Between March and May, discount shoe store Payless plans to close its entire American footprint, encompassing 2,100 locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, as well as its e-commerce operation, CNN reports.
Details: Payless, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2017 and could do so for a second time this month, had more than 3,600 locations in 40 countries and over 18,000 employees before the current round of closures. The retailer's international franchises and Latin American storefronts will not be affected.
The U.S.-China trade talks in Beijing this week concluded without any sort of agreement and they will reconvene next week in Washington, D.C. There was hope for a memorandum of understanding to result from this week's talks, but clearly there was not enough progress.
Background: The U.S. team, led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping after two days of talks with Vice Premier Liu He and his team.
Farmers were hit with a trio of ominous news this week as the trade war with China pushes on with no signs of a deal on the horizon, Bloomberg reports.
Andrew Tyndall's Tyndall Report each year compiles a list of the "Most Heavily-Used Reporters" (anchors excluded) on the weekday nightly newscasts. Andrew gave Axios a preview of his list for 2018: