Bingo contest touts area small businesses
The Company Lab (CO.LAB) in Chattanooga kicked off National Small Business Week on Monday by launching a Bingo card game that will give some lucky players a variety of prizes from local merchants if they visit the businesses and follow the business guide.
The Bingo contest features 25 locally-owned businesses in the Chattanooga area and those who visit and shop at the local businesses during the month of May can complete their Bingo squares. With five completed squares, you can qualify for a prize drawing which will be randomly made June 6. Those that fill out all 25 squares will be eligible for 12 prize entries.
You can also earn an extra entry by posting a picture while visiting a participating business to Instagram and tagging CO.LAB (@thecompanylab) and the business.
The Bingo Card may be downloaded at colab.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CO.LAB-2022-Small.-Business-Month-BINGO-1.pdf
TVA lineman dies in Cheatham county
On Wednesday, April 20, TVA lineworker Joe Brown died while at a TVA job site in central Tennessee.
TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said TVA is still investigating the fatality in Cheatham County to determine what happened.
"We are still determining the circumstances of the tragic event and, out of respect for Mr. Brown's family, are not releasing additional information at this time.," Hopson said in a statement Monday. "Our focus is on continuing to support Mr. Brown's family and his fellow line workers during this difficult time.
Hopson said the investigation is ongoing.
Manufacturing index declines during April
A measure of U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly dropped in April to the lowest level since 2020 as growth in orders, production and employment softened.
The Institute for Supply Management's gauge of factory activity fell to 55.4 last month from 57.1, according to data released Monday. Readings above 50 indicate expansion. The figure was weaker than all but one estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which had a median projection of 57.6.
The latest data underscore the impact from lingering supply constraints, made worse by restrictive Covid-19 measures in China. Measures of both new orders and production dropped to their lowest levels since May 2020, though remained above the threshold that indicates growth.
Seventeen manufacturing industries reported growth in April, led by apparel, machinery and plastics.
The supplier deliveries gauge climbed to a five-month high, showing longer lead times as factories remain haunted by transportation bottlenecks and delays.
"The U.S. manufacturing sector remains in a demand-driven, supply chain-constrained environment," Timothy Fiore, chair of ISM's Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in a statement. "In April, progress slowed in solving labor shortage problems at all tiers of the supply chain."
Average lead times for production materials lengthened in April to a record 100 days. Lead times for capital equipment grew to 173 days, matching the highest in data back to 1987, while for supplies used in maintenance, repairs and operations they rose to 49 days.
Late rally boosts stocks as May begins
A late rally in big technology stocks erased an afternoon slump on Wall Street and left major indexes higher Monday as the new month began.
The uneven start to May followed a brutal April in which widespread technology sell-offs dragged down major benchmarks. Facebook's parent company and chipmaker Nvidia each rose more than 5%. The S&P 500 ended up 0.6% higher. It was down as much as 1.7% earlier.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq aded 1.6%. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.99% and briefly traded at 3% for the first time since late 2018.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner