Apple is reportedly in talks with miners to get thousands of tons of cobalt, a key ingredient in iPhone batteries. The tech giant is considering buying a five-year supply of the metal to sustain production of its devices. Cobalt is also used to make electric vehicles, so Apple may be acting on fears of a shortage in the coming years.
Amazon quietly launches a line of over-the-counter health products. The e-commerce giant reportedly brought in a private label manufacturer to make drugs similar to Mucinex and Advil. Analysts say this could be good for consumers as it may encourage pharmacies to lower prices.
President Trump asks the Justice Department to make bump stocks illegal following the Parkland shooting. Newsweek's Gersh Kuntzman says bump stocks are the "lowest of the low-hanging fruit" in the push for gun reform. Kuntzman says regulating these devices doesn't even qualify as gun control since there are already laws on the books restricting machine guns. Bump stocks, which convert guns into automatic weapons, weren't used in the Parkland shooting, but they were used in the Las Vegas shooting last year.
Actress Lori Loughlin talks about playing Aunt Becky on "Full House" and "Fuller House," and her Hallmark show "When Calls the Heart." Loughlin plays Abigal Stanton in the Hallmark period drama. She says she fought to make her character the town mayor in the show to highlight strong female leads. Loughlin also discusses how pleased she's been with fan reaction to "Fuller House." Netflix recently announced the show would return for a fourth season.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
