Riding the Rails Midweek, things looked bleak for the nation’s railroad network. But after a marathon negotiating session, the Biden administration announced a tentative deal had been reached to avoid a rail strike. Analysts warned a work stoppage of that kind would snarl transportation of goods and workers, upending the [...]
Tough Love This week’s CPI report served up tough love for both bulls and hopeful doves. The rally that took us back above 4,000 on the S&P 500 was put to a painful end on Tuesday, when the S&P fell 4.3% and the Nasdaq tumbled 5.2% on the heels of [...]
Underway This Week The North American International Auto Show, more commonly known as the Detroit auto show, is back. This year, it’s being held in the relatively balmy September weather, after taking place during frigid January temperatures for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a three-year hiatus, and the show’s [...]
Next Month’s Deadline April 15 is traditionally known as tax day. But for a record 19 million taxpayers that filed for an extension this spring, the new date to be aware of is October 17. With just over a month to go, many individuals and accountants say they’re busy. Throughout [...]
Predicting A Slow Holiday Season Record-high inflation has been the story of 2022. The latest CPI shows that’s still the main plotline as prices rose 8.3% on an annual basis in August. For reference, that’s nearly quadruple the normal rate of inflation. Right now, Americans are spending more on staples [...]
Improving Worker Conditions At an investor briefing yesterday, Starbucks (SBUX) laid out plans to overhaul certain aspects of the coffee giant’s strategy. This partially involves the introduction of new technology that aims to prevent individual stores from being overwhelmed during peak business hours. Known as “load balancing,” the system allows [...]
Learning From the Past Conventional wisdom says that companies should slow down spending when facing a recession. After all, since people are spending less, it makes sense that companies should be more conservative regarding their cash flows. But, according to data from consulting firm Gartner, that thinking may actually be [...]
Apple Leading the Charge When Apple (AAPL) introduced its new iPhone 14 last week, it also announced a new emergency-text feature. It gives users the ability to beam short distress messages and location data even in areas where traditional cell service or Wi-Fi is unavailable. Apple says the feature will [...]
Lending Focus Citi (C) is the latest big bank to take steps aimed at making homeownership a more equitable process. Last week it announced a new set of programs that will look to make its lending products more accessible within diverse communities. Called HomeRun, one such initiative is mortgages with [...]
Economic Data Today the New York Fed will release its inflation expectations survey for August. July’s report showed significant declines in expectations for inflation over the short, medium, and longer term. Consumers also indicated they expect price increases for food and gasoline to slow considerably a year from now. Tomorrow [...]
