation. S&P Global shares, which had been lower earlier in the session, rose as much as 6.3% from the day’s low.

Known as CapIQ, Capital IQ Pro is part of S&P Global’s Market Intelligence division and is the successor to the company’s legacy Capital IQ platform. The software is used by finance professionals to conduct research and provides access to data on more than 60 million private companies, according to S&P Global’s website.

A spinout would give CapIQ its own corporate identity at a time when financial data providers are facing a significant shift in how information is collected, distributed and used. The rise of artificial intelligence is also increasing demand for large pools of structured and proprietary data that can support financial models and research tools.

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As a standalone company, CapIQ would compete more directly with established financial information providers including FactSet Research Systems, which has a market value of more than $11 billion, and the data arm of London Stock Exchange Group.
The potential separation also fits with Chief Executive Officer Martina Cheung’s broader efforts to reshape S&P Global. Cheung has led the company since 2024, during a period in which S&P has reorganized parts of its portfolio and sharpened its focus on core businesses.In July, S&P Global spun off its automotive intelligence unit into Mobility Global. Cheung said the move gave S&P “sharper focus” on its core divisions.

A CapIQ spinout could extend that strategy, allowing S&P Global to concentrate more tightly on its remaining businesses while giving the data platform greater independence and potentially a separate market valuation.

Still, the discussions remain preliminary, Bloomberg reported, and S&P Global could ultimately decide against pursuing a separation. That would leave Capital IQ Pro within the broader company rather than as a separately traded business.

(Disclaimer: This article is based on inputs from agencies. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Wheat is starting off a new week with sharp losses on Monday. The wheat complex extended the move to 3-year highs for the winter wheats into the weekend. Chicago SRW contracts rallied 10 ½ to 24 ¼ cents across the board on Friday, with September 85 ½ cents higher on the week. Open interest was up 4,975 contracts on Friday. There were just 9 deliveries first notice day for Sep CBT wheat.  KC HRW futures saw gains of 10 to 24 ¼ cents in the front months, as September was 71 ½ cents higher since last Friday. There were 143 delivery notices for September KC wheat on FND. MPLS spring wheat joined in on the rally, with contracts 8 ¼ to 12 ½ cents higher, as September was up 47 cents this week.

Over the weekend, Turkey was reportedly pushing for a Black Sea shipping corridor to help restore the flow of grains. 

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Export Sales data has wheat sales for the current marketing year at 8.342 MMT, down 31% from the same week last year. That is 40% of the USDA export projection and behind the 52% average. 

CFTC’s weekly Commitment of Traders report showed managed money cutting back another 12,314 contracts from their CBT wheat net short position in the week of 8/25 to a net short of 14,171 contracts. Nearby Chicago has rallied 82 cents since Tuesday’s close. In KC wheat, specs added another 9,227 contracts to their net long to 44,062 contracts.

Sep 26 CBOT Wheat  closed at $7.67, up 24 1/4 cents, currently down 13 3/4 cents

Dec 26 CBOT Wheat  closed at $7.84, up 23 1/4 cents, currently down 16 3/4 cents

Sep 26 KCBT Wheat  closed at $8.27 3/4, up 24 1/4 cents, currently down 14 3/4 cents

Dec 26 KCBT Wheat  closed at $8.44 1/4, up 22 1/4 cents, currently down 14 3/4 cents

Sep 26 MIAX Wheat  closed at $7.45 1/4, up 12 1/2 cents, currently down 7 1/4 cents

Dec 26 MIAX Wheat  closed at $7.69 1/4, up 11 1/2 cents, currently down 10 1/2 cents

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com

Customers of shipping giant UPS began reporting problems with the company’s website and app starting at approximately 11:40 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, according to outage-tracking service Downdetector, prompting a wave of complaints on social media under the hashtag #UpsDown.

Downdetector, an Ookla-owned platform that has monitored the health of more than 12,000 online services since its 2012 launch, posted on X shortly after the reports began surfacing. “User reports indicate problems with UPS since 11:40 AM EDT,” the account wrote, asking affected customers to describe how the disruption was impacting them.

Separate outage-tracking service StatusGator listed UPS as operational as of a check conducted Tuesday afternoon, logging only four user-submitted outage reports over the preceding 24-hour period at the time of that assessment, a relatively low figure compared with the volume implied by Downdetector’s own reported spike earlier in the day. That discrepancy illustrates how different outage-monitoring platforms, which rely on varying combinations of user complaints and automated website-performance checks, can produce differing pictures of a company’s service health depending on when and how frequently they update their data.

UPS’s tracking and shipping tools have experienced periodic technical issues in the past, according to user reports compiled by StatusGator’s dedicated tracking page for the service. Previous complaints have included customers unable to complete shipping labels through the company’s website, with one user describing a persistent “spinning wheel” when attempting to reach the payment and printing stage of the shipping process, and another reporting a broader website glitch that repeatedly reloaded pages and blocked access to billing and payment features.

Other user comments compiled by outage-tracking site Outage.Report reflect a range of specific complaints tied to different parts of UPS’s digital ecosystem, including one customer reporting an inability to access a package locker through the company’s Yeep app, a UPS-affiliated delivery locker service, describing the malfunction as leaving them “no way to open a locker.” That same tracking service noted more broadly on a separate recent check that UPS appeared to be functioning within its typical report volume for the time of day, suggesting that any given spike in complaints does not necessarily indicate a sustained, company-wide outage.

UPS, formally United Parcel Service, operates one of the largest package delivery and supply chain management networks in the world, handling shipments for millions of individual customers and businesses across international markets. Given that scale, even brief disruptions to the company’s tracking and shipping platforms can generate outsized public attention, since delayed access to shipment status information or an inability to generate shipping labels can directly affect time-sensitive business operations and personal deliveries alike.

As of this report, UPS had not issued a public statement addressing the scope, cause or expected resolution timeline for Tuesday’s reported issues. The company’s official service status information is typically communicated through its customer support channels rather than a dedicated public status page comparable to those maintained by some technology companies, meaning affected customers experiencing ongoing problems have generally been directed to UPS’s customer service line or social media support accounts for the most direct updates regarding any active service disruption.

Apple CEO John Ternus marked his first day in the top job at the tech giant on Tuesday, with the company embarking on a new era after former CEO Tim Cook stepped down from the role after 15 years.

Cook, who will remain with Apple as the company’s executive chairman, saw the diversification of its product offerings with the release of devices including the Apple Watch and AirPods, as well as its growth into services through offerings like Apple Pay.

The company also saw explosive growth, becoming the first publicly traded U.S. company to surpass $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018 – which has since surged to about $4.75 trillion.

Ternus is an Apple veteran who has worked at the company since 2001, primarily in its product design and hardware engineering teams. He joined the executive team in 2021, and his tenure has involved designing and managing the hardware for Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and Airpods, while he also oversaw the transition to in-house Apple Silicon chips across most of its major product lines.

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Newly-minted Apple CEO John Ternus has worked at the company since 2001 with a focus on hardware design and engineering. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Leander Kahney, the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac and the author of six books about Apple, told FOX Business that he thinks it’s “a great thing that he comes from a product background because he has that sort of product focus, and Steve Jobs obviously had that too… he was the consummate product guy.”

“I think there’s a continuum between Jobs and Cook and now Ternus, and it’s that focus on products,” Kahney said. “John has worked on every major product that Apple has put out in the Tim Cook era, and he’s deep in the weeds.”

Kahney said that Apple’s focus on manufacturing allows it to make a range of consumer products, but that requires a “deep, deep expertise in how to make things, and Ternus definitely has that.”

“He’s deeply invested in Apple culture, he knows how Apple works, he’s got a great team of people around him,” Kahney added.

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Apple is moving to diversify its base of chip manufacturers amid the memory chip shortage. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

One area where Apple has been perceived by some observers as lagging in recent years was in the deployment of AI tools, particularly following the rollout of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and other competing chatbots.

Kahney said that Apple was moving much more slowly and taking a cautious approach to developing AI models, it has avoided privacy issues related to the deployment of those tools. He added that the company’s development of hardware that’s capable of running AI models presents “a good argument that Apple isn’t lagging at all.”

He said that Apple has been building neural engines and AI hardware into its devices which has helped drive demand for Mac products amid the AI boom, creating an “enormous installed base of very, very capable AI devices that they can take advantage of when they start rolling out the models for it.”

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Tim Cook will remain with Apple as the company’s executive chairman. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Apple has recently announced price increases for various products due to the shortage of memory chips, as well as the time it takes for new chip fabs to be built and begin production.

TSMC, a key partner of Apple, is building plants outside of Phoenix that are expected to eventually produce cutting-edge chips and also handle the packaging of them in the years ahead – though the chip manufacturer also faces heavy demand from AI hyperscalers that can strain its capacity in the near-term.

“It’s a huge challenge, but it’s a challenge for everyone in the consumer electronics space. Everyone’s coming up short of the chips they need because the AI companies are pouring such enormous amounts of money into the data center buildout,” Kahney said.

He noted that Apple has sought to diversify its base of chip suppliers by turning to Intel, which it relied on exclusively for more than a decade to power its Mac product line, as well as some iPhone designs, before it opted to shift its chip design work in-house.

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“This is smart of Apple to diversify its suppliers and to support a previous partner that was obviously very successful for them in the Intel era before it went a bit sideways,” he said.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent detailed an aggressive campaign of economic “asphyxiation” against Iran, warning that the Trump administration could strip banks, firms or other entities that do business with the regime of access to the U.S. dollar-based financial system.

During a fireside chat with FOX Business’ Larry Kudlow on Tuesday at the G20 Finance Ministerial in Asheville, North Carolina, Bessent said the U.S. had identified the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) offshore accounts held by trust companies and luxury real estate holdings.

“Countries that go against this embargo, you’ll cut them off,” Kudlow prefaced, referencing the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports. “Secondary sanctions, you take them out of the U.S. dollar system, you’d take them out of the U.S. banking system, you take them out of the Federal Reserve wire, take them out of the SWIFT ledger?”

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“That’s what happened to this bank in Dubai, and it could be entities, it could be airline leasing companies, which we’ll be looking at. It could be anyone who does business with the IRGC, we are tracking down the IRGC’s assets, and I will say it on worldwide TV, just so you know,” Bessent warned, “we know where in the British Virgin Islands your accounts are at these trust companies, we know the $100 million houses you have around the world, and we are going to freeze those.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attends an event announcing the expansion of a foster care initiative in the Rose Garden of the White House on August 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

“We are going to our partners, we are going to close all of that down. So we are going to go after the regime’s illegitimate assets that they have stolen from the Iranian people, and those can go back to the Iranian people, or they can go to the victims of terror, like the families of the soldiers who are on the USS Cole,” Bessent continued.

Bessent first announced on Aug. 24 that America would impose the economic equivalent of the military campaign that defeated Nazi Germany against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Bessent’s declaration of economic warfare comes after President Donald Trump’s commitment to launch an “economic D-Day” against the Tehran regime. The comprehensive U.S. economic pressure campaign targeting Iran’s already troubled economy could have dramatic effects on the country’s population of more than 90 million people.

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“We will stop this regime’s ability to have a nuclear weapon, to have their current highly-enriched uranium to project terrorist power through their proxy networks and to terrorize the Gulf,” Bessent said. “And we are telling people, either you are with us or against us.”

“And everyone says to me, ‘Well, what about China? I said, we have more in common with the Chinese on Iran than we disagree with [them] on. The Chinese agree — Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The Chinese agree that there should be freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. So we have had private discussions with them in terms of achieving those goals.”

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Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.