The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all closed lower on Tuesday, despite setting record highs earlier in the session.
Here's where they closed:
Dow Jones: 25,792.86 (-0.04%)
Nasdaq: 7,224.00 (-0.51%)
S&P: 2,776.42 (-0.35%)
Why it matters: The Dow briefly traded above 26,000 for the first time, the fastest 1,000 point rise in index history, before falling back down to Earth. Analysts say investors are likely weighing the possibility of a government shutdown, which has historically caused the market to drop, according to CNBC.
Walmart is planning to cut more than 1,000 jobs, mostly at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Walmart last week said it will close 63 Sam's Club stores and eliminate 10,000 jobs. The company employs 1.5 million.
Why this matters: Walmart is cutting cost to invest in e-commerce in a fight with Amazon, the WSJ says. “Retail is changing rapidly and we are transforming to meet the needs of our customers,” Wal-Mart spokesman Blake Jackson told the paper.
Alana Evans, a friend and former colleague of Stormy Daniels, appeared on NBC News' Megyn Kelly TODAY this morning to discuss President Donald's Trump's alleged relationship with the adult film star.
Why it matters: Evans' description of her interactions with Daniels and Trump at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament help corroborate some the details of the WSJ report released Friday.
There are 150,000 open IT jobs in the U.S., and Google wants to make it easier to fill them. Today the company is announcing a certificate program on the Coursera platform to help give people with no prior IT experience the basic skills they need to get an entry-level IT support job in 8 to 12 months.
Why it matters: Entry-level IT jobs are are typically higher-paying than similar roles in other fields. But they’re harder to fill because, while IT support roles don’t require a college degree, they do require prior experience.
People in poorer countries are just as likely as those in wealthier countries to use social media for news, according to a new study from Pew Research Center. Those poorer countries, however, are less likely to use PC-based desktop websites for news.
A new phase in data collection is underfoot. Retailers are using floor sensors to track movements and gain insight into consumer behavior, AP's Ivan Moreno reports from Milwaukee:
"[T]he sensors read a customer’s unique foot compressions to track that person’s path to a digital display and how long the person stand in front of it before walking away...the floor sensors can tell a retailer the best time to offer a coupon or change the display before the customer loses interest."
Voice hardware and software tookcenter stage at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, further proving that audio as a medium presents enormous opportunity for publishers and brands.
Why it matters: The Internet of Things is connecting life in unprecedented ways, from health care to home entertainment to transportation. At the center of user adoption and functionality of these new connected-devices is voice, not video.
Police and firefighters are finally getting the priority communications network they were promised in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In exchange for building it, AT&T gets $6.5 billion in government funds over the next five years and access to a large chunk of valuable airwaves for 25 years.
Why it matters: Technical failures and incompatible radios have been a chronic problem for first responders — especially on 9/11, when firefighters rushing to the scene from different jurisdictions couldn't talk to each other.AT&T won the contract to build a national mobile broadband network — FirstNet —specifically dedicated to first responders, which is the final recommendation by the 9/11 Commission.
Citigroup has announced that it will disclose and take steps to reduce pay gaps for women and minorities in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany, reports Bloomberg.
Why it matters: Citigroup is the first large U.S. bank to pursue a pay gap initiative. The move follows shareholder pressure by Arjuna Capital, an activist investing firm that plans to target eight other financial institutions in 2018.
