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☆ Yes, there are some products you really should skip at TJ Maxx - but here's a few more you should definitely buy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

We consulted a shopping expert and several blogs and online reviews to find the best and worst products at TJ Maxx. Here are 23 products to buy at TJ Maxx and eight to consider skipping. According to the shopping expert Michelle Madhok, TJ Maxx's primary appeal is the opportunity for discovery. Another expert tip is to hit TJ Maxx on Wednesdays, which is when most of the stores restock with new products, Madhok said. With that in mind, here are 23 products to buy at TJ Maxx and eight you should skip.

☆ M&A Is Expected to Pick Up in 2023 as Companies Adapt to Tougher Conditions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

But many companies adapted, structuring deals to sidestep market volatility and minimize financing costs. Deal advisers expect M&A to pick up in 2023 following last year’s slump, though when that will happen remains an open question. That is especially true in the technology and healthcare sectors, where deals for high-growth companies are most common, she said. In addition to macroeconomic pressures, companies faced a tougher regulatory environment in 2022, with antitrust enforcers globally applying greater scrutiny to large transactions. Demand for such facilities in the U.S. jumped 17% in 2022 through Dec. 29 compared with the full-year 2021, to $317.3 billion, according to Dealogic.

☆ Rising Interest Rates Imperil Remodeling Mania
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Ryan Dezember | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Higher interest rates have slowed home sales. Now, rising borrowing costs threaten to put the brakes on the renovation boom. Spending on home remodeling and renovation by stuck-at-home Americans helped the economy surge out of lockdown in 2020. Demand overwhelmed makers of paint, wood panels and PVC pipe, leading to shortages. Lumber prices shot to more than twice the old record.

Indian companies raised around 5.38 trillion rupees ($64.95 billion) through private placements in 2022, largely aided by the banking system's massive cash surplus, data showed. Public issues were only to the tune of around 80 billion rupees. Indian companies raised 127.1 billion rupees and 175.3 billion rupees through public issues in 2020 and 2021 respectively, SEBI data showed. Fundraising through private placement stood at 8 trillion rupees and 6.31 trillion rupees respectively. "I think public issues are rising because the repricing of bank fixed deposits was very gradual, while public issues are realigning to market realities much faster," said Sudhir Agrawal, executive vice president and fixed income fund manager at UTI Mutual Fund.

☆ Top Marketers Are Turning Their Side Projects Into Legitimate Businesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Turning side projects into stand-alone businesses or full-time occupations can be difficult or even impossible for chief marketing officers, whose jobs have become increasingly demanding and complex. “I loved the idea of Paris, especially as a place that I might someday pluck up the courage to start the company,” said Ms. Howard. Dashlane was unaware that Ms. Howard was developing a new company until she announced her resignation, she said. Soon after he left the soft-drink giant, Mr. Cottrill received a call from industry veteran Gary Koepke. New ideas, new challengesWorking on side projects has helped marketers develop different skill-sets and, in some cases, explore new careers.

Canada is in the midst of building a large terminal to export LNG, but its completion is two years away. Canadian gas production is on track to reach a record 18 bcfd in 2022 and 19 bcfd in 2023, according to energy consultancy Rystad Energy. Pipelines are also constrained in Canada due to swift production growth, particularly TC Energy Corp's (TRP.TO) NGTL pipeline system that ships gas around and out of western Canada. In August, gas prices in Alberta briefly turned negative because of bottlenecks stemming from NGTL maintenance. U.S. LNG exports are expected to reach 10.6 bcfd in 2022 and 12.3 bcfd in 2023, according to federal estimates.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - PepsiCo plans to roll out 100 heavy-duty Tesla Semis in 2023, when it will start using the electric trucks to make deliveries to customers like Walmart and Kroger, the soda maker's top fleet official told Reuters on Friday. PepsiCo is the first company to experiment with the battery-powered Tesla Semis as a way of cutting its environmental impact. When Tesla starts building them, PepsiCo "will rotate those up" into its fleet, he said. PepsiCo declined to share details on the price of the trucks, a figure that Tesla has kept quiet. O'Connell said that a 425-mile (684-km) trip carrying Frito-Lay products brings the Semi's battery down to roughly 20%, and recharging it takes around 35 to 45 minutes.

PepsiCo, which ordered the Semis in 2017, is the first company to experiment with them as a way of cutting its environmental impact. PepsiCo is deploying 36 electric trucks from Tesla, with 15 in Modesto and 21 in Sacramento, so far. When Tesla starts building them, PepsiCo "will rotate those up" into its fleet, he said. PepsiCo declined to share details on the price of the trucks, a figure that Tesla has kept quiet. O'Connell said that a 425-mile (684-km) trip carrying Frito-Lay products brings the Semi's battery down to roughly 20%, and recharging it takes around 35 to 45 minutes.

☆ Freight Brokerage RXO Will Focus on Tech Investments, CFO Says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

RXO, which before the transaction accounted for roughly a third of XPO’s total revenue, matches freight loads with available trucks on the spot and contract markets. A priority for Mr. Harris, who was appointed to the CFO post in September ahead of the spinoff, is investing in digital capabilities for shippers and carriers. Approximately two-thirds of the company’s total capital budget will go toward technology, with the remainder focused on maintenance-related costs, Mr. Harris said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CFO Journal The Morning Ledger provides daily news and insights on corporate finance from the CFO Journal team. Among the advantages of being an independent company is RXO now has more control over its capital budget, Mr. Harris said.

☆ Albertsons’ $4 Billion Dividend Payout Remains Blocked as Washington State Attorney General Seeks Appeal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kroger is the top U.S. supermarket operator by sales. A Washington state judge on Friday extended a temporary restraining order blocking a $4 billion dividend that Albertsons Cos. planned to pay its shareholders amid its plans to be bought by Kroger Co.Judge Ken Schubert for the King County Superior Court in Washington sided with Albertsons and Kroger, allowing Albertsons to pay the dividend. The ruling came after the state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit in November against the companies to block the dividend.

☆ Albertsons’ $4 Billion Dividend Payout Remains Blocked
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Who Is—and Isn’t—Getting a Holiday Bonus This Year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Ray A. Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This year’s Christmas bonuses are complicated by economic jitters and rounds of layoffs in technology, media and beyond. Many big businesses have said they would pay year-end bonuses to workers after a strong year. Lowe’s Cos., the home-improvement chain, is spending $200 million on bonus pay for its hourly workers, while the Venetian Resort Las Vegas will give $1,500 to every employee. Others, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are slashing their coming round of bonus payments.

☆ New Tax on Buybacks Is Weeks Away, but Finance Chiefs Aren’t Too Worried
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

A new corporate tax on stock buybacks hasn’t worried finance chiefs enough for them to rethink their strategy. For Bolingbrook, Ill.-based Ulta Beauty Inc., a maker of beauty products, the impact of the tax will be minimal, finance chief Scott Settersten said. The company’s board in March authorized a new buyback program that enables Ulta Beauty to repurchase up to $2 billion in shares. It is set to be levied on net buybacks, meaning total shares repurchased minus new shares issued during the year. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS How will the new tax on stock buybacks affect company repurchase plans in the years ahead?

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☆ Morning Bid: Bonds lap up crude, costs and Canada
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The big consensus bet of 2023 is already in full swing - bonds are bid. With year-on-year oil price gains evaporating to zero, that is dragging inflation expectations down in lockstep. The exception was in Hong Kong, which the Hang Seng benchmark (.HSI) has now recouped all this year's underperformance versus world indices and the S&P500. The Hang Seng added another 3% on Thursday as the Hong Kong government loosened its COVID-19 curbs further. The isolation period for patients and contacts will be cut to five days from seven days and requirements for arrivals to Hong Kong to undergo daily tests will similarly be reduced to five days.

☆ Ad Firms Predict Slower Advertising Growth for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Major advertising forecasting firms say global advertising growth in 2023 will be slower than previously predicted. Automotive advertising could grow again after a period of moderate decline as the industry gradually emerges from the supply-chain crisis, the firm added. A separate forecast from media and data giant GroupM, part of WPP PLC, predicted that global advertising revenue will grow 5.9% next year, a downgrade from its 6.4% estimate in June. GroupM said global advertising revenue this year will grow 6.5%, excluding political advertising, down from its June forecast of 8.4%. Growth in China will be less than expected because of that country’s pandemic-related lockdowns, the firm said.

☆ Markets looking for the next catalyst might latch on to worries about 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Markets could be volatile and in search of a catalyst in the week ahead, as investors consider year-end trades in the lull before the Federal Reserve's December 13-14 policy meeting. Stocks were higher in the past week, with the year's worst performing sectors, communications services and consumer discretionary companies, leading the gains. On the geopolitical front, Arone said investors will watch the Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia's senate race . Week ahead calendar Monday Earnings: Sumo Logic , Gitlab 9:45 a.m. Services PMI 10:00 a.m. ISM services 10:00 a.m. Initial jobless claims 10:00 a.m. Quarterly services survey Friday 8:30 a.m. PPI 10:00 a.m. Consumer sentiment 10:00 a.m. Wholesale trade

☆ Some Retailers Are Learning to Love Bulked-Up Inventories
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Discount retailers Burlington Stores Inc. and TJX Cos. are among those happy to stock up as other merchants look to off-load goods. “Last year, our store inventories were just too lean going into the spring,” Mr. O’Sullivan said on a Nov. 22 call with analysts. The overall retail sector’s ratio of inventories to sales, a measure of how much companies have in stock compared with what they sell, remains tight by historical standards. The ratio for inventories to sales at those stores was 1.54 in September, up sharply from 1.39 in September 2019, according to Census Bureau figures. The company reported inventories rose 44% in the latest quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.

☆ Meta is downsizing at New York location it opened in 2019
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Buildings in Hudson Yards from a new Meta office space in the Farley Building in New York, U.S., on Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Meta is scaling back its presence at a prime New York City location as the social media giant tries to reduce its costs to work through a slowing online ad market. The company said Wednesday it is subleasing a "small portion" of its facilities at 50 Hudson Yards, one of New York's largest commercial towers. Meta completed a lease with Hudson Yards in 2019 for more than 1.5 million square feet of office space, which included three Hudson Yards buildings. The report said Meta now leases over 250,000 square feet of space across two Hudson Yards towers.

☆ Kroger, Albertsons Expected to Defend Grocery Merger at Senate Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An Atlanta store operated by Kroger, the largest U.S. supermarket chain by sales. Chief executives of the two largest U.S. supermarket chains are set to testify Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee hearing, where they are expected to defend their companies’ proposed $20 billion merger and address questions about how it could affect American grocers and consumers. Kroger Co. CEO Rodney McMullen and Albertsons Cos. CEO Vivek Sankaran are expected to testify before the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah).

Nov 28 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields were higher on Monday after rare protests in China over the country's strict zero-COVID policies clouded the outlook for global growth and inflation. "The market is more concerned about the impact on inflation than the impact on growth," he added. Germany's 10-year government bond yield was up 4 basis points (bps) at 2.008%, after rising 12 bps on Friday. The gap between the 2-year and 10-year government bond yields rose to -20 bps. Italy's 10-year yield rose 8 bps to 3.94% pushing the closely watched spread between Italian and German 10-year yields wider by 5 bps to 191 bps.

“There’s no such thing as a set forecast right now,” said Sophie Kelly, senior vice president of whiskies at Diageo North America, speaking at the same event. The firm, a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Mediabrands, cut its growth forecast for next year to 4.8% from an earlier prediction of 5.8% in June. Organic revenue growth is a metric that removes the effects of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and disposals. Airbnb Inc. slashed its advertising spending and invested in brand marketing, lessening its reliance on search-engine marketing. “We knew that people are changing their behavior,” said William White, Walmart’s chief marketing officer.

☆ The C-Suite Survival Guide to Inflation and Economic Turbulence
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Brian Hershberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

C-suite executives and other business leaders are planning for a period where inflation is sticky, interest rates are rising, the geopolitical landscape is fraught with tumult and the economy is slowing. U.S. retailers, for instance, are struggling to balance consumer expectations for discounts and the need to keep raising prices to offset high inflation. Real-estate companies are finding it costly to hedge their floating-rate debt amid surging interest costs, and even highly rated companies are pursuing term loans instead of bonds to save on interest costs. In Europe, the war in Ukraine is driving inflation, food shortages, and the prospect of a long, cold winter. Here is how marketing executives can continue to sell their brands to consumers during tight times.

☆ Zero-Based Budgeting, Currency Hedges Among the Tools CFOs Can Use to Weather Headwinds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

One area to which finance chiefs scouting for efficiencies have turned is zero-based budgeting, a tool that gained popularity early in the pandemic and requires finance executives to question and justify each line item in every new budget period. Reese’s peanut-butter cup maker Hershey Co., based in Pennsylvania, regularly goes through every line of its profit and loss statement, Finance Chief Steve Voskuil said. Detroit-based General Motors Co. is slowing and in some areas even freezing hiring, and homing in on other fixed costs, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson has said. Facing high inflation and an uncertain outlook, finance chiefs are using zero-based budgeting to lower expenses in areas including operations, real estate, logistics, sales and marketing. Finance executives at large U.S. companies, including Coca-Cola Co. and materials-science company Dow Inc., are increasing their foreign-currency hedges and covering longer time periods.

☆ Retailers’ Holiday Discounts Are Steeper This Year, CFOs Say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Some chief financial officers in the retail sector say markdowns are necessary to start the new year without the drag of excess stock on their shelves. Other CFOs say their companies view the promotional environment as an opportunity to attract more customers. Below is a roundup of retail CFOs’ remarks on this topic during recent earnings calls. All the surveys that we’ve seen would indicate that the value is going to be an important driver for the customer. Historically, we’ve managed a collection of four basic inventory levers: cancellations, [return-to-vendors], push outs and vendor allowances, or VAs.

☆ Investment Giant Fortress to Help Fund Kushner Takeover Bid of Rival Property Owner Veris
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Peter Grant | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fortress Investment Group has agreed to help finance Kushner Cos.’ unsolicited $4.3 billion bid to buy rival apartment building owner Veris Residential Inc., according to a letter from Fortress to Veris’s board. The Nov. 17 letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said affiliates of Fortress, a large investment management firm based in New York City, “are prepared to finance the debt and equity needed to consummate” Kushner’s $16 a share offer, subject to due diligence.

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