Business news 2024

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has not changed since 2007. In 2024, six states – California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Washington – will have a minimum wage of more than double that amount.

22 states to raise minimum wage on New Year's Day
HuffPost, Dec 26 2023 7:00 AM EST

Workers in 22 states and dozens of localities will see a wage hike on New Year’s, thanks to cost-of-living adjustments built into minimum wage laws. In all, 65 cities, counties and states will hike their wage floors at the start of 2024, the majority of them hitting at least $15 per hour. Another three states and 22 local jurisdictions will boost their minimums later in the year, including 15 that will set a floor of at least $17 for some workers.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/minim...b04da9842608dd

Happiness turns to sadness the minute you realiize your pay increase won't do you any good.....because you're losing your job.

California lawmaker’s minimum wage increase bill leads to massive layoffs for pizza delivery drivers
City News Service, Dec 26 2023

Pizza Hut is set to lay off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties in 2024, ahead of a new state law that boosts the fast-food minimum wage by $4 to $20 per hour. The law, known as Assembly Bill 1228, was introduced by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, and signed into law in September by Governor Gavin Newsom. The layoffs are planned through the end of February, ahead of the pay increase slated to begin in April. Pizza Hut franchises are preparing to pivot toward third-party apps such as DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats for pizza and food deliveries.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...rs/ar-AA1m57Ju

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer," declared 19th-century British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. That is more true now than ever.

The world’s richest people gained $1.5 trillion in 2023 – and Elon Musk led the way despite woes at X

https://fortune.com/2023/12/29/world...k-tesla-leads/

Samsung Galaxy S23 phones were introduced on February 17, 2023. Hey, it's been 11 months – time to make them obsolete!

Samsung's new Galaxy phones are coming January 17

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/sam...ing-on-jan-17/

Windows computer keyboards have been unchanged since 1994 – until now. The AI key will replace the Alt key at the right of the space bar and will bring up Microsoft's Copilot chatbot. Shares of Microsoft closed today at 367.75, a drop of 0.19 (0.052%).

Microsoft announces AI key on Windows 11 PCs

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67881373

Multinational investment company BlackRock, founded in 1988 in New York City, is the world's largest asset manager, with holdings worth $9.1 trillion. Shares of BlackRock closed today at 794.52, a drop of 2.67 (0.33%)

BlackRock cuts 3% of global workforce, citing dramatic industry shifts

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/black...190205123.html

Sam Walton founded Walmart in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, and founded Sam's Club in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Worldwide, there are around 600 Sam's Clubs and 10,600 Walmarts. At each store, an employee near the exit glances at the receipt of each customer leaving the store and makes a mark across it, usually with a yellow highlighter, then motions the customer to proceed. Somehow that is supposed to prevent theft. I fail to see how. At Sam's Club, those humans will be replaced by A.I. – and no more yellow highlighters.

Sam's Club will stop checking receipts at the door – and instead use AI to snap photos of your shopping cart

https://www.businessinsider.com/sams...receipt-2024-1

William Kelly and William Moore, former Glidden employees, founded Kelly-Moore Paints in 1946 in San Carlos, California. In 2023 the company moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas. In January 2024, all 157 stores are closing.

Kelly-Moore Paints to close all its stores nationwide

https://www.kron4.com/news/national/...es-nationwide/

CVS, originally Consumer Value Store, was founded in 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts. At one time the chain had more than 10,000 locations in the United States. Six hundred CVS stores were closed in 2022-23 and another 300 are scheduled to be closed in 2024 along with dozens of CVS pharmacies located inside Target stores.

CVS will close dozens of pharmacies in Target stores beginning in February

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ry/ar-AA1mZNt6

Citibank was founded in 1812 as City Bank of New York. With $1.68 trillion in assets, Citibank is the fourth largest bank in the United States, behind Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Worldwide, Citibank has more than 200,000,000 accounts, more than any other bank.

Citi to cut 20,000 jobs, posts $1.8 billion loss in 'disappointing' quarter

https://www.newsnationnow.com/busine...-billion-loss/

Spirit Airlines, originally Charter One Airlines, was founded in 1983 in Detroit. JetBlue Airways Corporation, originally NewAir, was founded in 1999 in Forest Hills, New York. Shares of Spirit closed today at 7.92, a drop of 7.05 (47.09%). Shares of JetBlue closed at 5.13, a gain of 0.24 (4.91%).

Judge blocks JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines
A federal judge said the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition in the airline industry.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jetbl...b093ad7a0c77a6

Burger King, originally Insta-Burger King, was founded in 1953 by Keith Kramer and Matthew Burns in Jacksonville, Florida. There are now more than 19,700 Burger Kings worldwide. Shares of parent company Restaurant Brands International closed today at 75.83, a drop of 2.62 (3.34%).

Burger King is buying its largest franchisee for $1 billion
Parent Restaurant Brands International plans to spend $500 million to remodel Carrols Restaurant Group's more than 1,000 locations before reselling them to smaller franchisees.

https://www.restaurantbusinessonline...-franchisee-1b

Single-use plastic bags are banned in California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington and in hundreds of individual cities. Markets, drugstores and retailers happily charge their customers between five and 20 cents each for paper bags and for thicker, reusable plastic bags. They will also happily sell you – for as much as $2.95 – reusable bags made of canvas or fabric. Government officials insist the plastic bag bans are all about protecting the environment. In truth, the bans are all about forcing the stores to charge for bags which used to be free. Thus the stores make millions of extra dollars and have to pay taxes on that income – and that is what the plastic bag bans are all about: bringing in more tax revenue for states, counties and cities.

Aldi eliminates plastic shopping bags in all 2,300 US grocery stores

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...d/72248373007/

Between 1843 and 1855, Rowland Hussey Macy opened four dry goods stores in Massachusetts. They all failed. He moved to New York City in 1958 and opened R.H. Macy Dry Goods on Sixth Avenue. It succeeded. There are now 508 Macy's stores – soon to be 503 – in the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico. Shares of Macy's closed today at 17.63, a drop of 0.30 (1.67%).

Macy's to slash 2,350 jobs, close five stores in streamlining effort

https://www.reuters.com/business/ret...rt-2024-01-18/

Shares of Microsoft hit a record high of $405.63 today, making Microsoft the second company to reach $3 trillion in valuation. On June 30, 2023, shares of Apple closed at $193.97, giving Apple a valuation of $3.05 trillion. Shares of Microsoft closed today at 402.56, a gain of 3.66 (0.92%).

Microsoft hits $3 trillion market value, second to Apple

https://www.reuters.com/technology/m...ue-2024-01-24/

Over the past 26 months, Elon Musk's net worth has fallen from $320 billion to $205 billion. Let's have a show of hands: Who feels sorry for him? Only one person? Wow, who is that? Oh, it's you, Elon. Sorry, you don't count.

Elon Musk loses title as world's richest person to LVMH patriarch Bernard Arnault, paying the price for January rout in Tesla stock

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-...130024053.html

In an interview that aired on January 8 on the right-wing platform Lindell TV, Donald Trump said our economy is "fragile" and "running off the fumes" of the Trump administration. He predicted the stock market would crash and hoped it would happen "in the next 12 months" during Biden's Presidency. Well, the stock market is doing quite well, thank you – and today Trump is taking credit for it..

Trump claims credit for record-high stock market using bogus reasoning
The former President claimed his polls against Biden are "so good that investors are projecting that I will win, and that will drive the market up."

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump...b01c5c3a37c29b

Johnson & Johnson had revenue of $85 billion in 2023; Pfizer had revenue of $58.5 billion; AbbVie, maker of Humira, had revenue of $54.3 billion; and Merck had revenue of $53.6 billion. Clearly that is not enough for them.

Pharma companies raise prices on 910 drugs amid 'historic' negotiations

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...e/72198152007/

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sets and enforces Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. One of those standards requires the font size on warning indicators to be at least 3.2 millimeters. Elon Musk apparently didn't know that. Shares of Tesla closed today at 181.06, a drop of 6.85 (3.65%).

Tesla recalling nearly 2.2 million vehicles for software update to fix warning lights that are too small

https://apnews.com/article/tesla-rec...6e51cd39627cf0

The new streaming service, according to a press release, will offer "ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN+, SECN, ACCN, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS and truTV." Shares of ESPN parent company Disney closed today at 99.14, a drop of 0.15 (0.15%). Shares of Fox closed at 27.44, a drop of 1.90 (6.48%). Shares of Warner Bros Discovery closed at 9.75, a drop of 0.32 (3.18).

ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros are launching a new sports streaming service. It could change TV forever.

https://www.businessinsider.com/espn...ange-tv-2024-2