New research, released Tuesday, indicates that it could take upwards of 83 years to close the gender gap in the United States—and that is on all fronts: health, politics, education, and economics. The report was published in the 2016 Global Gender Gap Report, from World Economic Forum. The survey looked at the current gender gap […]
Consumer Markets Deciding Between Diamonds and White Sapphires
A lot of people think that the diamond is the definitive gem of the engagement ring but times are changing. People are looking for ways to be different and the tradition of giving offering a diamond in exchange for a hand in manage might be turning a bit blasé. That is not to say that […]
Average Social Security Benefits Will Increase by Less Than $4 Next Year
Retired folks have something to celebrate a little, today, as social security benefits are increasing. But don’t plan to throw a weekend bash: the increase is only about $3.92, or 0.3 percent. Currently, the average monthly social security benefit for a retiree is $1,305.30. This might be up from last year (when inflation kept social […]
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) Misses Expectations, Wall Street Reacts Negatively
Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) surprised Wall Street ahead of the open today by announcing results earlier than scheduled and that fell short of expectations. Alcoa Inc expected at $0.33 a share, missed analysts’ projections by $0.02 cents. Shares sank as much as 7% in pre-market activity, wiping out this year’s gain of 6.4% and then some. Investors had not expected […]
Walmart to Slow Brick-and-Morter Store Openings to Focus on E-Commerce and Other areas
The retail sector is struggling and that is no more apparent in the number of store closures reported throughout the market. One company has been largely immune to these metric—Walmart Stores, Inc, obviously—but it looks like they are also feeling the pinch. Now, the company has not necessarily reported that any stores will be closing […]
Olive Garden Sales Improving, Darden Shows Modest Growth (NYSE: DRI)
It has only been two years since the hedge fund Starboard Value took over control of the governing board of Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI). Since that time, though, 7 of the board’s 12 directors have stepped down, and that includes former chairman and activist investor Jeff Smith. Darden, of course, is the parent company of […]
National Retail Federation Reports Higher Sales Expectations For 2016 Holiday Shopping Season
On Tuesday, the National Retail Federation announced that it expects holiday spending to increase over last year. The NRF says retail sales in November and December—with the exception of gas, auto, and restaurant sales—will increase by a steady 3.6 percent, to reach $655.8 billion. This is notably higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent […]
How Close Are we to Self-Driving Cars ?
The race to develop autonomous vehicles has been a rocky one. While many car manufacturers and tech companies work furiously to lead the way, testing continues to expose how far we still have to go before these machines could become commonplace. In some ways, the public is confused over what “self-driving” cars can do; and […]
Is Twitter For Sale, and Will Google Buy It?
Shares of mobile app Twitter surged on Friday after sources close to the issue noted that the ailing social media said the ailing social media company is moving closer to being sold. These sources indicated that the company has, in fact, received expressions of interest from a handful of technology and/or media companies—some of which […]