Business

Inflation is easing, unemployment is low and the job market is strong — and most entrepreneurs believe a recession is on the way. About 61% of small-business owners expect a recession in the year ahead, according to JPMorgan Chase’s annual Business Leaders outlook survey. About 65% of midsize business owners expect a recession in 2023. Despite expectations for a recession, the survey found business owners remain bullish about their own companies’ prospects, with 72% of small-business owners and 66% of midsize business owners optimistic about 2023. Perhaps most importantly, additional surveys show many businesses projecting higher revenue and profits — a trend that could bode well in the months to come.

Under Armour Inc. stores will become testing sites for new retail shoe fitting technology, the latest effort to build market share in the growing athletic footwear market. Volumental, a shoe fitting technology company that is known for scanning feet to find the perfect shoe, recently announced an agreement with Under Armour to test its new self-service foot scanning technology at select retail stores and in outlets and brand houses. The deal comes a few months after Under Armour (NYSE: UAA) released its new SlipSpeed shoe and as a new CEO, Stephanie Linnartz, prepares to take charge with a mandate to get the company growing again after a tough few years. While Under Armour started out focusing on athletic apparel, the company is looking to grow in the athletic footwear market, the area that leads the athletic apparel industry.

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center announced Tuesday that it is one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for 2023, according to new research released by Healthgrades, a marketplace connecting doctors and patients. This achievement puts UM St. Joseph Medical Center in the top 2% of hospitals nationwide for overall clinical performance across the most common conditions and procedures. This is the 4th consecutive year (2020-2023) UM St. Joseph Medical Center is among America’s Best. Healthgrades evaluated patient mortality and complication rates for 31 of the most common conditions and procedures at nearly 4,500 hospitals across the country to identify the top-performing hospitals.

West Nursery Cinemas, a staple in Linthicum for nearly 25 years, has “closed for business,” according to a message on the theater’s phone line. The theater, which opened as Hoyts West Nursery Cinema 14 in 1998, served Linthicum’s Airport Square Technology Park near BWI Marshall Airport for nearly a quarter century. On Tuesday, the theater’s website offered no future showtimes or movies coming soon. Messages sent to the theater’s social media pages were not returned. The 57,300-square-foot building opened to much fanfare at a cost of $8.5 million, The Baltimore Sun reported in March 1998.

Two graduates of the University of Maryland are back at Maryland sports games — but this time, instead of sitting in the stands, they’re offering rechargeable power banks that students can rent to charge their phones. The power banks are from JUUCE, a company founded by David Greenfield, who graduated in 2020 with a degree in finance and supply chain management, and Pouya Susanabadi, who graduated in 2019 with a dual degree in physiology and neurobiology and psychology.

Otis Warren Jr., a self-made businessman who became the first Black person to construct an office building in downtown Baltimore, died Tuesday at Sinai Hospital. His son, Otis Warren III, said he died of complications from “a health issue that occurred two years ago.” Mr. Warren was 80 and had homes in the Village of Cross Keys and in Florida. In 1993, he opened his $38 million, 11-story City Crescent building at Howard and Baltimore streets. “I had a philosophical and emotional need to make this happen for my community,” he said to The Sun of the successfully completed structure. “Beyond the money, it was a purpose. It was a cause.”