Nursing home to workers: Get vaccine or lose your job
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s largest nursing home operator told its workers this week they will have to get COVID-19 vaccinations to keep their jobs. That’s a possible shift in an industry that has largely rejected compulsory measures for fear of triggering an employee exodus that could worsen already dangerous staffing shortages. The company, Genesis Healthcare, has 70,000 employees at nearly 400 nursing homes and senior communities. Interviews with managers at 10 mostly smaller nursing home operations across the nation that have made vaccinations mandatory found that the threat of workers quitting en masse over the shots may be overblown.
Robinhood soars again, doubles in 4 days after tepid IPO
NEW YORK (AP) — Robinhood’s stock flew again Wednesday, and it has more than doubled in four days to follow up what had been a disappointing debut on Wall Street. Robinhood Markets soared 50.4% to $70.39 in trading that was so feverish that trading was temporarily halted three times in the first half hour after the market opened. It’s a sharp turnaround from last week’s lackluster debut for the stock, when it sank 8.4% from its initial price of $38 on Thursday. Experts had warned that Robinhood’s stock could be primed for a more jagged ride than others on Wall Street because of its popularity among smaller investors.
GM posts $2.8B profit, but cautious tone sinks share price
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors posted a healthy $2.8 billion second-quarter profit Wednesday, but its cautious outlook for the rest of the year spooked investors. The Detroit automaker made the strong profit despite a global shortage of computer chips that have forced it and other companies to temporarily close factories. While the GM raised its outlook for the year, it also cautioned about high commodity prices and lower production due to the chip shortage. And it warned that the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus could hamper its supply chain. The cautious tone rattled investors, who pushed GM shares down almost 9%.
Facebook shuts out NYU academics’ research on political ads
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook has shut down the personal accounts of a pair of New York University researchers and shuttered their investigation into misinformation spread through political ads on the social network. Facebook says the researchers violated its terms of service and were involved in unauthorized data collection from its massive network. The academics, however, say the company is attempting to exert control on research that paints it in a negative light. The NYU researchers with the Ad Observatory Project had for several years been looking into Facebook’s Ad Library, where searches can be done on advertisements running across Facebook’s products.
Treasury announces auctions to raise $126 billion next week
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department announced Wednesday it will raise $126 billion to finance the government in a series of auctions next week by employing emergency measures to keep from broaching the newly imposed debt limit. The Treasury announcement, part of Treasury’s quarterly refunding operations, will see the $126 billion raised by auctioning 3- and 10-year notes and a 30-year bond with the auctions occurring on Tuesday through Wednesday of next week. Those auctions will raise money to meet debt-servicing requirements on $58.6 billion in Treasury notes and bonds that are coming due plus raising approximately $67.4 billion in new cash to keep the government operating.
Stocks slip on Wall Street, pulling S&P 500 below record
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Wednesday, pulling the S&P 500 index below the record high it had set a day earlier. The benchmark index fell 0.5%, weighed down by losses in industrial companies, banks, and consumer-facing companies. A disappointing report on the job market helped discourage would-be buyers. Payroll processor ADP said employment at private companies was weaker than expected last month. The government’s broader jobs report comes out on Friday. Investors brushed off solid earnings from several large companies, sending shares of General Motors and CVS lower. Oil prices fell more than 3%.
Uber’s recovery accelerates as more people seek rides again
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Uber’s ride-hailing service is regaining most of the momentum it lost during the pandemic. Its delivery service is also growing at a torrid pace, indicating that some homebound habits may be here to stay, even though people are going out again. Those two trends produced Uber’s best quarterly report since the pandemic clobbered the San Francisco company 17 months ago. The results released Wednesday included a rare profit stemming from a one-time gain of $1.4 billion that eclipsed the ongoing losses from Uber’s business. In a telling sign of progress, the company’s revenue more than doubled from a year ago, topping analyst projections.
Honda reverts to profit on recovery from pandemic damage
TOKYO (AP) — Honda has returned to profitability in April-June, recording a $2 billion profit as better sales and costs cuts added to the Japanese automaker’s bottom line. Honda had racked up a 80.8 billion yen loss the previous year, when the entire auto industry was hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. Quarterly sales totaled 3.6 trillion yen, up nearly 69% on year, as global vehicles sales recovered in North America. The Tokyo-based maker of the CR-V sports-utility vehicle, Gold Wing motorcycle and Asimo robot raised its annual profit forecast to 670 billion yen, or $6.1 billion.
Growth in US services sector hits record high in July
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth in the U.S. services sector, where most Americans work, increased to a record pace in July even as businesses continued to face supply-chain challenges and problems in finding enough available workers. The Institute for Supply Management reported Wednesday that its monthly survey of service industries rose to a reading of 64.1 in July, up from 60.1 in June. It was the fastest pace since this series began in 2008 and surpassed the old record of 64.0 set in May. Any reading above 50 indicates growth in service industries.
The S&P 500 shed 20.49 points, or 0.5%, to 4,402.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 323.73 points, or 0.9%, to 34,792.67. The Nasdaq rose 19.24 points, or 0.1%, to 14,780.53. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies lost 27.26 points, or 1.2%, to 2,196.32.