The Week's Top Stories is a guided tour through the biggest market stories of the week, from winning stocks to brutal dips to the facts and forecasts generating buzz on Wall Street.
WALGREENS CEO OUT
After just 2 years, Rosalind Brewer resigned as the head of Walgreens Boots Alliance, parent company of the eponymous pharmacy chain. During Brewer's tenure, the company acquired preventative care providers, like VillageMD, expanding its focus from just providing medications to more medical care also. Now it sounds like Walgreens is seeking a new CEO with deeper healthcare experience. Prior to Walgreens, Brewer held high-ranking roles at Starbucks, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Walgreens stock was down 7 percent on the news and 37 percent for the year so far.
3M EARPLUG SETTLEMENT
3M has agreed to pay $6 billion for earplugs that service members say did not protect their hearing. People who used the devices to mitigate incredibly loud noises, like those of close-range gunfire, say the design actually made them come loose. 3M does not have to admit liability as part of the deal. The settlement seemed to be a pro for investors - the company's stock actually rose with this issue seemingly settled, although it has not been finalized and could end up reaching as much as $12.5 billion. It ended the week up 1 percent.
BEST BUY TRIMS FORECAST
Best Buy says Americans are not spending as much on its electronics these days as prices have risen, but even their drops in sales and profits last quarter were okay with investors. The stock rose as the company's earnings report beat expectations. The rest of the year isn't shaping up to be a slam dunk, though. Best Buy expects the slow-down to continue until 2024, when CEO Corie Barry says she expects the market to stabilize. Best Buy ended the week up 2 percent.
UBS' BILLIONS
UBS announced this week that it will save $10 billion as it integrates Credit Suisse's operation into its own and that will mean losing 3,000 staff members. This cost saving will come on top of the megabank's $29 billion profit last quarter, thanks to a fancy accounting move called negative goodwill. UBS stock ended the week up 7 percent.
JOBS REPORT
The August jobs report, which the Labor Department released on Friday, shows the labor market is still strong. While that has, at times, been bad news for investors, this time it seems to be giving them hope. Hiring is still growing - but at a slower rate - and the unemployment rate is rising - because people who had stopped looking for work are jumping back in. Stock markets rose after the report was released because signs that the labor market is stabilizing is providing hope that the Federal Reserve will rethink the future rate hikes Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned of in Jackson Hole last week.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
