Walmart is closing four stores in Chicago, cutting its footprint in half in the third-largest U.S. city after years of mounting losses. The closings mark a retreat for the nation's largest retailer, which faces tough competition in Chicago from the likes of Target, Albertsons, and Aldi. Walmart said it had tried and failed to improve its performance by building smaller stores, localizing its merchandise offerings, and investing $70 million in recent years on store upgrades.
Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategy Analyst at Baird, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down a very up-and-down week on Wall Street that included a late Friday rally to send the major indexes sharply higher on the day.
NFT art platform TRLab recently raised $4.2 million in funding. TRLab launched just last year but says its platform focused on NFT curation and distribution is growing quickly. The company hopes to bridge traditional and digital art worlds and help artists explore NFTs as an emerging medium. TRLab co-founder and chairwoman Xin Li-Cohen and co-founder and CEO Audrey Ou joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chris Vecchio, senior analyst at DailyFX, joins Cheddar News to discuss what investors should watch as the three major indexes see wild swings all week.
Diageo, one of the largest distillers in the world, recently reported its global sales have surpassed pre-COVID levels. Debra Crew, the company's North American president, joined Cheddar to discuss the surging sales, supply chain disruptions, and its efforts in non-alcoholic beer and spirits. "We had growth across all five regions," Crew said. "A year ago that wasn't true. This was really more of a North America recovery story. This year you really see this across the globe, people returning back in. On premise reopening really helped us." The producers of Don Julio tequila and Ketel One vodka also opened a new carbon neutral distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky.
Although the auto industry is faced with chip shortages and supply chain woes, Tesla was still expected to report record earnings, and Elon Musk did not disappoint. Jon Rettinger, President of JFL Network, joins Cheddar News to discuss the company, the electric vehicle competition, and growth for the auto industry.
