Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) summoned a dozen Senate Democrats to his office last week with firm marching orders: Call your closest CEOs and ask them to press Republican senators on the China competition bill.
Why it matters: Schumer is trying to engineer an inside-outside pressure campaign to force Republicans to move faster on hammering out their differences with the House by mid-July.
Bed Bath & Beyond is facing an identity crisis that threatens to plunge the retailer closer to obsolescence.
Why it matters: Once a staple in the American shopping landscape — known for its towers of towels, wedding registries and a useful array of home goods — Bed Bath & Beyond still has some 32,000 employees and 955 stores throughout the country, including its buybuy Baby and Harmon locations.
Record inflation isn’t the only reason your groceries cost more: The paper coupon has been slowly dying and it's getting harder to save.
The big picture: “It's hard to pinpoint exactly if and when print coupons will become extinct, but they're definitely on that path,” Kristin McGrath, savings expert with RetailMeNot, told Axios.
R&B singer R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison over a scheme to lure young fans into systematic sexual abuse, AP reports.
Driving the news: The 55-year-old singer-songwriter was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking last year. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly issued the sentence Wednesday after hearing from several survivors, per AP.
Substack is laying off 13 people, around 14% of the company, according to a note sent to employees Wednesday by the company’s co-founder and CEO Chris Best obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The company is trying to reach profitability without having to rely on fundraising amid a weak economy.
Thursday morning, the Commerce Department will release new inflation data that analysts expect will show inflation of 6.5% over the 12 months ended in May.
But wait, you may think: Didn't we already get May inflation data, and didn't it show significantly worse inflation, at 8.6%?
Goldman Sachs is throwing its weight behind an effort to bolster the beleaguered small business sector, convening a summit that includes a slew of boldface names from the worlds of business, sports, politics and entertainment.
The intrigue: The July 19-20 confab, held at the Gaylord and Nationals Park in the Metropolitan D.C. area, has a guest list that includes over 2,500 constituents of Main Street.
Sales at Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. plummeted by 25% in its first quarter of 2022, the retailer announced Wednesday, a similar trend that other major retailers like Target, Walmart and Amazon have faced in recent months.
Driving the news: Bed Bath & Beyond officials said the "macro environment" was becoming more challenging and announced Sue Gove was named interim chief executive officer, replacing CEO Mark Tritton, who joined the company in November 2019.
Some of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains have started limiting purchases of Plan B and other emergency contraception because of increased demand after Friday's Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The big picture: Commonly called the "morning-after pill" and available without a prescription under the Plan B brand, the pills are different from medication abortion pills, which also are growing in demand.
The role big companies like Invitation Homes, American Homes 4 Rent and other investment firms play in the single-family home market came under congressional scrutiny Tuesday.
Why it matters: The number of institutional investors shot up after the 2008 financial crisis, and again during the housing boom of the past couple of years — yet details on the single-family rental market are relatively hard to come by.
After two-plus years of on-again, off-again supply chain snarls, American warehouses and store shelves are filling up with stuff — perhaps too much.
The big picture: Fresh government numbers out Tuesday showed wholesale and retail stockpiles continue to mount, even as the ferocious consumer appetite for stuff — toys, clothes, furniture, packaged goods — that emerged as a feature of the pandemic economy may be ebbing.
Elon Musk celebrated his 100 millionth Twitter follower in uncharacteristic fashion: By not tweeting at all. In fact, he hasn't tweeted in over a week.
Why it matters: Of the elite group of celebrities with over 10 million followers, Musk is the only prolific tweeter. But that has changed of late.
As the Federal Reserve raises rates to fight creeping inflation, you might find yourself checking to see if your savings account's interest rate is rising to match. After all, the idea is to make saving more attractive than spending to cool an overheating economy, right?
Yes, but: Historically, savings account interest rates haven't climbed in lockstep with the Fed rate — even though they tend to fall when the Fed rate does.
Inflation worries are soaring among small business owners, overtaking COVID-19 as a top concern. But overall, these folks say that business is good right now, according to a survey of small business owners released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Why it matters: Once upon a time, COVID-19 seemed to pose an existential risk to the nation's small businesses. Now, the pandemic is in the rear view, and overall sentiment for these entrepreneurs is closing in on pre-COVID levels.
