401K balances jumped in the fourth quarter of 2022, but were down 23 percent for the entire year, due to the ongoing bear market. New data from Fidelity Investments also found that the average individual retirement account balance was down 20 percent to $104,000 in the fourth quarter. Amid this economic uncertainty, the savings rate remained steady at 13.7 percent, down slightly from the 13.8 percent in the third quarter and 13.9 percent in the second quarter.
GOODBYE TO THE SUPER HORNET
Boeing said it will end production of the F/A-18 Super Hornet in 2025. The shutdown will affect a production line near St. Louis, which could power back on if the company wins a contract in India. The Super Hornet is considered the most successful aircraft in the history of the U.S. Navy. The company will redeploy staff to pursue new opportunities, including the T-7 Red Hawk.
DOMINO'S SALES SLUMP
Domino's Pizza missed sales estimates in the fourth quarter, as high delivery fees put a dent in online orders. Same-store delivery sales dropped 6.6 percent after the company raised delivery fees to make up for higher labor and commodity costs. With deliveries making up 60 percent of sales, the drop hit the company hard. Its share price fell 11 percent on Thursday.
NETFLIX LOWERS PRICES
Netflix is lowering its subscription price across the globe. The streaming giant has lowered prices in more than 100 territories, including large parts of the Middle East, South America, and Eastern Europe. The discount varies by area, but some saw 20 to 60 percent decreases for the basic tier membership, according to data from Ampere Analysis shared with TechCrunch.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
