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☆ Pay for low-wage workers grew 'tremendously fast' in the last 3 years—but experts don't think it'll last
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

It's the biggest hike they've seen in decades as measured by business cycles, which are periods of economic growth followed by a contraction and possible recession. "This finding really popped out at me that low wage workers saw this tremendously fast wage growth over the last three years," says Elise Gould, senior economist at EPI and co-author of the report. These were especially crucial for those in low wage industries like leisure hospitality that were hit the hardest. When jobs eventually did come back, workers looked for the best offers they could find, and otherwise "demanded more." The pool of applicants was smallerThe pool of workers seeking out low-wage jobs also got smaller during the pandemic, giving those remaining more leverage.

☆ Here’s how we navigated three sessions of SVB-sparked chaos and Tuesday’s bounce
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The S & P 500 climbed roughly 1% in afternoon Tuesday trading, clawing back only some of its 3.4% decline between Thursday and Monday's close. We spent Monday morning looking for things to buy in what our trusted S & P Oscillator signaled was an oversold market. In the three sessions Thursday through Monday, both stocks underperformed the S & P 500 as they fell 5.4% and 4.4%, respectively. Palo Alto didn't get either nod, but we think it's only a matter of time before its added to the index. While S & P 500 constituency wasn't in the cards this time, we will continue to add to our position into weakness.

☆ Banks are sweetening the interest rates on their CDs. Here’s what you should know before you jump in
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Darla Mercado | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Bank CDs are among the fixed-income investments that are enjoying a surge in popularity as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. Lately, CDs from online banks are seeing higher rates on 1-year instruments. Another key benefit of bank CDs: At a time when Silicon Valley Bank's failure highlighted the safety of bank deposits, it's worth noting that bank CDs are protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. See below for the latest rates on 1-year CDs from online banks as of March 10, according to the firm. When rates fall, you can rely on longer-dated CDs that have already locked in the higher yield.

☆ New home sales rise as prices drop in January
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —New home sales rose in January from December, as mortgage rates eased off their highs of the past year at the start of 2023. Sales of new single‐family houses were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 670,000 last month, up from a revised 625,000 in December. Mortgage rates eased in January and ended the month nearly a point lower than they were at the beginning of November when they topped 7%. But in addition to volatile mortgage rates, another challenge for many buyers has been finding homes on the market to buy. “The backlog of new construction homes continues to emerge into the market just in time for the spring shopping season,” she said.

☆ Gold miner Newmont misses quarterly profit estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Newmont Corp (NEM.N) on Thursday fell short of Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit, as the world's largest gold miner struggled with lower prices and increased costs. Average realized gold prices fell 2.2% to $1,758 per ounce in the quarter from a year earlier, while all-in sustaining cost for gold, an industry metric that reflects total expenses associated with production, rose 15% to $1,215 per ounce. Earlier this month, Australia's Newcrest Mining Ltd (NCM.AX) rebuffed Newmont's $16.9 billion takeover bid, but left the door open for a better offer. A source familiar with management's thinking previously told Reuters that Newmont was open to sweetening its offer. Denver, Colorado-based Newmont said attributable gold production for the fourth quarter rose marginally to 1.63 million ounces from 1.62 million ounces in the previous year quarter.

Newcrest, which was spun out of Newmont in the 1990s, rejected the offer last week as too low. But one of Newmont's largest shareholders told Reuters it would not want the company overpaying for its rival. Palmer said that regardless of the outcome of the Newcrest bid, Newmont will develop its 16 billion pounds of copper reserves. Newmont said attributable gold production for the fourth quarter edged up to 1.63 million ounces from 1.62 million ounces in the comparable period a year ago. For 2023, Newmont has given a production guidance between 5.7 million and 6.3 million ounces of gold and guided for an all-in sustaining cost between $1,150 and $1,250 per ounce.

The Newcrest acquisition by Newmont, if successful, could result in the enlarged company shedding some assets. Bristow stuck to the company's 'build, not buy' approach and ruled out the possibility that Barrick would launch a counter bid for Newcrest. Newmont's offer implied a 21% premium to Newcrest's share price. Barrick last month reported a 13.4% rise in gold production as access to high-grade ore at its Cortez and Carlin mines in Nevada powered a "strong finish" to the fourth quarter. Production for the year, however, was 4.1 million ounces of gold, down from 4.4 million ounces in 2021.

☆ Walmart raises minimum wage as retail labor market remains tight
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Melissa Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Walmart said Tuesday it is raising its minimum wage for store employees to $14 an hour, representing a roughly 17% jump for the workers who stock shelves and cater to customers. Starting in early March, store employees will make between $14 and $19 an hour. About 340,000 store employees will get a raise because of the move, Hatfield said. Some of those pay increases will also go toward store employees who work in parts of the country where the labor market is more competitive, the company said. Target , for instance, announced in 2017 it would gradually raise its minimum wage and reached $15 an hour in July 2020.

☆ As consumer spending slows, Club holding TJX is the off-price retailer to own
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

That's likely to make off-price retailers like Club holding TJX Companies (TJX) even more attractive to many Americans looking for cost-saving deals in the new year. Total retail sales in the U.S. dropped 1.1% in December month-on-month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, in the second consecutive monthly decline. Retail sales had fallen by 1% in November. Morgan Stanley analysts expect off-price retailers to benefit from consumers shifting spending habits away from high-end shopping toward discounts. Off-price retailers like TJX have a great opportunity to snag a wide range of merchandise from big-box retailers with elevated inventory for very cheap prices.

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☆ Amazon Expands Music Catalog and Podcasts Ad-Free for Prime Members
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Anne Steele | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Amazon Music will extend a full offering of music and podcasts without ads to members under the existing $139 annual Prime membership fee. Amazon.com Inc. is making more ad-free music and podcasts available to Prime members, sweetening its offering as competitors increasingly bundle entertainment with other services. Amazon Music will extend a full catalog of music and podcasts without ads to its members under the existing $139 annual Prime membership fee, the company said, seeking to draw more customers to its audio services. Starting Tuesday, Prime members, who have so far been able to listen to about 2 million songs for free, will now have access to 100 million songs—the same full catalog offered on paid streaming audio services.

LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Rio Tinto’s (RIO.L), (RIO.AX) increasingly epic minority buyout saga may have a bit further to run. Rio only needs a simple majority of Turquoise’s minorities to simplify its Mongolian operations by controlling Turquoise outright. Rio can point to recessionary fears that have dampened the copper price to $3.7 a pound of late, and the project’s ongoing and significant investment requirements. Copper price graphicFollow @karenkkwok on Twitter(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. This is a “fraction” of the free cash flow Pentwater expects Turquoise Hill to generate over the next 10 years.

☆ The CEO of a plant-science startup that's raised $27 million shares the biggest lessons he learned about pitching investors while at Y Combinator
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-08 | by ( Sasha Weilbaker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He was accepted into Y Combinator and adjusted his pitch to focus on a quick business sell. Since Y Combinator, the company has secured $27 million from three funding rounds. This led to the founding of The Supplant Company. Companies like Airbnb, Instacart, Dropbox, and more have gotten their starts through Y Combinator. "One of the hard things I learned at Y Combinator is the difference between doing what's right for the business versus doing what you want to do," Simmons said.

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☆ JetBlue to buy Spirit for $3.8 billion in push to become the fifth-largest US carrier
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-28 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In this article ULCCJBLUSAVEwatch nowJetBlue Airways has reached a $3.8 billion deal to buy Spirit Airlines in a takeover that would create the country's fifth-largest airline and remove a fast-growing budget carrier from the market. Spirit lacked the shareholder support to win approval of the Frontier merger, which was first unveiled in February. If approved by regulators, JetBlue's takeover of Spirit would leave Frontier as the largest discount carrier in the U.S. It would also be the first major U.S. airline deal since 2016, when Alaska Airlines beat out JetBlue for Virgin America. A JetBlue airliner lands past a Spirit Airlines jet on taxi way at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport on Monday, April 25, 2022.

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