BUSINESS DIGEST ||

Digital investing

YOUNGSTOWN

Citizens Bank recently announced that it will offer digital investing capabilities for consumers through its affiliate Citizens Investment Services, as part of its growing Wealth Management platform. The service, expected to be available in early 2017, will be offered through an agreement with SigFig, a leading wealth management technology provider.

The digital investing service will provide customers with the ability to quickly and easily identify investment strategies that can be funded with an existing bank or brokerage account.

Forum canceled

WARREN

The Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center canceled its Founders’ Forum event that was scheduled for Thursday because of the weather. The event will be rescheduled.

New businesses up

COLUMBUS

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Thursday that 7,732 new entities filed to do business in Ohio during November 2016, an increase of 501 entities when compared with November 2015.

The state has maintained course for 2016 to be a record-breaking year for new businesses in Ohio with 6,139 more entities having filed to do business in Ohio this year than at the same point in 2015, which has the current annual record. Between 2010 and 2015, Ohio saw a 21.8 percent increase in new business filings.

GM testing

DETROIT

On the heels of the signing of the SAVE Act legislation to support autonomous vehicle testing and deployment in Michigan, General Motors will immediately begin testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. GM also announced it will produce the next generation of its autonomous test vehicles at its Orion Township assembly plant beginning in early 2017.

Testing is already underway on GM’s Technical Center campus in Warren, Mich., and with the passage of the SAVE Act legislation will now expand to public roads on the facility’s outskirts. Within the next few months, testing will expand to metro Detroit, which will become GM’s main location for development of autonomous technology in winter climates.

Feds net $1.7M in leasing parts of forest in Ohio

MARIETTA

Oil-and-gas drilling companies from five states have paid more than $1.7 million for the right to explore parts of Ohio’s only national forest with future hydraulic fracturing in mind.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday that the federal agency leased 759 acres of land in Wayne National Forest to fossil fuel development companies in Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Colorado and Oklahoma.

Environmental groups protested the federal government’s auctioning of mineral rights in the southeast Ohio forest.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1229.79-0.66

Aqua America, .71 29.890.14

Avalon Holdings,2.950.19

Chemical Bank, .2723.34-0.36Community Health Sys.5.43 0.11

Cortland Bancorp, .2817.700.00Farmers Nat., .1615.051.00

First Energy, 1.44 31.320.03

Fifth/Third, .5227.200.29

FirstMerit Corp.,21.610.37First Niles Financial, .129.500.00

FNB Corp., .4815.930.20General Motors, 1.5236.240.29

General Electric, .9231.26-0.24

Huntington Bank, .28 13.340.24

iHeartMedia Inc.,1.30-0.05

JP Morgan Chase, 1.9286.001.27

Key Corp, .3418.370.23

LaFarge, .34-0.00Macy’s, 1.51 40.14-0.02

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 143.002.80

PNC, 2.20115.631.43

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.60180.00-1.28

Stoneridge 17.790.02

United Comm. Fin., .12 9.240.09

Selected prices from Thursday’s

4 p.m. close.