6 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.
6 Most Important Things in Business Today

© Wikimedia Commons (Amio Cajander)

Troubles with Italy’s ability to form a government continue to create anxiety in world markets about whether the nation would stay in the European Union. According to Reuters:

Asian stocks extended a global sell-off on Wednesday as Italy’s political crisis rippled across financial markets, toppling the euro to a 10-month low, pushing up borrowing costs for Rome and sending investors into safer assets such as U.S. Treasuries.

A new Nintendo product may need the widespread use of one of its games to produce new sales. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Three new Pokémon videogames coming to Nintendo Co.’s Switch game machine this year could provide important sales fuel as the company looks to avoid the kind of thin slate of releases that doomed its previous game machine.

The $300 Switch, a console-handheld hybrid machine that debuted in March 2017, has sold more than 17 million units through March 2018, according to Nintendo—a surprise hit that marks a resurgence after the company’s previous console, the Wii U, flopped.

The Wii U, sold only 13.56 million units in its five-year lifetime, plagued by a too-thin lineup of games in its first years, analysts said.

[nativounit]
Singapore Air has launched one of the longest flights in the world. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Singapore Airlines Ltd. will resume nonstop flights to Newark Liberty International Airport from its home airport in October, using the latest Airbus SE A350 jets.

The Singapore flag carrier, which stopped running the world’s longest commercial flights in 2013, will fly daily to Newark beginning Oct. 18, the company said in a statement. The flight will take up to 18 hours and 45 minutes.

Controversial Gawker.com may have a new owner. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Marketing firm Didit is close to acquiring Gawker.com and if successful intends to relaunch the blog, known for publishing irreverent articles that were sometimes controversial, with a new editorial policy to only post content it considers to be positive.

Advisers liquidating the blog’s former publisher have a deal to sell the website to Didit for $1.13 million, an offer that is subject to higher offers at a potential auction, according to papers filed Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The agreement and terms of an auction must be approved by a judge. Based in Mineola, N.Y., Didit was founded in 1996.

Airline passenger satisfaction has grown. According to CNBC:

Airlines’ social media mentions are usually full of travelers’ frequent frustrations: a downgrade, a missed connection, a refund.

But air travelers are feeling more satisfied with airlines in North America, according to a survey released Wednesday by J.D. Power & Associates.

The survey found passengers’ satisfaction with the region’s airlines rose 6 points from a year earlier to 762 on a 1,000-point scale with the biggest improvements in satisfaction with aircraft, deplaning and baggage claim and the reservation system.

The market cap of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has fallen behind Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT). According to CNBC:

When Google first passed Microsoft in terms of stock market value six years ago, it looked like the companies were headed in opposite directions.

But over the past 12 months, Microsoft has surged 40 percent, more than five times Alphabet’s gain, and has again become the more valuable of the two. As of Tuesday’s close, Microsoft was worth $749 billion and Alphabet’s market capitalization stood at $739 billion.

[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