Business News Roundup, Dec. 30

Ending a year in which it was criticized for a lack of diversity in its workforce, Twitter has hired a new executive in charge of dealing with the issue.

Jeffrey Siminoff has replaced Janet Van Huysse as the company’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, according to tweets written by Siminoff and Van Huysse.

Siminoff, 50, was previously head of diversity at Apple, and he co-founded Out Leadership, a lesbian, gay and transgender advocacy organization.

Twitter confirmed Siminoff’s hiring on Tuesday, but declined to comment on the criticisms that it had faced over its number of female and minority employees.

Employees at Twitter have openly discussed Twitter’s difficulties in hiring and retaining women and minorities, an issue that arose most recently in November, after the San Francisco company cut more than 300 jobs.

Van Huysse, Twitter’s diversity head at the time, wrote in a blog post in August that Twitter had set a goal to have women account for 16 percent of tech roles and 25 percent of leadership roles.

Twitter was committed to becoming a more diverse company “to reflect the vast range of people who use Twitter,” Van Huysse wrote.

Steady job growth, low mortgage rates and tight inventories helped fuel rising U.S. home prices in October.

Strong hiring has bolstered a real estate market still recovering from the housing bust that began about eight years ago.

Home sales have increased this year as the 5 percent unemployment rate has strengthened confidence in the economy.

An improving job market lifted consumer confidence in December, a business group said Tuesday.

The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index rose to 96.5 this month from November’s revised 92.6.

“As 2015 draws to a close, consumers’ assessment of the current state of the economy remains positive, particularly their assessment of the job market.,” said Lynn Franco, the group’s director of economic indicators.

KaloBios, the biotech company formerly run by Martin Shkreli, says that it is appealing a decision by Nasdaq to delist the company from its stock market.