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☆ Outrage over an $18 Big Mac sparked a consumer revolt that finally got companies to listen
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-25 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New CNN —Pop quiz: How much does a Big Mac, fries and a fountain beverage – also known as a Big Mac combo meal – cost? In a recent letter, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said $18 for a Big Mac combo was the “exception” and not the norm across all 13,700 restaurants in the country. The thing is: It doesn’t really matter that virtually no one is paying anything close to $18 for a Big Mac combo. “The average price of a Big Mac in the US was $4.39 in 2019,” Erlinger said in his recent letter. Behold: Price cuts and value menusI’d be willing to bet Erlinger was made aware of the viral $18 Big Mac combo post not long after it took off.

Persons: It’s, Joe Erlinger, Erlinger, it’s, They’re, ” Erlinger, aren’t, haven’t, Price, Christopher Kempczinski, they’ve, Ian Borden, they’re Organizations: CNN, McDonald’s, Mac, Consumer, Walgreens, Walmart, Wendy’s Locations: Connecticut, McDonald’s USA, Amazon

☆ Gen Z is full of financial angst despite inheriting a golden labor market
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Compared with Millennials, especially, who entered the workforce in the Dark Ages known as the Great Recession, the Gen Z experience is a dream. But Gen Z isn’t having an easy go of it either. Gen Z hasn’t had a chance to get a foot in the door. “Many Gen Zers also indicated their first step in managing behavioral-health challenges was going to TikTok or Reddit for advice,” the report said. It’s hard to blame them: Many in Gen Z had their formative school years blown up by a global pandemic.

Persons: CNN Business ’, Z, Zers —, ” Brendan Duke, they’re, haven’t, ” Duke, “, Z hasn’t, Duke, ‘, ”, Gen Zers, Zers, Gen Z, that’s, that’ll, We’re, X, Charles Schwab Organizations: CNN Business, New York CNN, Boomers, Center for American, Federal Reserve, McKinsey, Bloomberg Locations: New York

☆ Why are prices still so high? Corporate greed, some say.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Tami Luhby | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

While supply chain problems and high demand may have helped spur inflation early in the pandemic, Rosolino believes there’s another key reason why prices have soared and remained high: Corporate greed. It’s corporate greed.”Nick Rosolino feels businesses won't lower their prices as long as consumers keep spending. “Too many corporations raise prices to pad their profits, charging more and more for less and less,” Biden said. Companies are typically slower to reduce their prices when costs decline than they are to raise prices when their expenses jump. Corporate profits have contributed to inflation, though experts differ on the extent.

Persons: Nick Rosolino, Rosolino, there’s, ”, “ It’s, Nick Rosolino Reluctantly, Joe Biden, “, ” Biden, Cookie Monster, Lael Brainard, Goldman Sachs, Neil Bradley, Heather Vargas, ” Vargas, ” Heather Vargas, Heather Vargas Vargas, –, Kellogg, Gary Pilnick’s, Companies haven’t, Aaron Hackman, McKinley Conner, Aaron Hackman “, Hackman Organizations: CNN, America, White, Economic Council, Federal Reserve, Companies, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, US Chamber of Commerce, of Labor Statistics, “ Locations: Maine, New Gloucester , Maine, Portland, Heights , California, Fort Lauderdale , Florida

☆ The Fed probably won’t cut rates in March. Here’s what that means for markets
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-11 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Investors now expect that the Fed will begin easing back rates in May or June, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Before the Bell: What does the Fed’s signal that it won’t cut rates in March mean for markets? I think what’s important for the markets themselves is the fact that the Fed has signaled they’re going to cut rates. So, they’re going to cut rates at some point this year, probably May or June is going to be the first cut that we get. There’s a lot of areas where your earnings … start to reaccelerate higher, and that’s a good thing.

Persons: Stocks, Jerome Powell, Bell, Matt Orton, I’ve, We’re, it’s, Matt Egan, Read, Price Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Investors, Fed, Raymond James Investment Management, The Conference, Conference, Avis Budget Group, Hasbro, Cola, Molson Coors, The, Labor Statistics, Kraft, Heinz, The Commerce Department, National Association of Home Builders, University of Michigan Locations: New York, Wells Fargo

☆ Why companies like Kyte Baby keep screwing up, virally
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Office work has become a far less rigid affair in the era of remote collaboration and hybrid schedules. (Just ask me, I’m writing this in bed while wearing a hoodie and yoga pants on a Monday afternoon.) But a lot of companies haven’t updated their scripts when it comes to delivering hard news to their employees. And in both cases, the fired employees funneled their anger toward a social media audience that would have their backs. “The comments were right — it was scripted … I just basically read it, it wasn’t sincere,” she says in her second apology video.

Persons: CNN Business ’, —, that’s, Kyte Baby, “, James Haggerty, Eva Rothenberg, ” Kyte, Ying Liu, Liu, ”, “ I’ve, Matthew Prince, ” Prince, “ There’s Organizations: CNN Business, New York CNN, Corporate, Times Locations: New York, America

☆ Electric cars are having more problems, but not because they’re electric
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Electric vehicles have 79% more problems than other vehicles, according to Consumer Reports’ latest annual auto reliability survey. The problems arise because electric cars are mostly new models, and recently-introduced car models generally tend to have more issues, regardless of what propels them. Besides that, electric vehicles tend to be higher priced models with more sophisticated technology features, from additional safety sensors to more gadgets and doo-dads. Electric pickup trucks, in particular, tended to fare the worst in Consumer Reports’ reliability survey. Not all electric vehicles are so unreliable, though, according to Consumer Reports’ survey data.

Persons: Jake Fisher, haven’t, ”, Fisher, that’s, It’s, That’s Organizations: New, New York CNN —, Consumer, EV, Tesla, Ford, Nissan, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Kia Locations: New York

☆ 35,000 workers across 18 casinos will strike on Nov 10 if deal isn’t reached
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Taylor Romine | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 will strike on November 10 at 5 am PT if a contract is not agreed by then, they said in a news release Thursday. Thirty-five thousand workers would strike across 18 casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip if a five-year contract is not reached, the release said. In September, members voted 95% in favor of a strike authorization in Las Vegas, the unions said at the time. The two unions represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, and 53,000 workers were eligible to vote in September’s strike authorization, a release from the unions said at the time. Approximately 40,000 members were working under an expired contract that had ended earlier, they said.

Persons: “, haven’t, ” Ted Pappageorge Organizations: CNN, Culinary Workers Union Local, Bartenders Union, Las, Culinary Union Locations: Las Vegas, Reno

☆ Fiat, maker of Italian cars, is opening an apartment building in New Jersey
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Fiat, the Italian car brand best known in the United States for its tiny, retro-styled cars, is putting its name on an apartment building across the river from Manhattan. The Fiat House residences will be in a far more pragmatic location, near the western approaches to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Fiat House residents will have access to a car-sharing fleet of Fiat 500e electric cars, according to an announcement from Fiat and UNLMTD Real Estate. The building will include more than 300 apartment units ranging from studios to 2-bedrooms, some furnished, according to the announcement. While Fiat’s cars cost far less than those of ultra-luxury brands like Bentley and Aston Martin its sales have been similarly small in number.

Persons: CNN —, Aston Martin, George Washington, Fiat’s Organizations: CNN, CNN — Fiat, Fiat, Porsche, Bentley, Honda Locations: United States, Manhattan, South Florida, Fort Lee , New Jersey, New Jersey, New York City, UNLMTD

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares advanced Friday after the latest tumble on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 fell to its lowest level in five months. But investors are more concerned about what will happen rather than what has passed, and worry that a solid economy could continue to push prices higher. That could push the Fed to keep rates high for a long time to curb inflation. Higher interest rates could mean eventual weakness for the economy and corporate profits. And high bond yields make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments.

Persons: Australia’s, Taiex, haven’t, Wall, Brent Organizations: Nikkei, Statistics, Big Tech, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Facebook, Treasury, Federal Reserve, New York Mercantile Exchange Locations: HONG KONG, Gaza, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Israel, U.S

☆ US startups are having a bad year. Relief isn’t coming
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Across the country, in Silicon Valley, the situation isn’t quite as good. For decades Silicon Valley has been a dominant contributor to the US economy and an integral part of the country’s culture. Bankruptcy filings…less so.”Pitchbook and The National Venture Capital Association’s most recent report on the industry also takes a pessimistic view of the situation. What it means: While startups are certainly far from extinct, there has been a serious culling in Silicon Valley that will likely continue on for some time. Just 19% of venture capital deals were made with startups based in the Bay Area this year; that’s down from 22% in 2020.

Persons: haven’t, Tom Loverro, IVP, Pitchbook, ”, dealmakers, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, they’ll, they’re, Elizabeth Warren, Tesla, Elon Musk, Ramishah Maruf, Elon, “, ” Warren, funneling Tesla, Warren, Gary Gensler, Linda Yaccarino, Musk, CNN’s Justin Gamble, Bill Clinton, Jonah Bryson, “ We’ve, Michael D, Smith Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Apple, Microsoft, Venture, National Venture Capital, Goldman, Center for Research, Bank, SEC, Twitter, Securities and Exchange, AmeriCorps, CNN Locations: New York, Silicon Valley, Silicon, Massachusetts, America

☆ AI is booming in the stock market. Is it too late to invest?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Last Thursday, the S&P 500 entered a bull market — up 20% from its recent lows. But the market’s strength has been mostly driven by a handful of mega-cap tech stocks, Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta (META), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Nvidia (NVDA). Before the Bell: AI is causing a big market boom right now, but that boom also seems to be concentrated in mega-cap tech stocks. Everything you wanted to know about a bull market but were afraid to askThe US entered a bull market last Thursday, finally. A bear in bull’s clothes: A 20% lift from recent lows is generally accepted as the definition of the start of a bull market.

Persons: ”, Matt Bartolini, Bell, Pets.com, I’m, They’ve, Adam Turnquist, James Demmert, what’s, Jerome Powell’s Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Bank of America, Apple, Nvidia, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, SPDR, Street Global Advisors, Meta, US, LPL, Big Tech, Main, Research, Investors, Federal Reserve, P Global Market Intelligence, ▸, European Central Bank, ECB Locations: New York, Europe, SPDR Americas, Big, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong

☆ A drug company abandoned a treatment for ‘bubble boy disease.’ After a 5-year fight, this little girl is about to get it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elizabeth Cohen Lauren Mascarenhas | Elizabeth Cohen | Lauren Mascarenhas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +29 min

The Sulacks weighed their options: Have a transplant with a match that was less than ideal – far less – or wait for gene therapy to become available. The news release didn’t say anything else about the SCID gene therapy. Or was the company abandoning its plans for SCID gene therapy altogether? In February, 2021, the parents of more than 20 children who were waiting for the gene therapy treatment, including the Sulacks, wrote a letter to Gaspar. Insurance companies have sometimes balked at paying for gene therapy, which is typically given in one treatment.

☆ Corporate Tech Leaders Get Back to Basics
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

“It’s all about balancing priorities across both keeping the lights on, as well as new innovations, in order to support business needs,” said Sharmeelee Bala, Chief Information Officer at JCPenney. Photo: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg NewsThe era of the unicorn chief information officer is over, executive recruiters say. Many companies are now looking for IT chiefs who can deliver on the basics—including uptime, security and cost optimization—rather than tremendous innovators who can push boundaries and drive major change. To blame are tighter budgets, lower appetite for risk and a realization that some companies haven’t done a great job of keeping their foundational IT investments in order in the first place, recruiters said. The shift is a natural symptom of the economic cycle, they said.

☆ Premarket stocks: The job market is making traders' heads explode
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —The labor market ballooned in January when the US economy added an astonishing 517,000 jobs, blowing past Wall Street’s expectations. “It’s tough to say that… Some of those people making those layoffs are our clients.”Alaska Air Group noted a smaller number of tech workers and tech companies using their airline. In San Francisco, apartment rents have fallen and tech layoffs have further weakened the housing market. Manufacturing layoffs: While tech layoffs may not be a leading recession indicator, a decrease in manufacturing hiring could be an ominous sign of things to come. What’s next: Investors looking for clarity on a confusing labor market are unlikely to find it in the frequently revised, high-frequency weekly jobless claims data on Thursday.

☆ American Companies Face Pressure on the Margins
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Justin Lahart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Per-share earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to be down 2.2% in last year’s fourth quarter. Earnings at big public companies haven’t been growing all that much lately. Which isn’t to say that companies haven’t been extremely profitable. Earnings season is getting under way, and results for the final quarter of last year look to be underwhelming. Exclude those, and analysts estimate earnings fell by 6.7%.

☆ Zoom calls will soon work in Teslas
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Tesla drivers will soon be able to take a video call directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen dashboard, Zoom announced Tuesday. The video call provider announced on Tuesday during its annual Zoom (ZM)topia conference, where it typically teases new features to support remote calls, that its software is coming to Tesla (TSLA)’s built-in infotainment center. In a pre-recorded demo video shown at the event, a Tesla (TSLA) driver is seen taking a Zoom (ZM) call while recharging her vehicle. The Zoom news comes as Tesla faces growing competition in the electric vehicle market from established automakers such as Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors. SpaceX, for example, banned its employees from using Zoom in April 2020 over “significant privacy and security concerns.”

☆ New York’s Landmark AI Bias Law Prompts Uncertainty
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

“If you are an organization that’s using some type of these tools…it can be pretty confusing.”The city law will potentially impact a large number of employers. New York City in 2021 had just under 200,000 businesses, according to the New York State Department of Labor. AI technology can help businesses hire and onboard candidates more quickly amid a “war for talent,” said Emily Dickens, SHRM’s head of government affairs. Which is scary,” Ms. Zuloaga said, adding that she supports the scrutiny AI systems have started to receive. Some critics have argued the New York law doesn’t go far enough.

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