6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:48PM EDT · Published Jan 3, 4:45AM EST

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © BMW

One of the nation’s top venture capitalists has made a large bet on bitcoin values. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Founders Fund, the venture-capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars of the volatile cryptocurrency, people familiar with the matter said. The bet has been spread across several of the firm’s most recent funds, the people said, including one that began investing in mid-2017 and made bitcoin one of its first investments.

Global car sales reached 90 million for the first time in history. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The results, based on preliminary data provided by WardsAuto.com, were fueled in part by a continued rebound in Western Europe and recovery in major emerging markets, including Brazil and Russia. Asian buyers are the main engine for sales growth with more than a quarter of the cars sold last year going to Chinese customers, up from less than 15% a decade ago.

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Germany’s unemployment rate hit a record:

Germany’s unemployment rate fell to a record low as the number of people out of work slid for a sixth month, signaling that Europe’s largest economy is continuing to boom despite a slight softening in business confidence.

The jobless rate was 5.5 percent in December, and the previous month’s rate was revised down to the same level, the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg said on Wednesday. The number of unemployed plunged by 29,000 last month, more than twice as much as the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Oil prices could soar well above current levels. According to CNBC:

This year could mark a comeback for commodities, with oil potentially hitting $80 per barrel, a portfolio manager said on Wednesday.

Restrained production among major oil producers and the “greater impetus” to maintain stability ahead of the widely-anticipated initial public offering of Saudi Aramco will support prices further this year, said Yoon Chou Chong, head of Asian equities at Natixis Asset Management.

The Mega Millions jackpot rose again. According to CNNMoney:

There was no grand prize winner in Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing. It’s the 23rd straight drawing without a jackpot winner in the game, dating back to Oct. 13. So the $361 million jackpot will grow to $418 million for Friday.

A major new media company put senior executives on leave after broad charges of sexual harassment at the company:

Vice Media announced Tuesday that a pair of top executives have been sidelined amid a sexual harassment scandal that has unsettled the Brooklyn-based upstart.

In a memo to staff obtained by CNNMoney, Sarah Broderick — Vice’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer — said that company president Andrew Creighton and chief digital officer Mike Germano have each been put on leave, more than a week after the New York Times published a highly-anticipated article that included allegations against each of them.

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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.