Inflation may cut company earnings
Companies will soon start reporting their latest quarterly financial results and investors have been warned that inflation is going to sting.
Retailers, auto makers and a wide range of manufacturers have all warned investors that a supply chain crunch and higher raw materials costs are adding to expenses and hurting profits.
A COVID-19 resurgence during the third quarter threw many industries off-balance just as they were regaining their footing from the pandemic slump. Many companies were able to pass off higher costs to consumers during the first half of the year without much fuss as the economy roared back from the pandemic. But consumer spending, which is key to the economic recovery, slowed a bit over the summer as COVID-19 cases spiked.
Unemployment claims fall first time in 4 weeks
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, another sign that the U.S. job market and economy continue their steady recovery from last year’s coronavirus recession.
The Labor Department said Thursday that unemployment claims were down by 38,000 to 326,000, the first drop in four weeks. Since surpassing 900,000 in early January, the weekly applications, a proxy for layoffs, had fallen more or less steadily all year.
Still, they remain elevated from pre-pandemic levels: Before COVID-19 hammered the U.S. economy in March 2020, weekly claims were consistently coming in at around 220,000.
Diller’s IAC buying Meredith for $2.1 billion
Barry Diller’s IAC is buying Meredith, one of the country’s largest magazine companies and the publisher of People, Southern Living and InStyle, in hopes of accelerating a digital shift as print fades.
IAC’s Dotdash, a collection of websites including Investopedia, Brides, Serious Eats and Simply Recipes, will join with Meredith, the companies announced Wednesday.
IAC is paying $42.18 per share, or about $2.1 billion. It’s a big turnaround for Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith, which only four years ago bought the Time Inc. magazines for $1.8 billion to bulk up its own magazine business.
Russia behind 58% of state-backed hacks
Microsoft says Russia once again accounted for most state-sponsored hacking, with a 58% share of intrusion attempts it detected in the past year.
The targets were mostly government agencies and think tanks – in the United States, followed by Ukraine, Britain and European NATO members.
The devastating effectiveness of the long-undetected SolarWinds hack also boosted Russian state-backed hackers’ success rate – to 32%, compared with 21% in the preceding 12 months. China accounted for fewer than 1 in 10 of the state-backed hacking attempts Microsoft detected.
Those are among findings of the Redmond, Washington-based company’s annual Digital Defense Report, which covers the year ending June 30.