5 Most Important Things in Business Today

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
5 Most Important Things in Business Today

© courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) may cut a deal with luxury retailer Lord & Taylor to add its e-commerce website to Walmart.com.

According to The New York Times, car riding service and Uber rival Lyft has raised $1 billion from investors that include Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The company may also go public soon, according to the paper.

Investors, upset with the quarterly results of airline operator United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) and its tepid forecast, hammered shares down 12%.

The president has narrowed his selections for Federal Reserve chair, according to Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump’s closest advisers are steering him toward choosing either Stanford economist John Taylor or Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell to be the next Fed chief, according to several people familiar with the process.

Trump has not yet made up his mind, the people said, though he has publicly promised to announce a decision soon. Besides Taylor and Powell, his shortlist of five candidates also includes the current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn.

On Thursday, Trump conducted his final interview with the Fed chair contenders, sitting down with Yellen at the White House for half an hour. Yellen, whose term as central bank chief ends on Feb. 3, came across as polished during their meeting.

[nativounit]
A new research study measures the huge toll of population on human life. In the medical journal Lancet, experts wrote:

For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by Governments and the international development agenda. Yet, pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths.

The California Department of Insurance puts early estimates of wildfire costs at over $1 billion. According to its report:

With more than 7,000 structures damaged or destroyed, residents in several counties across northern and southern California are leaving evacuation centers to access what they’ve lost and begin the long road to rebuild and recover.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones today announced preliminary data provided by eight California insurers processing claims for tens of thousands of policyholders. While the numbers are expected to climb, as more claims are filed and processed, the preliminary data reflects $1.045 billion in losses, commercial and residential structures, personal and commercial vehicles, and agricultural equipment.

[wallst_email_signup]

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618