6 Most Important Things in Business Today

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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6 Most Important Things in Business Today

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has a new chief of its music business. According to The Wall Street Journal:

 Apple Inc. tapped the head of its European music and content operations to lead Apple Music world-wide, a role of growing importance as the tech giant aims to boost its services revenue amid slower iPhone unit sales.

Oliver Schusser, who joined Apple in 2004 and introduced iTunes in Europe, will become vice president of Apple Music and international content, reporting to Eddy Cue, senior vice president, internet software and services. Mr. Cue made the announcement in an email to staff Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the email. The appointment was reported earlier by Variety.

Global political problems pressed oil to a three-year high. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Oil surged to the highest levels in more than three years as tensions simmered in the Middle East, signaling optimism that a glut that has crippled the market for years is ending.

U.S. crude futures jumped $1.31, or 2%, to $66.82 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, rose $1.02, or 1.4%, to $72.06 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Both benchmarks are at their highest levels since December 2014.

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Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) said the driver of one of its cars that was in a fatal accident was at fault. According to Bloomberg:

Consumer-safety advocates and autonomous-vehicle experts criticized Tesla Inc. for issuing another statement about the death of a customer that pinned the blame on driver inattentiveness.

Days after publishing a second blog post about the crash involving Walter Huang, a 38-year-old who died last month in his Model X, Tesla issued a statement in response to his family speaking with San Francisco television station ABC7. The company said the “only” explanation for the crash was “if Mr. Huang was not paying attention to the road, despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so.”

Many large cities may run low on water. According to CNBC:

A nation’s development has frequently come at the cost of undercutting its sources of clean water, Betsy Otto, director of the World Resources Institute’s global water program told CNBC.

“For example, quite a bit of scientific evidence has shown that deforestation changed the hydrological cycle in the Amazon,” she said.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) will not show its movies at a major film festival. According to CNBC:

Netflix Inc said on Wednesday it was totally pulling out of the Cannes Film Festival next month after organizers banned the streaming platform’s films from competition for its refusal to release them in cinemas.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told Hollywood trade publication Variety in an interview it was pointless to show at Cannes after the festival rule change.

The Federal Reserve may increase the pace at which it increases rates. According to CNNMoney:

 Buoyed by a strengthening economy and increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will reach its inflation target in the near future, central bank policymakers suggested the path of future rate hikes could be “slightly steeper” over the next few years than previously thought, according to minutes of their March meeting released on Wednesday.

“Members agreed that the strengthening in the economic outlook in recent months increased the likelihood that a gradual upward trajectory of the federal funds rate would be appropriate,” according to the minutes.

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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.

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