The numbers are in: Tesla booked its most profitable quarter on record — $1.1 billion — a feat as the auto industry is strangled by shortages.
More of Tesla's sales came from actually selling its electric cars. It raked in $354 million from selling regulatory credits to automakers — $74 million less than this time last year.
Antitrust regulators are feeling their oats, after years of being viewed as little more than speedbumps on the path toward corporate consolidation.
Driving the news: Insurance brokers Aon (NYSE: AON) and Willis Towers Watson (Nasdaq: WLTW) this morning terminated their $34 billion merger agreement, just five weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the deal.
Businesses haven’t been this positive about their profit margins in a long time.
Why it matters: We’ve been hearing a lot about cost inflation and rising wages. All other things being equal, these forces should be negative for profitability.
Mortgage rates are falling back to historic lows, which means homeowners are getting another opportunity to refinance their debt at a lower cost.
Why it matters: For many Americans, mortgage payments represent their biggest monthly outflow of cash. Refinancing at a lower rate reduces that burden, and potentially means more capacity to spend, which in turn stimulates the economy.
Resurgent outbreaks — including breakthrough infections among vaccinated people — could throw a wrench in plans to bring workers fully back to offices in September.
The big picture: A number of companies and the federal government have targeted the end of summer as the time to bring in-person offices fully online. But rising numbers of COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant could render that goal unrealistic.
Americans are increasingly convinced that retailers should do business more sustainably, but they're not willing to give up cheap and speedy shipping.
Driving the news: Two-thirds of Millennials and Gen Zers, 55% of Gen Xers and 42% of Boomers said retailers should consider the environmental impact of their businesses, according to a new survey from Retail Brew and Harris Poll.
But 56% said faster shipping trumps shopping sustainably.
Why it matters: The annual package delivery emissions of FedEx, UPS, and USPS combined equal the annual emissions of more than 7 million cars, per an EPA calculator.
The bottom line: The pandemic has only intensified America's e-commerce habit.
Being stuck at home pushed existing online shoppers to make more purchases online and pushed in-person shoppers to turn to e-commerce, accelerating the growth of online shopping by five or ten years, experts say.
The Biden administration's push to increase competition in the technology industry could be on a collision course with a formidable obstacle: the courts.
Why it matters: Regulatory agency actions — whether it be adopting new rules or bringing enforcement cases against companies — are almost always challenged and litigated in the court system.
Ratings for the Olympic Games opening ceremony were down 36% compared to 2016, according to preliminary numbers from NBC Universal.
Why it matters: The figures for the Tokyo Games event mark the lowest audience for an Olympics opening ceremony event in over three decades, per Reuters.
Why it matters: The health protection plans led to tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across France over the weekend, as COVID-19 cases surge in the country to about 20,000 a day from a few thousand early in July, per France 24.
